Lastminute.com UK managing director John Bevan talks to Juliet Dennis about challenges for the online sector and the changing habits of customers
What are your personal priorities as UK managing director for lastminute.com?
My key focus is the customer, which is linked to marketing efficiencies. It’s also about the look and feel of the website and product, its pricing, stock and quantity.
It’s less about technology. My daily focus is on motivating the team and delivering the right products with increased conversion rates, average booking values and shopping windows.
Is increasing competition online making it harder for lastminute.com to hold on to market share?
In some areas there is more competition and that forces us to be smarter and more efficient. To a certain degree it’s tougher in the market but there are a lot more opportunities because more customers are coming online.
The more major operators that are online the better – they are converting millions of customers to shop online so it’s exciting.
The major operators still refuse to provide content to lastminute.com. Does that pose a problem?
The big operators are worried about us. Before, it was a case of “why should we work with you?”. Now they won’t give us stock because we are powerful.
Last year we had 10 million users throughout the year and [the big operators] forget our position as a lifestyle brand will only get stronger. They are missing a big piece of the pie.
We have great specialist operators that work with us and make a lot of money – our target audience is from London and the southeast and they tend to go on four, five and six-star holidays.
What improvements can we expect to see at lastminute.com?
Sustainable tourism is an area we are looking at. Take-up of the carbon offsetting option on our site has increased to 17% of customers booking flights and dynamic packages. At the end of 2006 it was just 10%.
We are trying to position ourselves with a scheme that gives money to companies with carbon- neutral programmes. Experts tell us this works. We feel it’s the right thing to do but we’re not going to force people to go down that route.
We are also working on our brand to give it a lifestyle image – love your life through lastminute.com.
What are the challenges for online travel agents?
How to advise customers on what the next best travel option is. Upselling opportunities are also easier for [high-street] travel agents.
We need systems to get smarter so we can prompt customers as to what to look for next. It’s about how to become more consumer-friendly in advising on alternative travel arrangements.
How loyal are customers to the lastminute.com brand?
Loyalty is growing but we have plans to build on it. We are getting to an age where everyone uses Google and has other favourite sites with a couple of back-ups – some of which are travel.
Lots of consumers have used us for city breaks but have looked at alternatives for multi-centre trips. I believe people will start coming back to us more. We know a lot more about our customer base now and we communicate with them. We used to send out e-mails based on where you are; now we tailor our communication on who you are.
This has doubled our conversion rates and increased loyalty to our site. We plan to increase our repeat customers by 35% this year. A lot of this is to do with reinforcing the power of the brand rather than price positioning.
How are customers’ booking habits changing?
The booking pattern at lastminute.com is expanding – people are now booking for as far ahead as the October half-term.
Three-and-a-half years ago, we would only have been selling as far ahead as May at this time of year. We have not done any outward communication on forward bookings, but people are planning holidays on our site. If they really thought we were just for last-minute holidays, they would not be looking for October holidays.