Why website abandonment rates are so high for European travelers

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. 

"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.”