In 2016, about 30% of online travel bookings worldwide were made via mobile devices, and the share of mobile payments grew by 13%. As trust in technology grows, more consumers are using smartphones and tablets for more than just searching travel options, but also the actual purchase of travel. This suggests that mobile is becoming an increasingly valuable sales channel, attractive to new target audiences.
This trend can be seen both in the West and in Russia, and our country has made a huge leap in the rate of penetration of mobile technologies over the past five years. The mass and fairly rapid transition of the population to smartphones indicates that functional mobile devices have become accessible to a large part of the population. People have realized that purchasing services with their help is convenient and safe.
If in the USA the share of mobile purchases is currently 30% and is constantly growing, then in our country this figure varies according to the estimates of different experts from 10% (Hermes Group) to 20% (Criteo). A PayPal study showed that in Russia mobile devices are used for purchases, on average, 2.6 times a month. For comparison, in Western Europe this figure is three. Thus, in the world ranking of mobile commerce, our country occupies a confident position, and this segment has great potential both in terms of growth in the share of mobile purchases and expansion of the range of goods and services.
“Mobile has been one of the major innovations that has fundamentally changed our behavior over the last 20 years, and one of the key impacts it has is speed. We want information at a click, we want to book a hotel, buy a plane ticket, anything at a click. The volume of Google searches from mobile devices has already exceeded the volume of searches from desktops. Today, almost every business has half or more of its traffic coming from mobile. We are becoming mobile-first,” he noted. Yuri Berchenko, head of Google's department for working with large clients in the retail sector.
According to the ROMIR study, about 1/5 of Internet users in Russia already use mobile devices to search for and purchase tourism products. Among them, 38% use applications, 92% go to sites via a mobile browser.
"Assessing the volumes of the international mobile booking market, there is still potential for growth in this segment in Russia. Given our specifics and the faster pace of technology implementation compared to the West, this trend is worth paying close attention to. The niche in the mobile space is still relatively free, and there are already quite a lot of technologies and solutions. Moreover, the mobile commerce market opens up opportunities not only for online, but also for all other types of agencies," she noted. Anastasia Lavrenyuk, head of the Sabre representative office in Russia.
According to Google, launching a mobile version of a site can increase conversions by up to 44%, but the question is how fast it is. Tool Google Test My Site showed that the average loading speed of a Russian online travel agency's mobile resource is 8-13 seconds. For comparison, according to Double Click, a user starts to get irritated if a site takes longer than 3 seconds to open, and according to Amazon, every second of loading affects conversion by almost three times.
"People get used to speed very quickly, so we need to speed up. We are moving towards a business that uses artificial intelligence. A robot will be able to process a huge array of data that each person produces and quickly make the necessary extract of this data to personalize the service. But when developing a mobile, online or other sales channel, it is important to remember that people want to receive the same service when contacting a company in any way - you need to be closer to the consumer," emphasized Yuri Berchenko.
Anastasia Lavrenyuk also drew attention to the fact that mobile should be considered not only as a sales channel, but also as an effective way for an agency to interact with travelers: “High-quality support during a trip using mobile technologies, be it applications, automatic SMS notifications or chat bots, helps to increase the level of loyalty and increase the share of repeat customer requests.”
One solution that agencies can adopt is Sabre's mobile travel management service - TripCaseIt allows travel companies to stay in touch with their customers, sending them useful notifications, reminders and recommendations for organizing leisure activities while traveling, acting as a reliable and attentive personal assistant.
"Today, consumers want to be recognized whenever they contact a company. It's been only 10 years since SMS was first used by a chatbot, and the picture continues to change before our eyes - we are already moving away from voice to social networks, messengers... As a new generation of consumers grows up, who were literally born with a mobile phone in their hands, service companies will sooner or later have to adapt, and we need to prepare for this," he noted. Sergey Sinyagin, General Director of the Telecom-Express contact center.
In order not to be among those "catching up", agencies should pay attention to the mobile channel and technologies for its effective development today. "The more solutions and projects we implement in the mobile segment today, the more personalized and intimate the interaction with consumers will become. In an effort to help agencies and suppliers solve this problem, Sabre is actively investing in the development of innovative technologies. By correctly and consciously applying them, market players can find their gold mine, winning the trust of technically advanced consumers," emphasized Anastasia Lavrenyuk.
Source: trn-news.ru