Skyscanner’s Direct Booking solution, which seeks to provide a flexible, optimized retail experience, has seen an across-the-board increase in conversion of 20% among the airlines and online travel agencies that have adopted it.
In the mobile channel, where Skyscanner has worked to bring the right options to the top of the search in an increasingly small space, suppliers have seen up to a 50% increase in conversions.
In a new white paper titled “The Value-driven Proposition in Travel, part of Skyscanner’s “Vision for the Future of Distribution,” the company said it took some cues from Tmall, a Chinese innovation, in designing the Direct Booking solution.
Tmall provides a platform on which local and international B2C retailers can set up storefronts from which they sell brand-name goods.
Similarly, Direct Booking gives airlines the ability to showcase their ancillary products and services and engage with users well before the check-in “desk.”
Skyscanner said it has been able to deliver greater ancillary sales, higher conversion rates and better yield on those sales by removing friction, so that when travelers decide to travel they can book the trip “then and there, on whichever device they choose.”
That has been particularly beneficial for the mobile channel, which historically has suffered from higher friction and, therefore, lower conversion.
Skyscanner said the Direct Booking solution has been enabled by the development of IATA’s New Distribution Capability, which allows airlines to bring more product features to the fore in a variety of contexts.
The company has received Level 3 NDC certification, the highest level, from IATA.
It has implemented NDC links with airlines and with Navitaire and Amadeus, “so we have a range of ways to implement what is actually a business and distribution discussion with our partners,” Skyscanner said.