Presentation of Lastminute.com's strategy

Résumé du document

The e-business company that I am going to present is Lastminute.com. Lastminute.com is part of Travelocity group, and is an on-line agency specialized in organizing cheap trips, holiday promotion, but also last minute trips. It was created under the status of a joint stock company with a capital of € 15,688,215. Brent Hoberman and Martha Lane Fox founded Lastminute.com in 1998. The first idea of the website was to sell tickets at the last minute on the Internet for entertainment halls in London. The idea was to avoid empty seats in theaters or other entertainment places, by selling tickets at a cheaper price at the last minute. For the vendors it was better to sell at a cheaper price than not to sell at all. The success was very quick!

Its success was driven by the rising number of Internet users, by the low cost of operating such a service, and for the customers by the ability to buy at a cheaper price. Its success was also driven by being the first to offer such service, having a very recognizable name, and targeting early adopters of e-commerce. Today it is the largest online company for travel and leisure in Europe. It operates directly in 14 European countries and has won more than 7 million customers. Its turnover is around 948 million Euros. Lastminute.com offers a wide range of travel, flights, reservations in hotels and leisure (spas, gourmet dinner, parachuting). This wide offering allows lastminute.com to differentiate itself from the competition. In 2006 lastminute.com was elected for the second time, best online travel agency for the quality of its customer relations and in 2008 "Best Customer Service" in the Travel Agency Online category.

Extraits

[...] As we can see, in France, lastminute.com is second behind Voyages-sncf.com. However it is quite likely that voyages-sncf.com is taking advantage of being the official company selling train tickets over the web for French railways. Lastminute.com has expanded quickly across Europe trough an aggressive strategy of acquisitions: 14 in the last 10 years. Lastminute.com works closely with all foreign tour operators to offer its customers the best market prices. It is the only company in its sector listed on the London Stock Exchange, Nasdaq and New York stock exchanges History, Key partnerships, Geographic regions On April 1st 1998, lastminute.com is created by Brent Hoberman and Martha Lane Fox. [...]

[...] In 2002 lastminute.com has opened in Japan and continued to expand through new acquisitions like Travelselect.com and Target Group holding company. A year later lastminute.com is launched in Spain and has made the acquisition of Online Travel Company and Travel Gemstone. Then in 2005 lastminute.com is acquired by Travelocity Europe Ltd and in April has established a successful partnership agreement with Disneyland Resort Paris. Lastminute.com is operating in 8 countries. Its presence is especially strong in Europe, including the UK where the company originated, and in France. The website is also available in many languages. [...]

[...] It is therefore essential for Lastminute.com using coherent strategies. Lastminute.com is trying to differentiate from competitors through its product range, the design of the website, the e-CRM and CRM (customer relationship on-line and off-line), its distribution network and partnership of its marketing strategy, as well as commercially. First of all a key element: the web design. Lastminute.com regularly updates constantly improves its website. In addition it has an excellent SEO that facilitates access to its website. - The customer relationship management (CRM and eCRM): Lastminute.com understands that most of its value is linked to the number of Internet users visiting their website. [...]

[...] The other critical development of the company lies in their acquisition strategy. Lastminute.com understood that to establish itself as a leader on this global market, it was faster to acquire an installed base of Internet users than to have to build it on its own. Once acquired, they could merge the brands and the websites and establish themselves as a global leader Business sector, customer proposition. It is a B to C Company. The main value for customers lies in three aspects: - No need to move from home to order a trip With Internet access, the customer can view the full offering without having to go to a shop. [...]

[...] We can notice that there is a link between those advertising and the spirit of the website: transport, pleasure, promotion about flight, win a trip etc . Methods of Operation : Lastminute.com distributes his products itself. The customer pays online and his trip is booked. He receives an e-mail confirmation and then his reservation/flights etc. The main goal of Lastminute.com is to create a real store online. The customer has to feel safe and feels like a real agency. The company wants to establish personal contacts with buyers. That is why they are considering insert a virtual agent. [...]