Theme park tickets specialist Attraction Tickets Direct has gone live with a Brazilian site as it continues to work on a new responsive design multi-device website due to launch later this quarter.
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Big Data, mobile and a move into the Brazil market to power ATD growth
Theme park tickets specialist Attraction Tickets Direct has gone live with a Brazilian site as it continues to work on a new responsive design multi-device website due to launch later this quarter.
The Brazilian site, called Parques e Ingressos, has been created to tap into the largest overseas market for Florida visitors with 1.6 million visitors per annum.
Bookings will be fulfilled in the UK headquarters of ATD and customers will be sent PDF tickets by email, one in English setting out the terms and the other in Portuguese with a barcode so the e-ticket can be redeemed.
The Brazilian site takes to four the number of markets ATD specifically serves, joining the UK, Germany and Ireland.
Olly Brendon, ATD founder, said the decision was taken not to establish a corporate presence in Brazil – the firm will be working with a local marketing and PR agency in Sao Paolo.
“Brazil is still a protectionist economy. If a Brazilian spends on an overseas site they are charged a 6% fee for using their credit card.
“That’s a consideration as to how far we can grow. But setting up a local entity or branch carried too many risks.”
ATD’s new website will reflect the fact that 40% of its traffic is now coming from mobile. The firm saw a large spike on Boxing Day and Brendon said this had been maintained.
The responsive design website will ensure the site renders to each device automatically whether it is a smartphone or tablet, irrespective of the size of the screen.
“The mini-iPad is a perfect example – there are so many variations it gets ridiculous trying to design sites for each. You need a website that can be responsive. This has been one of our major projects this year.”
Staff were shown how the new website will look at an employee conference in London on Friday and how it will make greater use of inspiring imagery and offer more opportunities for merchandising.
Brendon told his employees that ATD had to offer an increasingly personalised service to its clients and it has started to work with web analytics specialist QuBit to achieve that. It has also teamed up with Feefo for reviews.
“We really do not feel that big data is a trend that we can ignore. We never developed an app because we did not see the relevance, but when you see these sort of trends coming you feel it’s just too persuasive.
“It’s extraordinary the amount of data that’s out there. We have to capitalise on this. When the customer feels you know them as an individual that creates loyalty in itself.”
Brendon is targeting a modest increase in conversions saying an uplift of just 0.4 of a percentage point could increase revenue by £14 million.
ATD ended the last financial year in December with £60 million in total transaction value, up from £48 million the previous year. It is targeting a 20% increase this year.
