Through Platform AI, we ensure unique purchasing experiences, driven by Artificial Intelligence.

Author: Adrián Cuadros, Co-founder & Head of Product, Reservamos SaaS

If we think about what the online ticket purchasing experience was like 10 years ago, we’ll likely find that it was practically non-existent and that the airline reservation sites were the ones betting on innovation on their web pages, to provide a differentiated experience to their travelers.

At that time, there wasn’t a mobile-first approach, where the experience was based on users searching and purchasing through their mobile phones. There wasn’t a focus on innovation either; this made the digital purchasing experience slow, as it represented a very low percentage of sales; moreover, payment methods were equally limited and the acceptance of credit or debit cards was very low, due to high fraud rates.

So, when and why was the vision to evolve this experience proposed?

The arrival of Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) came to transform ticket sales for travel. By creating digital sites that concentrate the offer from various brands for online ticket purchases, ensuring an adequate user experience, mainly focused on purchasing through mobile devices. This first transformation in the travel industry led companies from other sectors, such as buses, to direct their efforts towards a necessary innovation of their online sales channels.

A fundamental factor in this process is that travelers also began to shift from physical ticket counters within bus terminals to online booking. Conversion began to be a metric to measure and analyze because even though there were sites from the bus lines themselves, the effectiveness of making sales through these web pages was low.

Use of AI in the travel sector

Artificial intelligence in the travel sector has three main uses:

• Inventory optimization
• Revenue management through dynamic pricing strategies
• Personalization

Inventory optimization essentially means that companies can adjust their routes and schedules to find an optimal number of trips according to market supply and traveler demand; eliminating scenarios such as the possibility of losing money due to insufficient supply; and having an oversupply when demand is low.

Revenue management essentially means that bus companies: 1) maximize their resources; 2) increase occupancy and advance purchase on each route and schedule; 3) ensure the best possible price according to demand; 4) increase profits within their market by balancing occupancy and the best fare.

Personalization means leveraging all the information, data, and behavior generated by the navigation of travelers within an eCommerce, to offer them the best possible experience, with the most attractive offer (price, added ancillaries), and the least friction when completing the purchase. 

For example, pre-filling search data, filters, passengers, seats, and payment methods, to streamline the digital purchasing process. This way, the effectiveness of communication with the traveler is maximized by addressing topics that we know interest them.

What is Platform AI, and what makes this technology disruptive?

Platform AI uses two of the three most important capabilities of AI, which are: revenue management and personalization.

Platform AI is a technology developed by Reservamos SaaS and adapted to the eCommerce of bus companies. As a prerequisite to offering these capabilities, we concentrate on the interactions that travelers have within the eCommerce of a bus company, powered by our technology, and this is stored within ReservamosONE. This solution is a Data Lake that, in addition to functioning as a powerful business intelligence system, is one of the main inputs to achieve an optimal personalization experience and revenue management.

We understand that data on traveler behavior is a great competitive advantage for bus lines. That’s why we ensure that: 

• All the information generated by ReservamosONE belongs to the bus line.
• The data is used only to: Improve the traveler’s experience on each channel and inform the line management to make the best possible decisions.

Through revenue management strategies, historical sales information from the bus line, competitor information, and each traveler are used to make the best possible offer, specific to each user; with the idea of maximizing the potential of the bus company’s inventory within its eCommerce.

By analyzing traveler behavior in the eCommerce of the bus company, Platform AI technology makes it possible to ensure unique purchasing experiences, driven by artificial intelligence, through which the eCommerce learns about the tastes and preferences of each traveler and connects in a more personalized and close manner, on the same eCommerce. These capabilities improve the likelihood that traveler will complete their purchase and increase their loyalty to the brand.

Special features of the first releases available on Platform AI:

• Origin and destination prefilling
• Origin and destination switch
• Calendar optimization – Select today or tomorrow
• Search-oriented behavior

Since the implementation of Platform AI, powered by the search widget, our partners have achieved a 3 percentage point growth in conversion on their e-commerce platforms. For a company with a traffic of one million users per month, this translates to 30 thousand new users completing their purchases through the company’s direct digital sales channel.

Platform AI is available to be implemented on the eCommerce of any bus company. The development of specialized technology to strengthen and optimize the online purchasing experience has led us to guarantee the digital success of leading bus companies in countries such as Mexico, Colombia, Chile, and Brazil. And the constant support to exceed the goals of each company has positioned us as the technological ally of the sector.