One-size-fits-all sites do not fit all

Archived article dated Thursday August 28th 2008

Research from web marketing company Oban Multilingual shows that travel site preferences differ according to users' travel destinations.

The retail industry ought to take note of this online trend as it affects all sectors of online trade.

Nearly two-thirds of those planning a trip to France as their next holiday were looking for easy-to-use travel sites, while the same percentage of those planning a trip to Greece said they would prefer to see traveller reviews on their travel sites. Meanwhile, over half of those planning their holiday in the UK wanted easy-to-use sites, with traveller reviews coming in at a distant second (20 percent).

This provides further insight to speculation that homogenous retail sites are not optimal for gaining and maintaining customer loyalty.

“It is not surprising that travellers going to different places are looking for different web features,” says Greig Holbrook from Oban Multilingual “International travel searchers are becoming more specific in their online behaviours so that in addition to multilingual web optimisation, global social media optimisation also needs to take place.”

The variation in these preferences often reflects cultural habits. For example, users in Russia often refer to blogs and forums since these types of sites are less likely to be influenced by politics. Chinese users are often more attracted to busy, colourful websites over our simpler designed ones.

With the amount of competition in online trade, having a website that keeps users from all parts of the world happy is often a foremost concern.

In addition to user reviews and easy-to-use content, Oban's research showed that users were looking for eye-catching design and multilingual usability. Also mentioned was a preference for price comparisons, wide selection, and of course, low prices.

So, how can sites offer the best user experience with these varying preferences in mind? “In this context,” says Greig, “a site with properly optimised social media that is visible to a variety of cultures will prosper.”

In other words, there is no one-size-fits-all-cultures solution. It is integral to understand the cultural preferences of a particular country and modify the site to suit that culture. Further, there is more research to be done into how and why site preferences tend to vary according to the planned travel destination, and how this potentially affects all aspects of the online retail industry.

Tagged as: oban multilingual

Text size: A | A | A