When Reliability Is Revenue: Building High-Performing Digital Commerce at 35,000 Feet
July 30, 2025
In this episode of The Ecommerce Toolbox: Expert Perspectives, Jacob Maloney, former Director of Ecommerce and Digital Products at Frontier Airlines, reveals how to build high-performing digital ecosystems in one of the most unforgiving industries on earth, and in the air.
Jacob breaks down how he led digital across all consumer touchpoints, web, mobile, and airport kiosks, where reliability is directly tied to revenue, and conversion is impacted by everything from UI to API latency. He shares how small UX changes drove massive membership gains, why balancing ancillary revenue with customer trust matters, and how to modernise legacy stacks without grounding the business.
In this episode of The Ecommerce Toolbox: Expert Perspectives, Jacob Maloney, former Director of Ecommerce and Digital Products at Frontier Airlines, reveals how to build high-performing digital ecosystems in one of the most unforgiving industries on earth, and in the air.
Jacob breaks down how he led digital across all consumer touchpoints, web, mobile, and airport kiosks, where reliability is directly tied to revenue, and conversion is impacted by everything from UI to API latency. He shares how small UX changes drove massive membership gains, why balancing ancillary revenue with customer trust matters, and how to modernise legacy stacks without grounding the business.
If you're operating in a high-stakes, heavily regulated industry or simply want to build better under pressure, this episode is for you.
What You’ll Learn
- Why digital reliability directly impacts revenue in aviation
- How small UX changes delivered over 60% uplift in membership signups
- How to balance short-term revenue with long-term customer trust
- What “poor man’s A/B testing” looks like and why it worked
- How to navigate legacy systems and build resilient and scalable tech