It’s hard to overstate the importance of user experience (UX) in securing a loyal online customer base, especially when it comes to a business niche like travel. When it comes down to it, a good UX means that more interested site visitors can convert into customers of particularly high-value products like travel and tour packages.
Excellent UX also results in customers preferring a specific online travel business for their next purchases or recommending the same products and services to others. Conversely, any hitch that a potential customer comes across can easily ramp up the odds of lost sales, which may be impossible to recover once a direct travel business competitor offers a superior UX.
For anyone who owns any type of business that operates from a website, it’s no secret how important UX is to the checkout process. However, travel business entrepreneurs who are new to the e-commerce model or who are in the process of revamping their website can often get in over their heads when optimizing checkout UX, given how many other things they typically have to worry about.
To make it easier for you to design a checkout process that keeps your customers happy and your sales from your travel products high, here are some UX-oriented factors that you should consider:
1) Technology Platforms
Before diving into the checkout design process, you may want to explore popular e-commerce platforms to see if they align with your travel business’s exact needs. Of course, it’s possible to do a bespoke site, but chances are that platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, or Squarespace will already provide you the capabilities and customization you need out of the box for much cheaper than it would cost to develop a unique framework. Going with a popular platform also gives you access to a wide plugin library as well as developer communities that can help address common site issues.
2) Secure Online Payments Gateways
Using a recognized platform makes it easy to integrate an online payments gateway for accepting various types of payment options from your customers. If your site is on a popular platform, all you need to do to integrate reliable payment gateways is to download a plugin and follow the steps given by the developer.
For instance, Philippine-facing businesses that are on WooCommerce or Shopify can use Maya Plugins to integrate Maya Checkout, a trusted online payment gateway, in minutes. A major bonus of going this route is that customers will be less hesitant to purchase high-value items like all-in travel, tour, and accommodation packages if they have several recognizable and trustworthy modes of payment available to them, which this solution can provide. This will potentially boost your conversions down the line.
3) Site Speeds
Slow websites are a major cause of cart abandonment and site dropouts, which happen when customers get impatient or even irate enough with the website’s speed to leave entirely. That means that you’ll want to compress images, get rid of bloated code, and enable lazy loading to help keep your site snappy and facilitate more conversions at checkout from visitors with less ideal setups.
4) A Mobile-First Approach
If you’re targeting regular consumers who want to book trips for themselves or for small groups, you need to develop your site and your checkout process around the smartphone experience. This is absolutely necessary in markets like the Philippines, where mobile devices are the primary means of accessing the internet. Consider implementing features that are sure to be appreciated by mobile visitors, such as vertically-oriented layouts and biometrics-based two-factor authentication.
5) Number of Steps to Checkout
Take the perspective of your customers and avoid doing anything that prevents fast and seamless purchases. Simplify all the form fields, avoid asking for the same info multiple times, and do away with flashy animations to keep their buying journey efficient.
6) Guest Checkout Options
Related to the previous point, you may want to cater to customers who prefer expedited transactions by offering guest checkout options. Encouraging your customers to create new accounts is great for increasing sales over the long term, but making it mandatory will just turn off visitors who want to make a quick one-time purchase.
A happy medium would be to offer exclusive perks for account creation while still giving visitors a guest checkout path for one-time or anonymous purchases.
7) Round-the-Clock Customer Support
Potential customers may need to be guided through the buying process at different stages, especially if they’re buying a travel package for the first time. It’s a good idea to provide a selection of support channels to help them along their journey.
At the minimum, you’ll want to enable email support as well as comprehensive FAQs that specifically cover how to buy items from your site. If you have the resources, you can also consider setting up a live chat function for guiding customers with more complex issues. You can also supplement the work of your human customer service agents with chatbots so that you’ll be able to instantly address your customers’ most common queries 24/7.
8) Brand Elements
Ideally, your checkout process should be viewed as a coherent part of your overall travel business brand. Something as important as the final purchasing process can make a strong impression and characterize your customers’ overall experience of your company.
Take some time to configure the visuals on your checkout pages so that they closely match your brand elements, and remind customers who they’re partnering with whenever they book a deal with you. This may seem like a small detail to pay attention to, but it should help your customers remember you if they ever want to make a repeat purchase.
9) Localization
Tailor your checkout process to accommodate diverse audiences of travelers by implementing well-researched localization strategies. Support multiple currencies and languages to cater to international customers, and you’ll be able to enhance conversions across both international and hyperlocal markets.
10) Cart Abandonment Strategy
Combat cart abandonment rates for your travel products by being proactive about recovering lost sales. Utilize email retargeting campaigns, exit-intent pop-ups, or personalized incentives to re-engage your customers and encourage them to complete their purchases.
11) Alternative Channels
At some point, you may have to think beyond your e-commerce strategy and consider offering the customers of your travel business a true omnichannel experience that covers both physical stores and alternative online sales avenues. Tools like Maya’s Payment Links and Maya Invoice Payments can be used to quickly facilitate secure digital payments from travelers over chat and email, providing customers with even more opportunities to book their dream travel deals with you.
UX Is the Key to Seamless Checkout on Your Travel Business Website
You may not be the only business that someone is considering buying a travel package from, but you should aim to be the one that’s the most reliable, user-friendly, and attentive to the contemporary traveler’s needs. Bear these recommendations in mind, but also commit to looking beyond them and evolving your approach alongside your market’s preferences. Keep your fingers on the pulse of today’s jet-setters, and your view of how to appeal to them through aspects like the checkout process should become clearer to you.
