In the world of travel marketing, the challenge of cart abandonment is as persistent as it is perplexing. With an abandonment rate of 80% percent, the travel industry, particularly online travel agencies (OTAs), faces a significant hurdle. Yet, within this challenge lies a golden opportunity: the potential to reclaim revenue from the substantial number of site visitors who intended to make a purchase but left without booking.
The crux of the issue for OTAs is the lack of identification technology. Identification, in this context, means the ability to link a site visitor to their email address across various devices, sessions, and browsers. This capability is a game-changer, enabling OTAs to recognize and engage with potential customers more effectively.
Online travel agencies invest heavily in marketing to attract shoppers to their sites, competing with meta searches and direct bookings. However, capturing a booking on the first visit is often elusive due to factors like distraction, indecision, or price sensitivity. Without the ability to recognize site visitors, OTAs may end up spending their budget multiple times to attract the same customer.
Historically, OTAs have relied on cookies for personalization, but with the deprecation of third-party cookies, this approach will become increasingly difficult. For instance, a shopper may show high intent by browsing flights on a computer but leave without purchasing. If they return on a smartphone, the OTA may not recognize the connection between the two devices, resulting in lost revenue potential.
To address this, OTAs need to accurately identify consumers when they land on their booking site. Accurate identification allows for optimized checkout flows, triggered emails based on real intent, and retargeting across devices and sessions.
Wunderkind is at the forefront of device identity resolution, helping online travel agencies to recognize and market to visitors more effectively. Wunderkind’s technology can identify visitors who have previously consented to marketing, enabling a more personalized experience and increasing conversions, brand loyalty, and revenue.
By adopting such identification technologies, online travel agencies can significantly reduce cart abandonment rates and tap into the vast potential revenue from interested travelers. The key to unlocking this potential lies in the ability to recognize and engage with shoppers from the moment they arrive on the site.
