How Goibibo's PWA improved conversions by 60%

Bridging the gap between web and iOS/Android experiences to delight users.

Saurabh Rajpal
Saurabh Rajpal
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Goibibo is India's leading online travel booking portal. By building a full-featured and reliable Progressive Web App that matched the capabilities of their iOS and Android apps, Goibibo achieved a 60% increase in conversions (compared to their previous web flow).

60%

Increase in conversions

20%

Increase in logged-in users

Highlighting the opportunity

In their journey to improve user experience, Goibibo noticed a few trends:

Goibibo's PWA.

  • With users either already shifted or quickly shifting to mobile, their initial strategy towards mobile web was to build a lightweight and functional application. This worked, with search-to-details-page conversions equalizing on web and iOS/Android, but the iOS/Android apps won in all further steps of the conversion funnel.

  • There were significant drop offs at the payment stage of the PWA compared to their iOS/Android apps. This was when they decided to invest in their PWA with the goal of letting users experience the same UX on their PWA as on their iOS/Android apps.

  • They also noticed nearly 20% of their users were starting a session on the web and converting on the app. This reiterated their belief that a chunk of users will go untapped without an aligned PWA and iOS/Android app strategy.

The tools they used

Contact Picker API

Nearly 15% of Goibibo's logged-in users make bookings for family or friends on the mobile web. Goibibo used the Contact Picker API to enable PWA users to fill in forms on behalf of others hassle-free.

Impact: 20% of users chose the seamless Goibibo experience.

WebOTP

Because secure authentication is a big challenge in India, Goibibo used the WebOTP (One-Time Password) API to reduce sign-in friction on their PWA.

Impact: 20% increase in their mobile web logged-in users; 25% drop in OTP retry API calls during sign up.

Web Share API

To bridge the gap between their web and iOS/Android experiences, Goibibo adopted the Web Share API to make it easier to share links, text, or files around hotel details, train availability, and so on.

Impact: 5% of new sessions came from Web Share API.

Push notifications

Goibibo used web push notifications to retarget bounced users with relevant updates like flight fare alerts and other customized content.

Impact: Retargeted users converted 4x more compared to normal user base.

How new web capabilities improved Goibibo's funnel

1. Web Share improved returning user percentage 2. Contact Picker enhanced user experience, making it easier for guests to book 3. WebOTP reduced friction during transactions, resulting in less time spent on OTP screen and less retry API calls 4. Push notifications improved conversions of retargeted users

Overall business results

  • Iterations to PWA interfaces resulted in a 60% jump in conversion rate (compared to the previous mobile web flow) and delighted users.
  • New web capabilities improved UX and caused a 20% increase in logged-in users (who convert 6x more).

We always strive for seamless user experience and in turn better conversion rates. We saw improved user engagement and better conversion rates on PWA than on the original mobile web flow. Hence, investing in PWA is critical to our success and if we had not, it would have cost us a fortune.

Rithish Saralaya, VP Engineering, Goibibo

Check out the Scale on web case studies page for more success stories from India and Southeast Asia.