Eysys, the e-commerce marketing platform set up by former Comtec chief Simon Powell, is predicting its Holistic software will tackle poor conversion rates in travel.
The Cardiff-based technology specialist is working with a number of UK firms in or associated with the UK travel sector including Midcounties Co-op, Feefo, Sabre, adriatica.net and cruise.co.uk.
Powell spoke to Travolution at this week’s Institute of Travel and Tourism (ITT) conference in Malta where Thomas Cook head of digital John Straw revealed Cook’s web conversion was 1%.
Powell said: “Online conversion is nowhere near where it should be. A lot of that has got to do with it being too generic, too many search results that are not narrowed enough down.”
The Eysys Holistic platform offers three modules: ‘Monetise’, ‘Personalise’ and ‘Searchendise’ designed to offer flexible search but tailored campaigns to meet specific customers requirements to prompt a call to action wherever they are in the buying cycle.
The concept is to deliver optimised content to customers to increase the likelihood of that customer taking the next step towards conversion.
“From a travel perspective, delivering the right offers, the right content at the right point in the journey will change conversion rates for the better.
“There is so much from a e-commerce perspective that can be improved, and tools like the Holistic suite are one of many that will start changing the way that travel sites convert.
“It’s all about the relevancy of the results. People want the ability to quickly get to the decision point on the relevant content.
“With the changes in SEO there is a little less for free. The results on page one of Google, with all the things Google are putting on there, mean that making sure that content is absolutely relevant becomes more vital.”
As part of the ‘Personalise’ module, Holistic, through machine learning, identifies specific customer cohorts which have distinctive traits.
This forms the basis of a predictive engine, the kind of tool non-travel online retailers such as Amazon are investing heavily in.
This allows reviews, adverts, products and email marketing messages to become fully personalised, and is currently being trialled on cruise specialist retailer cruise.co.uk.
‘Searchendise’ has been designed to provide faceted on-site product search to help drive users to the right product and reduce churn.