The website optimizers at
Qubit have drilled down into the differences between retail and travel to show how travel professionals can most effectively hook and retain customers.
The report, available
here, is a detailed look at the behavioral differences between retail and travel, with some clutch takeaways for travel professionals seeking to better optimize their online and mobile presences.
Of course, retail sees a much higher conversion rate, lower average order value, and a much less complex path to purchase than travel. The comparison numbers, according to Qubit, end up like this:
- Retail converts at 5.9% while travel clocks in at 0.75%.
- Travel clients see a 10x order value when compared to retail.
- Retail path to purchase is 6.5, while travel takes 13.2 days and an average of 9.4 pages seen per purchase.
By understanding the dynamics between how different platforms convert, the idea is that travel brands can do better - and thus increase revenues via an cross-platform optimized product.
Behavioral vs last click
The first opportunity comes through the lower conversion rates on mobile for travel businesses, when compared to retail, which shows that significant opportunity still to crack conversion on mobile:
Moving back up the funnel, the sources of traffic are equally compelling - especially when considering the average conversion rates for the various sources. Affiliates convert the most for both retail and travel; however, the spread is much more significant in travel, with nearly 5x the conversion rate of the next most-converting traffic source.
The lack of impact from many of the sources, especially when compared to retail, poses some challenges to travel. SEM, SEO and Display are low performing in travel, which explains why many brands are more focused on marketing on social and increasing their affiliate networks - such as the incredible reach of the Expedia Affiliate Network.
Nonetheless, the share of traffic from affiliates in travel is extremely low - SEO and SEM are extremely effective on getting eyeballs on pages, which can lead them down the path to purchase. This is also a last-click model, which weights retail favorably given the many touchpoints generally needed to complete a purchase in travel.
The report points out that this information does no good without a comprehensive tracking system to learn how each source of traffic converts, and highlights its own behavioral means of tracking as an option.
Without the use of a sophisticated attribution model, you won’t be getting the most out of all your channels. For example, both SEO and display advertising are recognized by many in the industry as being some of the most important steps in a travel website’s path-to-purchase, but here they are distinctly undervalued relative to other marketing channels and retail comparatively.
Search provides undervalued asset for travel sites
This graph says it all: Search is the most viewed type of page in all of the travel path to purchase.
Qubit's internal statistics show that 99% of travel visits use search, revealing a highly lucrative piece of information.
This info is different depending on the type of travel site - whether delivering all inventory under the sun, or whether focused on a more curated selection of options that might not need a full-fledged search function featuring a full overview of available selections.
Huge cart abandonment in travel - yet more repeat purchases
Cart abandonment is a challenge for all online retailers, as the ability to retake the lost business is vital for a growing business.
The report highlights the travel funnel, which shows that a sizable chunk of visitors spend time looking at the cart. Likely they are checking the total price, and given the larger per-item price, are somewhat intimidated. This then leads to an abandonment rate that is twice that of retail.
Again, the large average value of a travel transaction leads to sticker shock - but still offers an opportunity for improvement. The example used in the report comes from Lastminute.com, which uses a cart abandonment tool to target specific deals to boost actual conversions.
And yet, despite the large abandonment rate, this particular study shows that travel purchasers repeat more often than retail:
More on all this is available in the full report here.