Travel companies have only about 11 seconds to capture the customer on their websites or risk them getting bored and going elsewhere. The figure was revealed by Amadeus vice president of multi-national customer group Gillian Gibson as she drew parallels with how long it takes consumers to choose a product in the offline retail world. Gibson added that despite the competition in the market place no one had yet managed to crack the loyalty and profitability issues in online travel and that online retailers fail to convert 97% of shoppers. "The fight for owning the end consumer is on. Airline sites, online travel agents, tour operators and meta-search sites are all trying to grab the consumer and make their websites the favourite." She also cited figures from Forrester Research and Shop.org demonstrating that the internet shopping experience is still lacking with only 26% of consumers saying they have enjoyed a web shopping experience compared with a 70% satisfaction rating for consumers shopping in a store. Gibson said: "Companies need to draw on lessons from offline retail and simplicity is the message. Organise your products to encourage upsell. It's difficult to be profitable because the cost of attaining customers is never-ending and when we do attain them we only manage to convert 3%." She went on to give examples where Amadeus was providing technology for airlines to help companies organise their websites and highlight more profitable elements. "Research shows customers would be willing to pay for some itemised services such as films, mobile phone services, aisle seats and lounge access and we need to build products to help airlines provide them. "It will allow the industry to increase yield by upselling, differentiate ourselves, keep consumers loyal and increase rates of conversion." Report by Linda Fox

Categories:  Breaking News, Travel Agent News, Tour Operator, Airline News, Travel Technology News

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Jon Hewson ManagingPartner-Special Projects, VirtuallyThere.ca 08 November 2006, 15:24:04 GMT Today's 'Instant' Gratification Requires Simple Opening Pages Amadeus has highlighted a point that many web developers should know - getting something on the screen ASAP. This eliminates a Flash display, large graphics and sound. Filling the screen with an opening 'splash' allows the second detailed page to load and then you 'fade' the opening page and reveal the second page. When designing for clients our company's design target is 5 seconds at 56k - the fastest dial-up speed. The other thing that frustrates web site viewers is the need to install browser plug-ins. Clients don't want to install anything to view a web site that is selling them some goods or service. By the way, when did you last look at your web site and check it for broken links?