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Online sales—eCommerce—are an important part of business today. eCommerce has brought revolutionary changes in the ski, tourism, and hospitality industries. And now its second phase, mobile or mCommerce, has moved from an add-on to a central part of the customer buying experience, and presents unique onsite sales opportunities for resort operators.

Yet while the rest of the world is placing mobile at center stage, the ski industry, for the most part, is treating mCommerce as a sideshow.

It’s 2015. Modern consumers are knowledgeable about which product they want, and at what price. They also want comprehensive reviews and information, inventory availability, instant downloads, and fast (often free and overnight) shipping. Consumers, it seems, are becoming less like your grandparents and more like a demanding two-year-old (Cookie! Now!). Get any of the eCommerce/mCommerce steps wrong, and lose these customers or, worse, make them vent on Facebook or Twitter.

Needed: New Thinking

The ski industry has a “wait” problem when it comes to eCommerce. Resorts are waiting for the handful of ski industry-focused software suppliers (Siriusware, InTouch; RTP seems disinterested) to catch up to the rest of the world. At the same time, these suppliers are waiting for resorts to simplify their pricing and paperwork so that modern technology can be implemented. After talking to dozens of ski area managers and the ski industry software suppliers—all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity, to avoid ruining key relationships—it looks like we have a stalemate. As long as this stalemate continues, the ski industry will fall farther and farther behind other industries that are competing for the same dollars.

Problem is, there’s no time to wait. eCommerce is not just affecting sales—it has also brought great changes to resort marketing. As guests volunteer personal information, via web searches and email content, resorts can create the exact products guests might be interested in. But without state-of-the-art commerce systems to enable these transactions, resorts lose these visitors, due to confusion, complexity, and the lack of instant gratification guests can receive elsewhere—on Kayak, Priceline, or HipMunk, say.

These sites matter, because they—along with others like Amazon, Expedia, Zappos, and Target—are direct competition, and they set expectations of service and ease of use. No matter what you sell, these sites already have your shopper in their stores. Your customers are like nearly everyone else on this planet: They have limited disposable income, and aren’t willing to work hard to spend it. If they don’t buy something from you, they’ll probably buy something from Amazon.

THE RISE OF MOBILE

Choosy, high-expectation, less tolerant, more demanding customers are becoming common. The younger demographic wants to search, learn, and buy not just online, but from mobile devices and tablets. According to mobile measurement firm comScore, roughly a third of all online buyers at major retail sites, from Amazon to Walmart, are mobile-only, and mobile is the fastest-growing channel—up nearly 80 percent in the last year.

Mobile customers are already arriving on your websites, too: A quick search of 20 ski area website analytics from different parts of the country shows that almost half of all visits to ski area web properties were on cell phones and tablets during the 2014-15 winter.

Nearly half of all visitors to resort websites in the 2014-15 season were using mobile devices.

“The analytics are what is driving mobile eCommerce,” says Thad Quimby, who works in interactive marketing for Telluride Ski Resort. “It’s pretty clear when you watch your user base go from 1 percent to 50 percent in five years.” Those figures refer to visitation, but buying patterns are quickly following.

While website purchases are an important channel, studies show that in-app purchases on mobile devices convert at a 30 percent higher rate than from a website. Apps can offer a really custom experience.

A great example of a successful mobile eCommerce-based travel app is from The Ritz Carlton Hotels. The features of this app are tailored to one-stop shopping, and include a host of things that make for a more convenient trip: the ability to make/view a reservation, check-in/out, create a service request or call a hotel operator during a stay, view a bill, and manage rewards. The app also includes a built-in QR scanner, access to in-room or poolside dining, and a geo-location service that lets users receive timely content, such as concierge tips, restaurant reservations, and nearby offers. Such conveniences may seem like a luxury, but are quickly becoming the norm.

NO-MAN’S LAND

There are huge ramifications already affecting the ski industry. The majority of ski areas use some form of point-of-sale (POS) system. These systems are a bridge of sorts between the old physical method of shopping and the new online version. The problem: POS companies such as RTP and Siriusware view eCommerce as a stepchild of sorts. So, rather than build an eCommerce solution from the mobile perspective—a tactic being employed by many other modern day carts—the online solution is often just another point of sale terminal—minus the trained ski area employee explaining how to use it. That can make the buying process more complicated and time-consuming than necessary.

While the rest of the world is moving toward mobile-friendly stores (and hybrid experiences in their physical stores) to accommodate mobile shoppers, the ski industry still assumes that guests will overlook the shortcomings of long and complicated buying processes. For example, on my cell phone, I tried to buy:

1) a lift ticket from a ski area using RTP/Active;




2) a gift card from a resort using Siriusware;




and 3) a gift card from a resort with InTouch.



All made the process complicated. None offered checkout without creating an account. All required not only the billing info needed for a credit card, but also date of birth. The InTouch system even asked for my height and weight…for a gift card. It would actually take longer to buy online with any of these systems than at the ticket windows.

One option would be for resorts to adopt, and adapt to, inexpensive off-the-rack solutions. Most resorts, though, expect the suppliers to adapt to them, as RTP and Siriusware have in the past. That leaves either custom web development, or POS modules and add-ons, which require a lot of time, money, and patience.

WHY IS THIS SO HARD?

The Internet is forcing ski areas to find a set of common standards, such as the electronic data interchange (EDI) standards. Before eCommerce, brick-and-mortar businesses could sell their products and services any way they’d like, and could take the time to explain their offerings in person. Today, on the web, trendsetters such as Amazon and Apple have created a set of business practices that consumers have come to expect on any mobile platform they visit. Resorts no longer have the luxury of complicated systems if they expect consumers to stay around long enough to buy.

Many resort managers argue that no other industry faces the challenges inherent in the resort business—liability, multiple points of redemption, need for privacy, and finding ways to keep fraud down (photos for passes, for example)—and that a simple solution will not work. Only a few recognize the need for a change in attitude.

“We are struggling as an industry with eCommerce systems that are too complicated,” says one industry insider.

“We not only need a ‘meet in the middle’ approach, but decision makers from the generation that is actually using the systems.”

On the flip side are the suppliers—a small group, most of whom have an understanding the industry’s complex transactions. That doesn’t mean they like the status quo; they don’t. But most are seeking ways to make “SkiCommerce” faster and easier. Yet, while doing so, suppliers will reserve their best pricing plans and new development for those ski areas that can transact business in more efficient ways.

Frustration is Mutual

Suppliers feel hampered by a variety of issues, some of which include:

• Resorts’ varied products. Custom industry solutions to handle dissimilar products—tickets, passes, rentals, lessons, retail, food & beverage, etc.—are very expensive.

• Complex pricing and package options. A trimmed-down selection would enable easy and quick sales and reduce software development time and cost.

• Unreliable power. Resorts need standalone POS systems in case of power issues or dropped connections to the web. Regular eCommerce systems don’t.

• Extra software bells and whistles, which often require hardware and software upgrades. “Development” never stops, especially since there are no common standards that would make patches and updates easier and faster.

• Requirement for guests to complete waivers while still in the buying process. This adds more complexity for software and guests.

• Integration with other closed or proprietary systems.

• Unrealistic expectations for development time.

• Lack of responsive eCommerce systems to better facilitate mobile sales and take advantage of geolocation for custom onsite offers.

Likewise, ski areas have myriad issues with current systems. Some are:

• Fewer and fewer options for integrated POS and eCommerce platforms.

• Large technology gaps. Resorts using POS systems are stunted by them.

• Cost of industry-specific POS and eCommerce systems, due to the small number of resorts to support development of complicated processes and systems.

• The widespread use of multiple software systems, which are rarely web-enabled, prevents guests from buying all the products they want in a single online transaction.

• Weak multilingual options.

• POS mobile platforms that are not responsive.

• Limited automated marketing and sales, and lack of database marketing using demographic and retargeting data to offer guests additional products that will improve their experiences, not just sell more; few behavior-based communications options.

THE NEXT STEP

Something’s gotta give. Resorts feel held back by technology. Suppliers feel limited by pricing models and liability waivers. And resort visitors feel frustrated.

A meet-in-the-middle approach requires simplifying the buying process. For example, resorts could adopt flat rate pricing, like Disney uses. (Or at least simplify options to three or less.) Suppliers could build open-source software and create baseline standards that make innovation and updating easier. The current industry POS vendors could offer APIs (the protocols and tools for building software) and easier database integration options for third-party developers to enhance the solutions and user experience.

Here’s an urgent question: What if skier visits are not increasing because the industry has made the buying process too difficult, rather than the dozens of other reasons we currently debate? Why risk turning customers away with overly complicated processes and systems? This is not merely theoretical—it’s already happening, and it’s time to catch up.

The good news is, if we seek a solution, we will almost certainly find it.