Learn from online retail shopping!

ALTHOUGH it seems
obvious that shopping
for a pair of shoes
differs greatly from shopping
for that perfect holiday, online
travel agents can learn a lot
from other online retail sites
about how to hook and retain
customers – and convert
sales.
This is according to a
recent report, Travel vs
Retail, conducted by Qubit
(a US-based website
optimisation company).
Survey results show that
retail sees a much higher
conversion rate, lower
average order values, and
a much shorter path to
purchase than travel. The
report found that:
Travel sees conversion
rates of 0,75% whereas
retail converts at 5,9%
Travel clients see a 10
times greater order value
when compared with retail.
Paths to purchase are a
great deal longer for travel
(13,2 days) compared with
retail (6,5 days).
1. Mobile offers
unlimited opportunities
for travel businesses
Although conversion rates for
travel on mobile platforms
are considerably lower than
for retail, travel customers
are twice as likely to browse
on mobile devices.
Carol Savage, marketing
director of Exodus Travel,
says customers might not be
booking on mobile platforms
but they are inspired by
browsing on their mobile
devices, which is why travel
companies need to make
sure their website pictures
are optimised for mobile.
Matt Pollock, travel lead
at Qubit, agrees and says:
“Tablets are often used for
browsing in the living room.
The high street has become
the couch.”
The message for travel
companies is that they need
to work hard to ensure that
their campaigns are cohesive
between mobile, tablet and
computer, to make sure they
capture impulse holiday
buys. Travel companies
should also make the most
of mobile GPS capabilities
by using hyper local targeting
and assist travellers with
local attractions, nearby
hotels with available rooms
and local car hire options.
2. Pay per click – an
untapped opportunity
Pay-per-click advertising is
an underused marketing
tool in the travel industry,
despite the fact that pay-perclick
traffic is approximately
50% higher for travel than
for retail. Travel companies
should wake up to this and
capitalise on this opportunity.
Banners on affiliate websites,
although representing a
smaller percentage of traffic,
are also a huge opportunity
for travel companies as they
have very high conversion
rates.
3. Optimise your site
search
For travel businesses,
visitors spend, by far, the
most amount of time on
the search pages, with an
average of seven seconds
per page view. Retail visitors
on the other hand spend
a longer time on product
pages. This means that
travel websites should be
looking to optimise their
search bar and search filters
to generate conversions.
Carol says it is important
that travel companies
simplify the website offering
for their clients so that
they are not faced with an
overload of information.
The best way to do this is
by allowing them to filter
their search results. “In all
likelihood, the customer will
have your competitors’ sites
open in other tabs. They will
take notice of you if you can
offer them simplicity.”
Travel companies can
take action by making their
search bar prominent on
their website and include
upsells in the search results,
along with adding in industryspecific
filter functionalities.
4. Use cart
abandonment to your
advantage
Travel sites have a much
bigger issue with abandoned
check-outs, with nearly 90%
of visitors leaving before
confirmation, compared with
only 28,4% in retail. Carol
says travellers use the cart
as part of their search. They
see the website’s cart as a
way of calculating the final
price of a product with all the
ancillaries included.
According to Matt, cart
abandonment presents a
real opportunity to drive
conversion rates. Travel
visitors are three times more
likely to look at the basket
than retail. This implies
that travel retailers need
to optimise the basket and
check-out sections of their
websites. They can use site
abandonment as a tool to
catch their users as they
leave.
5. Work on first
impressions
Travel visitors tend to see
fewer pages on their first
visit than retail visitors,
but more in later sessions.
On the first visit, travel
visitors convert half as often
compared with retail, which
is the biggest difference
through the purchase cycle.
The fact that travel visitors
browse for longer on their
third, fourth and fifth visits
implies that this latter
period is the optimum time
to target them. On the
other hand, personalising
their experience on their
first visit may raise the
likelihood of their returning
to purchase, explains Matt.
It is therefore important that
travel websites incentivise
visitors to return as much as
possible.