Our Conversion Optimisation expert, Benjamin Ligier, has analysed the British Airways website conversion funnel and details here the positive aspects as well as areas that would benefit from improvement.

1. Online Persuasions Insiders 2016
How does British Airways
optimise conversions?
Benjamin Ligier
CRO Project Manager

2. 8 neuroscience ✔
principles applied 10 mistakes ✘
to correct 4 proposals
for improvements
An analysis of British Airways’
conversion process
I reveal what’s working, what’s not working quite so well, and
propose some changes to help increase the site’s income…

3. Summer is here but the weather is leaving a lot to be
desired so I think I’ll head over to the South of France
instead where the sun is far more reliable! I need to
book a flight to meet my friends in Marseille so I turn to
British Airways.
As a Conversion Optimisation Consultant, I can’t help
but take note of both the positive aspects of their site -
and also the areas for improvement.
Join me on my user journey and discover some of the
most relevant neuroscience principles I found that
apply to their site.
The context

4. A path in 9 steps
2 3
Fly-Drive
Proposition
Search Results
Passengers
6 7
Seats
8
Payment
9
Price
4
5
Add Car Rental
1
Homepage
Log In

5. A path in 9 steps
9 steps! That’s a lot of steps to
have to go through for a flight
booking… But then it seems every
airline does this.
Fly-Drive
Proposition
Search Results
Passengers Seats Payment
Price
Add Car Rental
Homepage
Log In

6. Homepage
Fly-Drive
Proposition
Search Results
Passengers Seats Payment
Price
Add Car Rental
Homepage
Log In

7. Homepage
There’s no Call-to-Action on
the slides: there’s nothing to
catch my attention!
Attentional bias ✘

8. Homepage
This is the first time I’ve used
British Airways so why is this
Call-To-Action displayed? It
should only be displayed to
returning customers otherwise
it is just drawing attention
away unnecessarily.
Attention Ratio ✘

9. Homepage
There are too many fields!
Are they really all necessary
right now?
Ambiguity Aversion ✘

10. Homepage
Placing a Call-to-Action on the slider will make it
clearer what you want people to do and lead
them to the right information.
A photo would improve the appearance of the
site and make it more modern and engaging.
Proposal
for improvement
Von Restorff
Effect ✔
Reducing the number of fields will make the
page clearer and encourage more people to
complete the search.

11. Homepage
Usefulness &
Relevance ✔
If I leave and come
back, even days later,
the fields are already
pre-filled with my most
recent search.

12. Homepage
Framing Effect ✔
The word “Find” is far
more positive and
motivating than
“Search”.

13. Fly-Drive Proposition
Fly-Drive
Proposition
Search Results
Passengers Seats Payment
Price
Add Car Rental
Homepage
Log In

14. Fly-Drive Proposition
I clicked on “Find flights”, I want to see
flights not cars!
The option for this is already on the
homepage AND again after the flight
choice. This is surely more than enough?
Intention &
Self-Regulation ✘

15. Search Results
Fly-Drive
Proposition
Search Results
Passengers Seats Payment
Price
Add Car Rental
Homepage
Log In

16. Search Results
Curse of Knowledge ✘ What is Avios? There’s no explanation
and the banner isn’t clickable!

17. Cognitive Fluency ✘
Search Results
We first have a big
blank zone, then too
much information
crammed in to one
space.

18. Search Results
The presentation is cleaner with the
details of the different classes still
available on hover.
Proposal
for improvement
Cognitive Fluency ✔

19. Scarcity Effect ✔
I am going to hurry and
book because they tell
me there’s only one
seat left at this price!
Search Results

20. Information Bias ✔ When I click on “More
Details” a pop-up tells
me everything I need to
know about the
different classes.
Search Results

21. Visual Cueing ✔
This shaded arrow draws my
attention down to the Call-
To-Action.
Search
Search Results

22. Price
Fly-Drive
Proposition
Search Results
Passengers Seats Payment
Price
Add Car Rental
Homepage
Log In

23. Price
Price
Don’t Make me Think ✘
I have to scroll to the very end of
the page to see the Call-To-Action.
Do I really have to read everything?
All this excessive information is
inducing stress and cognitive friction.

24. Price
Price
This could be a floating window
visible anywhere on the page which
directly leads to the bottom of the
page and the CTA. The wording of
the text also makes it clear that
these are all just options and not
necessarily important info.
Proposal
for improvement
Don’t Make me Think ✔

25. Add Car Rental
Fly-Drive
Proposition
Search Results
Passengers Seats Payment
Price
Add Car Rental
Homepage
Log In

26. Add Car Rental
Commitment &
Consistency ✔
This is the right time to show
me car rental offers - and the
prices have already been
calculated for my whole trip!

27. Log In
Fly-Drive
Proposition
Search Results
Passengers Seats Payment
Price
Add Car Rental
Homepage
Log In

28. Log In
Need For Certainty ✔ The reasons why I
should register are
clearly displayed.

29. Passengers
Fly-Drive
Proposition
Search Results
Passengers Seats Payment
Price
Add Car Rental
Homepage
Log In

30. Passengers
Foot-In-The-Door
Technique ✔
This page is divided in to three
forms: Passengers, Person
paying and Keeping you
informed. This keeps each form
short and clear, which
encourages me to complete
them all.
Passengers

31. Seats
Fly-Drive
Proposition
Search Results
Passengers Seats Payment
Price
Add Car Rental
Homepage
Log In

32. Seats
Cognitive Fluency ✘
The progression bar has
suddenly disappeared on
this page! This is
confusing.

33. Seats
Cognitive Fluency ✘
And even when the progression
bar is present, there are many
differences between each page
in terms of design, names of
steps, number of steps … It’s
confusing and lacks visual fluency.
Step 1
Step 2
Step 2 bis
Step 3
Step 4
Step 5

34. Payment
Fly-Drive
Proposition
Search Results
Passengers Seats Payment
Price
Add Car Rental
Homepage
Log In

35. Payment
Payment
Pain of Paying ✘
The colour red is too
aggressive and
stressful; it makes me
feel like paying will
be extra painful.

36. Payment
Payment
£ 329.00
The aggressive red has been
replaced by a relaxing green; the
amount has been rounded up to
something simpler, smoother, with
fewer syllables; and “GBP” has
been removed from the total price
to avoid excessive & unnecessary
monetary reminders.
Proposal
for improvement
Price Cognition ✔

37. Thank you for reading!
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from the “Status Quo Bias” -
read more here.
Benjamin Ligier
CRO Project Manager