One in 20 users at Expedia.com, the world’s largest travel agency, prefer to book via mobile, according to Joe Megibow (VP, Mobile and E-Commerce Optimization). He discusses with PYMNTS.com the driving factors behind this trend, Expedia’s new mobile upgrades and how they fit into the company’s overall cross-channel strategy.
PYMNTS.com: For our readers who may not be familiar with Expedia.com, please give us a little bit of background about the company.
MEGIBOW: Expedia.com is the world’s largest travel agency; about two million people come to the site every single day in the United States to research and book travel. Expedia aims to provide the latest technology and the widest selection of vacation packages, flights, hotels, rental cars, cruises and in-destination activities, attractions and services. The company provides direct access to one of the broadest selections of travel products and services through its North American Website, localized versions throughout Europe and extensive partnerships in Asia. Serving many different consumer segments — from families booking a summer vacation to individuals arranging a quick weekend getaway, Expedia provides travelers with the ability to research, plan and book their comprehensive travel needs.
PYMNTS: You recently stated that one in 20 Expedia users prefer to book via mobile. To what do you attribute this trend, and how do you see it evolving over the next five years?
MEGIBOW: Mobile commerce in general has been taking off over the last few years, and Expedia has seen this firsthand. As smartphones continue to go mainstream, consumers get more and more comfortable with mobile shopping, including travel. Even before we offered any mobile-optimized experiences, we saw a growing base of customers coming to our sites with their mobile devices. So responded to that demand, by supporting the two major ways that people want to interact with Expedia on their phones: native apps and a well-crafted mobile site. We don’t see the growth as a trend but more as a natural shift in how people will be using their mobile devices. We fully expect a significant portion of our travelers to interact with us over the next five years across many channels, including mobile, tablets and interactive television. No matter what the channel, we need to provide a high quality experience and one optimized to the specific traveler needs of each channel.
PYMNTS: What activities have you found consumers to be most interested in using your mCommerce site and app for?
MEGIBOW: The two most interesting trends we’ve seen make a lot of sense for mobile devices. The first is that the majority of people are researching and booking last minute travel. And often this is for hotel rooms “near me right now.” We don’t view this as a change in consumer behavior, but rather that we are finally giving great prices and selection to the many people who have last minute travel needs, who are typically not in front of a computer when those needs arise. The second is a shift in shopping patterns during the week. On the desktop, we see most of our activity on weekdays during the day. In mobile, we see most of our activity on the weekends when consumers aren’t in front of their computers. This is really interesting — and really demonstrates the opportunities around mobile commerce.
PYMNTS: Expedia recently released key mobile upgrades. Tell us a little bit about these new features and why Expedia has made mobile a focus point?
MEGIBOW: Mobile is perfectly suited to travel and a key part of our Expedia Everywhere strategy. Mobile gives our customers the ability to do that whether in their family room or across the globe.
We launched two big mobile upgrades recently. The first, Expedia Hotels for Android, greatly expands our reach into mobile and helps put Expedia into the hands of the rapidly increasing Android community. We took the best of what we had done for the iOS platform and then built features expected with good Android apps, such as thoughtful, scalable layouts in both portrait and landscape orientation. The second upgrade was a substantial overhaul of our hotel offering on the mobile website. The mobile site now offers location-enabled search to help people find “Hotels Nearby Tonight” and then lets them see images, guest ratings, user reviews and expanded details for each hotel and room. One simple tap to the hotel map guides travelers directly to their chosen hotel. Like the native apps, it’s a very simple, intuitive site. We will continue to invest heavily in both apps and mobile Web, as we have found both to be important to our customers.
PYMNTS: What other payments-related enhancements, mCommerce and otherwise, will Expedia be pursuing in the near future?
MEGIBOW: We don’t view mobile as just a miniaturized desktop experience. The needs are different. The interactions, primarily touch-based, are different. And the standards of quality and design are different. mCommerce is really very early in its evolution. We are pushing ourselves to find both new and wickedly-simple ways to interact and transact with us. As an example, the traditional checkout processes on most Web-based commerce sites are just too cumbersome on a mobile device. We expect to see a lot of innovation in this area over the coming year.
Joe Megibow is currently the VP, Mobile and E-Commerce Optimization at Expedia, the world’s leading online travel provider.
In his role, Joe has global responsibility for Expedia’s mobile initiatives, including Mobiata, the leading provider of mobile travel apps. Joe also oversees e-commerce optimization activities including leading-edge site conversion optimization techniques, marketing, site, and customer analytics, and site experimentation. Finally, Joe has product management responsibility for core eCommerce flows, including product search and checkout. He joined the Expedia, Inc. family in 2006, heading up Online Marketing and Customer Experience for hotels.com.
Prior to hotels.com, he worked for seven years as a charter employee of Tealeaf Technology where he held a variety of leadership roles. Prior to 2000, Joe held management positions at Ernst & Young Management Consulting, where he launched the Java Services practice, E&Y’s first ecommerce practice; and engineering positions at EDS in their Advanced Technology Group.
Joe was recognized in March 2011 as the recipient of the Practitioner of the Year, Award for Excellence by the Web Analytics Association (WAA). In April 2011, he was elected onto the WAA Board of Directors and is currently serving a two-year term.
Joe earned a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University and a MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
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