Increasing average basket size – the total value of bookings made by each customer – is a key goal for tour operators. Achieving a larger basket size can significantly increase revenue and profitability and generate long term success.
But how can tour operators boost their basket size? Read on to find out.
Understand Your Customers’ Needs
While it may seem obvious that understanding customer needs is crucial to any business, sometimes companies overlook this and stick to their traditional offerings, failing to adapt their offerings to rapidly changing consumer needs and missing out on opportunities for revenue.
In order to successfully increase basket sizes tour operators need to start by understanding and meeting these needs with the relevant products and strategies.
Some of the ways to better understand your customers’ needs include:
- Collect and analyse consumer data
Through the use of technology, large amounts of consumer data can be collected and analysed to discover key trends and customer behaviour, allowing you to adapt your offerings. Analise destinations, the most sold products and the market demand before making decisions.
- Identify key demographics
This is a crucial step to understanding your customers, allowing you to divide your customer base into segments and create targeted marketing campaigns.
- Personalise offerings
Once you have identified your customers and their preferences, you can use this information to offer a more personalised and tailored customer experience, in turn leading to increased sales and basket size.
Enhance Your Product Offering
Once you have understood the needs of your customers, the next step is to tailor and enhance your product offering.
This can be done by taking the following steps:
- Expand packages
Expand your products by offering a variety of packages, including premium options. Diverse packages at various price points meet the needs of different customers, increasing sales opportunities.
- Add-on services
Introduce optional add-ons and upsells that complement and add value to your main offering. This could include additional services such as guided tours, transportation, and unique travel experiences.
- Bundle packages
Create attractive packages that bundle together multiple services and experiences. For example, combine accommodation, activities, and meals into a single package. This not only provides value but also simplifies the booking process for customers.
Leverage Technology
Technology plays a crucial part in increasing your average basket size. Implementing a tech-focused strategy offers many benefits for your travel brand and its customers, and can enhance the customer experience as well as increase sales.
One of the key technologies that can assist tour operators to increase their basket size is an online booking system. According to Statista, almost 70% of global travel sales are now made online, and this number is set to increase as technology becomes even more advanced.
In order to get ahead, travel brands should integrate user-friendly booking systems that streamline the online booking process. Nezasa’s TripBuilder is an innovative online booking system that empowers travel brands to sell end-to-end, personalised itineraries. Our platform also offers a dynamic packaging solution, helping you to increase sales and basket size by offering add-on products and services.
AI and data analytics also play an important role in leveraging technology. These can be used to further understand and analyse customer behaviour and preferences, allowing you to create a more personalised and informed strategy. TripBuilder lets you access all booking reports, based on your own filters and preferences, in order to make an informed analysis of your consumer’s data.
Monitor and Optimise Performance
Continuously monitoring performance is an important step in increasing basket size. This allows you to make necessary changes and keep track of areas which are doing well or need improvement.
Some of the ways to monitor and optimise performance include:
- Track key metrics
Track and analyse key metrics and KPIs such as average basket size, customer satisfaction, and conversion rate to measure the success of your strategy and make necessary changes.
- Feedback loop
Ensure that you seek out and act on customer feedback in order to continuously improve. This can be done through online reviews, direct surveys, or social media interactions, and can guide you in enhancing your services and offerings.
- A/B testing
Implement A/B testing for different elements of your offerings, such as pricing strategies, package compositions, and promotional messages. This helps determine what works best for your customers and allows for data-driven decisions.
Boosting your basket size requires a comprehensive approach that combines deep customer understanding, enhanced product offerings, technological integration, and performance optimisation. By implementing these strategies, tour operators can not only increase their average basket size and revenue but also enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty.
