Could do better is the conclusion of a Diggintravel study of Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) practices from airlines.
The study was performed this fall via survey questionnaires sent to more than 90 airline e-commerce and digital marketing senior executives. It reflects the views and insights of 28 airlines in seven key areas: six general CRO areas—people, skills, activities, test quantity, tools, and organizational support—and one airline-specific area, the internet booking engine (IBE).
While the basic level of sophistication airlines have on CRO is comparable to companies in other industries, it lags behind travel and ecommerce companies like Amazon, Airbnb, Priceline, and Skyscanner.
The three principle challenges are a lack of skillsets in this area, inadequate management understanding or support for CRM, and inherent inflexibility of internet booking engines.
64% of respondents to the Diggintravel survey admitted to having no structured or documented CRO process.
47% of those working to optimize CRO work at companies where CRO is not in the budget.
Only 36% of the airlines surveyed have CRO teams in place.
54% of respondents said that CRO is done by a single person or that optimization is nobody’s primary job responsibility.
52% of the survey respondents run 3 or more experiments every month.
64% of airlines rely on individuals for their CRO tasks and projects. Only 36% have formed CRO teams—either smaller groups or full-scale conversion tribes.
43% of LCC airlines perform tests on a regular basis (at least two to five per month). The number of FSC (full service carriers) that do this is lower (21%).
Read original article
The report is available to download here.
