European travelers are appearing more commitment-phobic lately when it comes to booking accommodations, travel
and experiences.
Marketing technology firm Ve Global
analyzed data from hundreds of thousands of online travel sessions across
Europe and found website abandonment rates jumped to 92.8% in the second half
of 2017, up from 85% in 2016.
Abandonment refers to users who explore
e-commerce websites but leave without making a purchase.
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"While the entire industry continues to invest heavily in
digital, this data clearly shows that consumers in every subsector of travel
are spending more time browsing their options before committing to a purchase,”
says Morten Tonnesen, CEO of Ve.
“This represents a considerable worry for travel companies
allocating vast sums of their marketing spend to the digital ad space in order
to attract people to their websites, only to lose them in the booking
process."
While mobile is becoming the
hardware of choice for travel search and inspiration, desktops and laptops still
draw higher conversion rates. One in 10 travelers who started the booking
process on desktop or laptop converted compared to just one in 20 on mobile.
Breakdown
Breaking down the data geographically
shows that customers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland have the highest
abandonment rate at 95.9%, just ahead of Russian travelers at 95.4%.
Irish travelers were most likely to
complete a booking, with just 89.3% of them window-shopping. Travelers from the
United Kingdom were next at 90.6%.
Looking across travel sectors,
travel agents are the hardest hit – losing 97.4% of online bookings during
checkout across Europe. Hotels also suffer, with only 5% of shoppers completing a
room reservation.
Airlines fare better, with 10% of
flight purchases completed once the process began, and coach and ferry companies
did the best, converting 15% of their online visitors into bookings.
Ve chief technology officer Yoel
Marson says brands can inspire commitment by meeting consumers’ growing
expectations for customized offers.
"One of the reasons the travel industry still hasn't
solved online abandonment is the constantly heightening levels of personalization
demanded in the modern travel market,” says Yoel Marson, CTO at Ve.
“Companies struggle against the complex diversity of their
audiences and the impossible task of creating real-time, relevantly personalized
experiences. This, in my opinion, is the remedy to online abandonment."
In its blog, Ve cites an example of coach tour operator
Shearings Holidays, which used customer data to create dynamic retargeting ads:
“They served ad creatives and messaging based on each user's individual
customer intent data, booking summary or stage in the booker journey to boost
conversion rates.”