If you have been in the tourism industry long enough, you're familiar with physical sales, where many tourists can come to your office to learn more about your tours and activities, but for some reason, they leave the office without buying an activity.
Cart abandonment is the digital equivalent of a customer leaving your office. Not only is it a bit frustrating, but it also impacts your tour operator's bottom line.
In an industry as competitive as tourism, understanding where you're losing bookings is essential. According to Baymard Institute, the average cart abandonment rate is 69.99% in general. However, in the travel industry, it is 82%.
As you can see, the tourism industry has a particularly high cart abandonment rate compared to other sectors. This can be attributed to several factors: too many options, so customers compare prices and offerings, unclear prices, lack of trust and information, and more. By understanding these reasons, tour and activity operators can implement strategies to reduce cart abandonment and increase conversions.
In this article, we'll dive into effective strategies to understand your customers and reduce cart abandonment.
Simplify your payment process
To ensure a smooth payment experience, one of the main topics you need to prioritize is a seamless and secure payment process. While 18% of users confirm they don't trust ecom stores with their credit card information, which might seem like little, there are other factors you need to focus on to ensure that potential customers trust your company.
There are different ways to gain customers' trust, such as having a direct payment method.
Direct payments without redirecting users to third-party sites enhance security and offer faster transaction times. Tour and activity operators can provide online payment processes with payment gateways, which facilitate secure and seamless transactions between customers and merchants.
To learn more about how it works and its benefits, read about the important factors to consider when choosing a payment gateway.
By facilitating bookings for your tours and activities and offering a secure payment experience, you build trust and create a positive customer experience, helping you decrease your cart abandonment rate.
Offer multiple payment options
Customers have varied payment preferences, especially in the tourism industry, where you work with people worldwide. Expanding your payment options helps you accommodate a wide range of customers, thus increasing bookings.
Offering multiple options can improve customer experience, increase conversion rates, increase brand trust, and reduce cart abandonment.
When selecting payment methods, consider your customers and their preferences. Research your customers' preferred payment methods and consider your and your customers' locations. This way, you can guarantee that you support the different currencies needed.
Some of the main payment methods tour and activity operators should provide are:
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E-wallets (e.g., Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal)
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Credit and debit card payments
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Online bank transfers
Based on customer preferences, for example, if you have many customers from the USA, you need to allow e-wallets. A survey by Forbes Advisor showed that 70% of Americans said they would make digital wallets their primary method for shopping, while another 62% said they would for travel.
This payment method trend is also seen in Europe. According to The European Central Bank (ECB), within the euro area, in the first half of 2023:
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The number of credit transfers increased by 10.0%,
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Direct debits declined by 3.1% and
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E-money payment transactions increased by 6.9%.
Consumers in Latin America and the Caribbean are also increasing the number of transactions made through digital wallets when choosing to pay digitally.
By offering a variety of payment methods, you accommodate different situations and preferences; there are other options, such as cryptocurrency or gift cards. This flexibility prevents customers from abandoning their carts.
Think about the user-friendly experience: from navigating to checkout.
A cluttered website and a complicated checkout process are the combination you want to avoid. To create a great customer experience, ensure your website is user-friendly, has a fast loading time, responsive design for desktop and mobile, and is easy to navigate.
Make sure that you're covering strategies that help build customer trust, such as your website having your identification, with a clear logo and branding, your contact information, customer reviews and testimonials, and a simple booking process.
As a tour and activity operator, you can simplify the booking process by reducing the number of steps involved. Some steps are essential, depending on your business and specifics, but in general, you should have:
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Availability and easy-to-find CTA — “book now” button,
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Booking form with essential personal information and required details and,
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Payment methods.
Read the guide to crafting booking flow to learn more about why the booking flow matters and best practices.
Consider your website a welcoming chance to introduce your business and services. A clear and intuitive interface will guide them smoothly through the booking journey, increasing the likelihood of a successful checkout.
Engage customers with targeted communication
Customers who abandon their carts are still potential deals. They have shown interest in abandoned carts, but for tour operators, the incomplete booking is an excellent opportunity to reconnect with them.
Engage with these potential customers through targeted communication to reignite their interest. In your abandoned cart strategy, include:
Automated email reminders
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In the email, you can share what they left on their cart. Make sure that you provide information about your business, the experience, and the cost of it.
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Timing is crucial, so choose the right time for these reminders. Keep in mind your average sales cycle when setting your schedule. For example, the first message is sent within 1 hour after the abandoned cart. Create an abandoned cart email sequence that nurtures the customers throughout their journey. Check this example of Virgin Atlantic email sent to abandoned cart.
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Personalized and human messages create a sense of trust. Create engaging content with a direct and clear message that transmits your brand's personality.
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Offer coupons or discounts. To convert a potential customer who has shown interest, offer a discount in later emails in your sequence. This creates a sense of urgency and encourages customers to revisit their abandoned carts.
Reduce cart abandonment with TrekkSoft
Choosing a strategic partner is crucial to success, especially when it comes to addressing cart abandonment and optimising conversions. TrekkSoft, with its deep knowledge of the travel and activities industry, presents a booking system that can mitigate cart abandonment. Here's how TrekkSoft can help you:
Automated emails and marketing tools integrations
TrekkSoft offers automated email creation for customers post-booking, enhancing follow-up communication and engagement. Additionally, its integration with over 1000 tools via Zapier, including Mailchimp, GetResponse, and ActiveCampaign, extends its marketing capabilities. This allows not only for communication with customers who have booked, but also for outreach to potential guests who haven't completed their reservations. A significant benefit of this integration is targeting users who have abandoned their carts, using automated emails to encourage them to finalize their bookings. This approach contributes to a comprehensive marketing strategy that covers all aspects of the customer journey.
Discount codes & gift vouchers
Encourage customers to complete their bookings by offering exclusive discount codes and gift vouchers, which can be created effortlessly within our back-end. Integrate these incentives in your promotional emails, targeting those who have abandoned their carts, as a compelling reason for them to return and finalize their purchases. These discounts and vouchers can be conveniently applied during the checkout process on your site, not only enhancing user engagement but also driving sales and conversion rates.
Conversion-optimised booking widget
Our booking widget is specifically designed to boost your conversion rates, offering an intuitive and continuously improved user experience throughout the booking process. It boasts a customizable design for enhanced usability, ensuring a seamless booking experience for your users. Moreover, its integration is straightforward, requiring only a simple code to incorporate it into almost any website, making it a hassle-free tool to increase your bookings effectively.
Multiple payment solutions with Payyo
Payyo, TrekkSoft's payment gateway, is designed specifically for tour and activity operators, offering a bespoke solution to handle the sector's unique challenges. It supports an array of popular payment methods including Visa, Mastercard, Google Pay, iDEAL, Discover, and much more, ensuring transactions are convenient for a wide range of customers. Additionally, it facilitates payments in 37 currencies. This system provides secure, convenient, and global payment options, enhancing the customer experience and accommodating diverse needs within the tourism industry.
If you would like to learn more about our solutions, contact TrekkSoft today and let us help you create a customer journey like no other.
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