How personalization is driving conversions for Thomas Cook

Personalization of the digital experience is a primary strategy for brands looking to attract and retain customers. But one of the challenges is how to create personalization at scale and in a way that is manageable and sustainable for brands.

By using software that automates many of the processes, Thomas Cook, a leading leisure travel group with annual sales of more than £9 billion, has been able to drive a lift in conversions among its more than 20 million customers.

The company has been working with software company Qubit to implement its products across Thomas Cook’s holidays business in the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands and Belgium and for Thomas Cook airline.

“Personalization is no longer a nice to have, it’s now a necessity,” says Gui Aboim, head of e-commerce optimization for Thomas Cook in a report from Qubit.

“We’ve been able to consistently deliver differentiated experiences to customer segments, and that’s had a significant impact on the bottom line for the business.”

Relevant recommendations

Qubit has developed more than 70 strategies that Thomas Cook is implementing on its websites and mobile channels to engage with customers in relevant ways.

“An example is providing tailored and curated recommendations on the accommodations stage of the customer web journey,” says Dan Bensley, industry lead for travel at Qubit.

“What we are doing is analyzing a huge number of data signals in the background looking at how other consumers like yourself are behaving and providing tailored recommendations of other destinations or hotels that may be relevant to you and that you may want to consider in your journey. 

"Those recommendations are presented to website visitors as a banner across the bottom of the screen." The result – a 6% increase in conversion rate net across the site.

Thomas Cook also wanted an efficient way for the company’s trading and merchandising teams in various markets to update the products and destinations promoted on their home pages according to the customer’s segment and geography.

“Things can change fast at Thomas Cook, and we need to use technology that lets us show on-site visitors the most up-to-date offers live without a developer having to build something new each time,” says Louise Griffiths, Thomas Cook’s senior conversion analyst in the Qubit report.

To do this, Qubit created 10 templates with more than 30 simple, personalized messages that Thomas Cook’s teams can quickly push live.

Airline

For Thomas Cook’s airline business, Qubit has implemented a strategy known as “social proof” to sell ancillary products.

“It’s showing what other customers like you have bought,” Bensley says.

“So if you are a family searcher other customers like you might have bought a seat in advance or maybe booked a meal on a plane.”

The strategy has bumped up revenue per visitor by 1.6%.

Next steps

Looking ahead, Bensley says personalization through mobile channels will be an important strategy, particularly for travel brands.

“One thing that makes it unique in the travel sector is how mobile is a constant device, a travel companion, that sticks with the consumer through the research process, the booking, through the journey to the destination, in resort, on the way home,” he says.

Bensley says it is developing mobile strategies to help brands curate inspirational content early in the research process and then to drive relevance and ease to buy later in their journey.