National Express has increased online coach ticket sales by
over 14% using content optimisation software.
National Express has been working with optimisation specialist
Maxymiser on the project, and has seen customer sale conversions on
its booking
website go up as a result.
Over 9m passengers use
National Express coaches every year. Most ticket sales are made
on the company's website.
Kevin Milnes, head of e-commerce at National Express, said:
"Content optimisation has been implemented to ensure National
Express is consistently presenting the best online content to our
customers.
"We aim to ensure that all the website elements effectively
engage visitors and persuade them to continue to successful
completion of a coach ticket purchase."
By measuring live visitor responses through to checkout
completion, Maxymiser provided a statistical basis for the design
choice of the National Express coach website, which resulted in
over 14% more visitors completing the online registration
process.
National Express implemented a multivariate test to decrease the
number of visitors leaving the site when they had already indicated
some intent to buy.
Mark Simpson, managing director at Maxymiser, said: "A
multivariate test was the most effective approach to determine the
best performing combination of content. The variants were tested
with all live site visitors and the conversion rate of each
combination monitored."
Mark Simpson added: "3,500 possible page combinations were tried
and during the live test the underperforming combinations were
taken out to maximise conversion rates at every stage. At the end
of the testing period conclusive results showed a 14.11% increase
in conversion rates, pushing 14.11% more visitors through to the
fourth and final step in the registration process."
The multivariate testing campaign successfully reduced checkout
abandon rates by discovering the content elements that most
effectively engage visitors and persuade them to continue to
successful completion.
Kevin Milnes said: "Maxymiser's technology has allowed us to
gain valuable insight into the effect that copy has on visitors
during a buying process. The 14% uplift we have gained through this
initial engagement has lowered our cost per acquisition and allows
us to be more competitive in our traffic acquisition efforts."
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