Northstar

6 | www.travelweekly-asia.com TECH TALKING Asia Pacific (APAC) travel brands are failing to engage customers throughout the online customer journey, with significant numbers of would-be travellers dropping off early in the booking process, according to adtech and martech company, Ve Global. The data, which is taken from over 58 million customer sessions, showed that onsite abandonment – where a customer starts but fails to complete a booking online – remains a significant challenge with 92.6% of all bookings lost at the vital checkout stage. One of the key findings showed that while display advertising generates 61.5% more clicks in Japan than Australia, significantly fewer Japanese consumers go on to actually complete an online booking. This represents a wider trend in APAC, which hints at a disconnect between offsite advertising and onsite customer experience. To counter this, travel providers must implement a full-funnel approach to inspire APAC customers to complete their online bookings. Here's how travel brands can buck the trend and attract, acquire and convert more customers online: 1. Impressions trump clicks in engaging customers Advertisers need to make an impression with potential bookers, and digital display advertising is one of the best ways to do this. However simply funnelling large budgets into mass digital advertising isn't the answer. It may improve website traffic, but that doesn't mean conversion by default. Instead, travel companies need to engage in precise targeting, generating relevant traffic and creating memorable online experiences, or micro-moments. Whilst the click through rate (CTR) on display adverts is a metric to watch, more value should be placed on the power of impressions. Tips on how APAC travel brands can better the online customer experience to ensure would-be travellers cap off the booking process with a purchase. Adverts should portray offerings in inspirational fashion to create lasting impressions with target bookers that will inspire wanderlust and encourage engagement. 2. Optimise onsite experiences for APAC's mobile-first market Once such campaigns are in place, travel companies should build a seamless cross-device experience and optimise the buying process for all devices to capitalise on these hard-earned visitors. This is particularly pertinent for APAC customers, who lead the rest of the world for mobile travel bookings. A massive 30% of all travel bookings are made on mobile and tablet devices, but this still leaves 70% of all bookings taking place on desktop. To engage with traffic acquired from digital advertising, travel companies need to be building highly personalised onsite experiences that seamlessly transition across devices. Landing page optimisation and onsite engagement technology are just two ways of enhancing onsite experiences to inspire travel customers to complete their bookings. 3. Personalised remarketing resonates with bookers offsite An opportunity lies offsite in forms of remarketing, which according to Ve's research, APAC customers are more receptive to than their European counterparts. The data shows APAC travel companies are likely to recover one online booking for every 18 remarketing emails sent, compared with the 23 needed to be sent by European companies. To increase the effectiveness of this part of the funnel, companies should be using personalisation to improve email-remarketing efforts, with Ve's data showing even the most basic forms of personalisation boost results. A click analysis of more than 12 million emails over a four- month period revealed that in Asia, subject line personalisation using a customer's name led to email re-marketing open rates of 65%, compared to an average of 44% for non-personalised subject lines. The technique also resulted in an increased conversion rate from 9% to 23%, nine per cent higher than Europe and 14% more than the Americas. The power of personalisation doesn't just sit with remarketing and is critical across every touch point. Travel companies should try to identify additional opportunities to deliver personal experiences throughout the customer journey. With APAC travel companies still placing significant emphasis on customer acquisition, for which they assign a large quantity of their marketing spend, our findings into online cart abandonment rates in the sector signify the need for retailers to re-evaluate their approach. As the cause of abandonment can vary, travel companies must engage with customers across the entire funnel, optimising online journeys across every channel and device from awareness to purchase, to have a meaningful impact on online bookings and the rise in consumer demand. "The power of personalisation doesn't just sit with remarketing, and is critical across every touch point." – Jamie Pierre, COO at Ve Global, APAC. Catching the 'early drop- outs' to drive bookings THIS ARTICLE WAS CONTRIBUTED BY JAMIE PIERRE, COO AT VE GLOBAL, APAC. From top: Online abandonment rates per country; personalised emails the way to go.

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