Europe 50% of all hotel bookings come from online channels
Almost 50% of all hotel bookings come from online channels in Europe, shows the latest infographic Online Travel Trends in Europe (below) released by eRevMax. The infographic focuses on key insights like online travel penetration, rise of mobile, advance booking habits and traveller’s use of multiple devices that are shaping the European travel industry.
One of the most mature markets globally, Europe has three dominant OTA companies ruling the online market – these groups include Priceline, Expedia and HRS, who together own 90% of the online travel space in the region, with Booking.com, a Priceline subsidiary, leading with 60% individually. What’s more – one out of five hotel bookings come from Online Travel Agents.
The European hotel market has significant proportion of small and medium‐sized hotels. An important aspect of the study sheds light on the fact that 51% of hotels still manage channels manually where as 46% of hotels are unaware about metasearch integrations.
The infographic also highlights that younger travellers are typically more confident about using new technology compared to older travellers. Technologically skilled, 45% of European travellers use metasearch sites to compare rates and 43% read reviews before making a booking decision.
Infographic-Travel Trends in Europe
Source: http://ehotelier.com/global/2015/10/16/europe-50-of-all-hotel-bookings-come-from-online-channels/
Ebay VS. Amazon- The clash of the Titans
Over the last 2 decades online retailing has become a central part of worldwide economy. From eBay and Amazon to Craigslist and Etsy online marketplaces are attracting millions of users in a regular basis. This article will focus on the two biggest, best known and dominant e-commerce platforms (eBay and Amazon) pointing both at the differences and the similarities and also will provide you with some extra info and data about these two online giants. The article is accompanied by a graph which perfectly illustrates the statistics and the numbers behind each brand.
Business
The granddaddy of all online marketplaces, eBay runs for 20 years now and is arguably a pioneer in e-commerce. Only in 2014 eBay earned $17.94 billion dollars and at this very moment around 157 million active users are connected to it. On the other hand, Amazon, which is the second key player in the market, is doing significantly better the last years. With 244 million active users and revenue of $88.99 billion dollars is definitely the leading company at the moment. We should notice though, that eBay ispurely a marketplace, while Amazon is much more than this.
Demographics
Ebay is present at the moment in 25 countries (with localized websites) while Amazon in only 10. In addition we notice that an average user spends more time looking for products on eBay than on Amazon. What is interesting though is that the age difference is not significant between the users of the two marketplaces.
Mobile vs. Desktop
Whether you have an independent online store or a corporate company, whether you sell clothes or IT products, one thing is clear. Mobile use is taking over. 56% use multiscreen devices to connect to eBay and 68% of all smartphone owners have an Amazon application downloaded on their phones. Keep in mind that you don’t need to have a smartphone in order to sell in any of the two platforms, but it’s very important your shop or your website on both eBay and Amazon to be mobile friendly!
Products
Most people think that on eBay you can mostly find used items, while on Amazon new. But things are a bit more complicated than this. Both marketplaces have used and new items. In general selling on eBay is simple and easy to understand. Amazon, by comparison, can be confusing and frustrating to navigate. On eBay the user can customize and personalize his/her listings, making the whole procedure of buying and selling much more appealing.
If you worry about being scammed in any of the two platforms, please don’t bother. Both companies protect sellers and buyers and they offer the chance of contacting directly a buyer if anything happens. When it comes to paying eBay is less complicated than Amazon. Amazon has a multi-stage procedure to set up your account, while on eBay you can just register and start selling. On Amazon you get your money directly transferred to your bank account, whilst eBay uses Paypal.
Ebay or Amazon?
Whether you’re selling on Amazon or eBay, our tip is to do your own research. An item that is cheap on eBay might cost thousands on Amazon and vice versa. Maybe you can sell in both. If you ask us eBay would always be higher on our list, not only for its convenience but also for its reputation and its name.It’s still the best known online marketplace and offers the biggest potential exposure.
To the point now
Where is better to sell my products as an hotelier or accommodation provider? The answer is clear. You can do it in both platforms, but with eBay is way easier. While in Amazon there are no travel categories making it rather complicated to classify your product, eBay offers an easy and simplified way of doing it through Cultuzz. As mentioned before, on eBay the user can style and personalize the product by using various images, emoticons and description texts, in contrast to Amazon, where the use of such tools is almost impossible. And when it comes to online business, style matters, eBay is doing it, and it’s doing it better.
