Related to the topic of my paper I wanted to look at Travelocity’s competitors and at the same time look how the companies differ in their methodologies of building experiences and products for their customers. As previously mentioned, the reading “The Executive Guide: An Organization Roadmap for Your Customers.com Initiatives” details how companies can build their online stores through analysis of information they gain from their customers. A successful online store continuously strives to meet their customers’ ever changing needs. So between the three leading online travel agencies, how do they build customer experiences and at the same time stay successful meeting the many different needs of their online shoppers?
If you visit the websites of these three companies, at first you may not notice a difference. They all have a search engine for flights, car rentals, or hotel reservations and they all offer some variations of travel packages for popular vacation destinations. Also all of these websites have some type of trip planner to assist you with your vacation or other travel plans. Thus, the products from these dot com travel agencies are very similar and differentiate from each other by small variations in price. However, if you look a little bit deeper into these sites, these companies are not exactly alike. In fact, the companies are trying to separate themselves from each others to become more competitive.
I have been an online shopper of travel packages for a long time and I constantly compare and utilize these companies. These companies do in fact, have differences in their products. For example, Expedia is the leader in travel packages; the company promotes family travel packages and the major savings a customer receives from buying in bundles (flight and hotel or hotel and car). Travelocity promotes their great membership program and highlights suggestions and activities shoppers can plan for their trips. On the other hand, Orbitz builds competitiveness through their pricing strategies; the company offers the lowest prices in hotels and car rentals. As more and more consumers turn to online shopping to reserve their travel plans, these companies are going to become more and more competitive with different features and methods to build unique AND different experiences for their customers.
These differences in the companies are not just different features of their products. Instead because of the uniqueness of their online element in their business, they use these slight yet effective differences to build customer experiences. As I mentioned, at first look the websites and companies may seem very similar; however the more you use the products the more you begin to see the differences that contribute to your online travel shopping experience. So which travel giant is for you?
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