It's time once again to talk about those tiny gadgets that continue to power and shape the travel industry.
Adobe unveiled its Mobile Travel Report, results of which can be found over at CMO.com.
The report offered some intriguing aspects of a market that will at some point have to do a better job of catering to a consumer that is by far more inclined to browse travel's possibilities on mobile devices as opposed to the desktop model.
For example, the study, which takes into account "over 15 billion visits to major U.S. Travel, airline and hotel websites between 2014 and 2016," found that the tide turned at the end of last year when browsing percentages went to mobile over desktop.
Fast forward to this past May and 52 percent of consumers were choosing to scour the Internet with the most precious of tech devices.
The odd part in all this is consumers, stubborn creatures it would seem, are more inclined to actually pull the trigger on a hotel or flight when it means being in front of that ever-familiar desktop computer.
You would think it would be close, but Adobe found that purchases by way of mobile devices represented just 21 percent of the market's whole.
What causes this rift may be a case of consumers wanting another level of comfort when pulling out the credit card.
Then again, it may just be that brands aren't really pumping out the kind of apps that would nurture those warm and fuzzy feelings.
Matt Asay, VP of Mobile, Adobe Marketing Cloud, offered some thoughts on the study, via a press release: "The findings in the Adobe mobile travel report shows us that the industry is struggling with being mobile-first. It's where the customers are, but there's a gap in what users expect and what is being delivered."
There is a great cacophony of Internet features that actually turn off some prospective travelers.
Asay continues explaining that there are those brands that get it and others that are failing to catch up in simplified innovations: "Travel brands are no longer competing with each other, with best-in-breed mobile companies such as Uber and Instagram setting the bar. The long-standing strategy of porting over the desktop experience no longer works; consumers are overwhelmed by features and hesitant to make purchases. Travel brands must refine and simplify the mobile experience, unify customer data to better personalize and improve payment processes."
The most damning numbers come in the form of mobile satisfaction. We let CMO.com take this away: "Only 44 percent of respondents report satisfaction with mobile apps (48 percent for the mobile web)."
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The willing party yearning to book a trip through your nifty app or mobile solution is out there. You can see from the numbers that many of us are already sifting through the possibilities with a device that is nearly always on our person.
But it's not enough to throw a lackadaisical and poorly crafted solution out onto the mobile web. Doing so is like turning your back on a captivated audience.
Consumers are savvy and particular not only about how they spend their well-earned dollars but the means in which they spend them.
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