South African low-cost airline FlySafair has just introduced a new method customers can use to book tickets online using their mobile phone via a new mobisite.
FlySafair says the mobisite will help it tap into South Africa’s growing mobile market, resulting in increased traffic and higher conversion rates.
“South Africa’s mcommerce market has grown significantly over the past year – from 23.1% in 2013 to 46.5% in 2014 – so it was crucial that we were able to provide a better solution on mobile. Mobile already accounts for a third of FlySafair’s traffic and desktop over half,” Kirby Gordon, vice president of marketing for FlySafair said in a statement.
The question this raises is why an airline would opt for a mobisite rather than an app, when most of its competitors are going for the former. FlySafair said this is simply to keep costs low.
“The airline opted for a responsive site, which adapts to fit the device the site is being accessed from… to keep costs [of maintaing an app] low. These savings will continue to be passed on to passengers through affordable air fares,” FlySafair said.
Gordon added that launching a mobisite was also a way of taking into consideration feature phone users, which account for over half the mobile phone user base in South Africa, so as to not leave them out of the mobile experience.
With the FlySafair mobisite, you can search for and book flights, check in and confirm flight status.
You also get a mobile boarding pass you can scan and use at the airport, without having to print it out or visit the FlySafair kiosk.
“Since launching the mobisite, mobile conversion rates have doubled while desktop conversion rates have increased by more than 150%. Based on our traffic patterns, this supports the trend of online shoppers researching products on their mobiles and then switching to desktop to make the purchase, and there is a demand for this type of functionality among our customers,” Gordon added.
“Once we figure out how an app can make our flights even cheaper or improve the travel experience for customers, we’ll definitely consider it,” he concluded.
[Source and image – FlySafair]
