Case Study:
Real-time Reporting Improves Sales at First Choice Ski
First Choice Ski (firstchoice-ski.co.uk/) holds a 14 percent market share of the online UK ski vacation industry. TUI Travel, its parent company, is an international leisure travel group, which operates in 180 countries and serves more than 30 million customers. In the highly competitive tour operator industry, profit margins are tight. Being lean and responsive is key to maintaining a profitable business. By using Yahoo! Web Analytics (web. analytics.yahoo.com/) and real-time reporting, First Choice Ski was able to monitor and quickly respond to the behaviors of visitors on its travel web site. First Choice Ski Tracks Customers’ Behaviors At First Choice Ski, customers spend a lot of time researching and selecting their vacations. Simon Rigglesworth, e-commerce manager, explained: “We see users return multiple times from multiple sources such as paid search, e-mail and even social networking as they try to find the vacation that suits them the best. Capturing as much information as possible allows us to identify the best way to complete the sale and optimize for it.” After experimenting with fee-based analytics packages, First Choice Ski selected Yahoo! Web Analytics (YWA), which is free. Web Analyst Penelope Bellegarde used the Search Phrases Report in YWA to leverage factors driving visitors to First Choice Ski. She said: “If we notice a specific destination is driving a lot of visits to the site, then it is very likely we will promote that destination on the homepage.” The Internal Campaign Report helps them monitor and manage their many travel promotions. For example, Bellegarde monitors the number of clicks and number of sales generated by each campaign, and when a low ratio of sales to clicks is noticed, they adjust the campaign accordingly. Performance Improvements Using these different datasets and tools from YWA, TUI redesigned and changed the content of its First Choice Ski homepage. Afterwards, the bounce rate (transfer out) from the homepage decreased 18 percent, and the exit rate decreased 13 percent. Most important, the number of sales generated from the home page increased 266 percent. “We are now generating quantifiable, actionable, data-driven processes for prioritizing and reviewing web site developments,” says Rigglesworth.
Q1. How does the ski travel site’s quick response to visitors’ clickstream behavior relate to its profit margin?
Q2. Consider this measurement principle: You can’t manage what you can’t measure. Explain how the case illustrates this principle.
Q3. Does web analytics impact barriers to entry and rivalry among incumbents in this industry?
Your answer must be typed, double-spaced, Times New Roman font (size 12), one-inch margins on all sides, APA format and also include references.