Webjet, Australia’s largest online travel agency, completed a first round of testing to measure shoppers’ responses to airlines’ rich content as supplied by Routehappy.

Webjet created the test to determine whether rich content would improve its purchase funnel.

Its hypothesis was that more consumers would convert after interacting with rich content, reducing the percentage of cart abandonment after selections are made in online shopping.

Webjet began using Scores and Amenities in November.

Routehappy Hub is a platform on which airlines create standardized rich content in the form of Universal Product Attributes (UPAs), which include unique feature descriptions, images and videos.

Seven carriers provided their UPAs from Routehappy Hub for the test: Qantas Airways, Virgin Australia, Cathay Pacific, Emirates, Singapore Airlines, United Airlines and Air Canada.

The UPAs were presented to Webjet shoppers as they reviewed their flight selection before purchase.

Webjet conducted a structured A/B conversion test in which 50% of the international economy flight shoppers were shown the rich content and the other half were not.

The intent was to measure purchase funnel improvement from the shopping cart to purchase.

In round one of testing, 6% of shoppers interacted with the rich content, resulting in a “statistically significant” 26.3% conversion increase over those who did not interact.Route

Routehappy CEO Bob Albert said Webjet’s challenge now is to work on how to get more users to click on or see the rich content, “as our experiment strongly indicates that rich content engagement leads to higher conversion.”

Webjet’s managing director John Guscic says:

“We are excited by the early positive signs of this integration, and our aim is to increase the number of shoppers who interact with the rich content. It’s an exciting innovation and clearly a positive experience for our customers seeking more information when deciding which flight is best for their travels.”