How to master modern retailing

There’s so much chat about “modern retailing” right now. And, since Travelport started the conversation, agencies are asking us: “what does it look like in action?” At its heart, modern retailing is about making life easier for the consumer. And that means, great digital experiences that are intuitive, frictionless, and fast. In fact, we built our platform, Travelport+, to help agencies deliver on that promise.

So, since you agents asked, here’s some tips and tricks that demonstrate truly modern retailing in real-world search, booking, and servicing situations on Travelport+.

1. AIR SHOP LIKE AMAZON

Amazon is the OG of helping shoppers compare multiple products, side by side, all in one place. Today, this is one of the fundamentals of modern retailing, and retailers in this industry (i.e. travel agents) need that same functionality to avoid checking multiple sites for every flight search. With the right travel tech, you can compare the best picks from hundreds of airlines, side by side — traditional content, NDC, you name it, all on one screen.

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2. WIN THE SEARCH SPEED RACE

People hate hanging around for results. If it takes more than 1-3 seconds they may decide to go elsewhere. Whether it’s travel agent using a desktop, a consumer booking on an OTA or an employee using an OBT, people will lose focus and that means, you lose a conversion. To help agents prevent this, Travelport’s API delivers results in under a second and loads 68% faster than established travel APIs.

3. AUTOMATE THAT ADMIN

Repetitive manual tasks are no fun. And doing admin is not why most travel agents got into the business. Take trip quotes for example. These need to be clean, professional, and easy to follow, and finessing them can be time-consuming. When you’re doing that at scale, even more so. But a modern retailing platform can make it faster and easier, helping you provide customers with a superb pre-booking experience. All you have to do is…

And it doesn’t stop there. Ticket exchanges are another task you can offload through automation. These can take up an average of ninety minutes per day for an agent. That’s 7.5 hours a week, almost a full working day. Which adds up to 390 hours per year. You get the picture. The good news is: agents can claw this time back to focus on the things that matter, like researching destinations, or selling more. Here’s how:

*time savings of 9,787 hours per year based on an European Agency with 15 Travel Agents

 4. UP THAT UPSELL

Right now there’s lots of new air, hotel and car products out there. And that makes upselling a bit more tricky for agents. We’re helping simplify the upsell offers across thousands of travel brands and making it easier for agents to make commissions. Our platform is designed to tee up more sales opportunities, and using our simple tools you can add an extra €176,000 per year to your takings* by doing this…

($190k = EUR176,206.86 ROI from Trip Manager, Fare Family Upsells and Selling Fare Manager)

5. CRUSH THAT CROSS SELL

Planning a trip can be stressful for travelers. With so many options and ancillaries to choose from, often they need help curating options for the whole trip, beyond flights alone. Selling hotel can sometimes be an afterthought to flights. But with Travelport+ hotel can be a stream of earning in its own right, earning up to €55k* more per year, or $28 more commission per booking. Cha-chiiing.

($60k = Hotel Content Optimizer ROI of EUR55,488.00)

6. MICROMANAGE THE MARGIN

Travel agencies work really hard to negotiate the best rates. But that’s only useful if they’re easy to find when you need them most — during a search. Travelport+ makes this easier using smart automation tools, which can help you earn 10% more margin, by making sure the most profitable rates appear right at the top of your listings. Bingo.

7. SIMPLIFY SUSTAINABILITY

Travelers today care about the planet. And they want agents to help them do the right thing. In modern retailing, sustainability has to be a huge consideration, and two things are important in this respect: accuracy and transparency. Technology is the key to delivering on both.

Last year, we partnered with Travalyst, a not-for-profit organization and coalition, to develop a consistent industry-standard for carbon insights. And we’ve made these carbon emission estimates available via Travelport+. So when customers ask agents to help them evaluate their options from a sustainability point of view, they’re equipped to handle those conversations.

8. GET THE REAL DEAL ON NDC

NDC is a part of modern retailing that’s very topical, but it’s also just another content source. At Travelport, we’ve been taking a broader view to encompass multisource content, and to make sure that wherever your offers come from, the main thing is that agents can view and compare them, side by side.

(Side note: we’ve got a handy page of NDC myths busted with everything modern retailers need to know about NDC outlined for you).

So, don’t be caught out by platforms or tools that only let you do half the job — nail NDC by choosing tech that lets you cater to the entire journey.

IT’S TIME TO MOVE ON FROM ‘MEH’

Ever looked at your booking software and felt…nothing? You’re not alone.

While Revolut, Venmo, Netflix, Spotify, Uber and were busy raising the bar on UX and interface design, travel often falls short of a truly modern retailing experience. But at Travelport we think modern retailing masters — aka travel agencies — deserve a platform that feels good to use.

Don’t settle for anything less than transformational. Modern UX. Modern tools. Modern everything. We’re iterating on that every day to bring that to you, our agency customers.

So if you’re still settling for ‘meh’, maybe it’s time to get moving. Your customers will thank you, and so will your CFO.