BigCommerce and Ubique Digital Join Forces to Power Ecommerce Transformation for the Travel and Hospitality Industry

The BigTravel accelerator will leverage BigCommerce’s open, composable platform to empower travel agents and enhance the traveler experience

AUSTIN, Texas and LONDON, UK – September 18, 2024 – BigCommerce (Nasdaq: BIGC), an open SaaS, composable ecommerce platform for fast-growing and established B2C and B2B brands and retailers, today announced it is partnering with digital transformation specialty agency Ubique Digital to launch BigTravel, a unified, best-in-class solution designed to simplify travel industry operations and enhance customer experiences.

Travel and tourism is expected to contribute $11.1 trillion to the global gross domestic product in 2024.¹ It is a very large and complex industry. There are countless companies involved across transportation, lodging, excursions, rental cars and other services. Many of them use custom legacy software to run their businesses.

Travel agencies and aggregators influence much of the industry’s revenue, but they often lack the business and tech tooling to quickly and easily integrate with these fragmented systems and complex booking processes. Each agency has different needs, different size and scale, and BigTravel allows them to adapt the solution according to their needs.

“Going on holiday is supposed to be a fun experience, but shopping for flights, hotels, rental cars and all the other services needed for a trip requires visits to dozens of different websites for all those various providers,” said Mark Adams, senior vice president and general manager of EMEA at BigCommerce. “BigTravel will make it easier and significantly faster for travel agencies to deliver a unified customer experience that takes the pain out of planning a trip.”

There will be significant commercial benefits for travel industry operators. BigTravel creates a fantastic opportunity for online travel specialists and multi-channel travel and hospitality firms to leapfrog the competition, grow sales and lower technology operating costs. BigTravel prioritizes agent needs with a unified interface, AI-powered insights, and automated tools that streamline workflows and enable exceptional customer service. BigTravel enhances the work experience for travel agents by:

• Providing a unified interface for managing customer inquiries and bookings across channels;

• Automating routine tasks so agents can focus on high-value customer interactions;

• Simplifying the process of creating custom travel packages through an intuitive interface.

"In today's competitive travel market, which is still facing unique challenges in the wake of the pandemic, businesses need tools that not only boost their visibility but also streamline their operations,” Christopher J. Cook, a travel industry leader with over two decades of IT leadership experience at British Airways, P&O Ferries and other travel and hospitality companies. “A solution that offers frontend flexibility and speed, coupled with powerful ecommerce features is desperately needed in this industry. It will be extremely beneficial for travel companies of all sizes."

BigTravel is designed to streamline the online travel bookings process, enhance operational efficiency using real time data and deliver a hyper-personalized experience for every traveler. The solution offers the following key features to enhance travel experiences, reduce costs and enhance customer loyalty.

• Seamless Booking Process: Unlike legacy systems with clunky interfaces, BigTravel allows for the creation of stunning, mobile-optimized storefronts with sophisticated search, browse and buy experiences. This ensures a smooth booking experience for travelers across all devices.

• Personalized Offerings: Leveraging BigCommerce's powerful analytics, travel businesses can now offer personalized experiences and targeted promotions, moving away from one-size-fits-all approaches.

• Unified brand experience: BigCommerce allows for consistent brand presentation across all touchpoints, addressing the traditional issue of fragmented brand experiences across different platforms.

• Headless framework for ultimate flexibility: BigTravel leverages the BigCommerce Catalyst storefront architecture and the Makeswift content editor for fast and efficient marketing content changes, putting business users firmly in control of the experience.

• Real-time adaptability: The real-time control offered by BigTravel allows businesses to adjust strategies instantly, a significant improvement over traditional static pricing models.

• Fast-to-launch solution: BigTravel will reduce implementation time and cost and lower the risk of technology migration from legacy technology to a modern open SaaS platform that continues to evolve.

• Pre-integrated social and advertising channels with the ability to expand: Leveraging BigCommerce’s data integration, marketplaces integration and ad serving optimization technologies, BigTravel customers will be able list their inventory across channels to drive sales and lower the cost of paid media advertising. BigTravel will enable dynamic generation of text ads and retargeting interested consumers at scale across unlimited affiliate and remarketing ad channels.

“Ubique Digital has a proven record of delivering digital transformation projects that push the travel industry forward,” said Nandakumar Balasubramanian, partner at Ubique Digital. “The openness and composability of BigCommerce’s platform make it the perfect backend commerce engine to power a better frontend user experience. This collaboration is a game changer for travel and tourism.”

BigCommerce supports numerous travel and hospitality brands around the world, including IAG Loyalty’s The Wine Flyer, the Smithsonian store and Mt. Hood Meadows ski resort.

BigCommerce will provide demos of BigTravel Accelerator at Ecommerce Expo, Stand L10, Sept. 18-19 in London.

To learn more about BigTravel or request a demo, click here.

¹ Total contribution of travel and tourism to gross domestic product (GDP) worldwide in 2019 and 2023, with a forecast for 2024 and 2034, Statista, April 2024