CarTrawler Unlocks Incremental Value for Airline Partners with Snowplow-Powered Customer 360 Data

Background

CarTrawler was founded in Dublin in 2004 and has grown to become the leading B2B technology provider of car rental and mobility solutions to the global travel industry. The company works with over 2,200 car rental providers in 150 countries, and enables airlines like easyJet and Emirates to offer car rentals, airport transfers, and ride-hailing to their customers.

The travel technology industry is highly competitive with so many platforms available. To stay competitive, CarTrawler is looking for new ways to better serve its airline and online travel agency (OTA) partners. One focus has been on improving its ability to provide partners with a complete view of the customer journey, as well as granular behavioral data to improve personalized, real-time recommendations and loyalty program communications.  

To achieve this, CarTrawler implemented Snowplow's Customer Data Infrastructure (CDI) alongside Snowflake. Snowplow enabled the company to capture detailed data on user behavior in a privacy-compliant manner. It also enabled CarTrawler to connect customer journeys across disparate platforms (e.g. airline booking and car rental platforms) with UTM parameters. Then it could securely share these valuable new insights with airline partners via its new "Data Connect" service, powered by Snowflake. Additionally, CarTrawler’s data science team leverages the high-fidelity data collected using Snowplow to improve the predictive models powering their product sort recommendations engine.  As a result, customers get offered cars that better suit their needs.

The combination of Snowplow and Snowflake has not only improved CarTrawler’s AI-driven recommendations to increase car rental and insurance sales, but also strengthened its airline partnerships through data sharing. It has also enabled low-cost, complete control over its data collection infrastructure. Now, CarTrawler can cost-effectively provide better car rental recommendations while providing airlines with valuable customer data, making them an essential technology partner in the travel ecosystem.

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Challenges

As a leader in the travel technology industry, CarTrawler explored various opportunities to enhance its competitive edge and continue delivering exceptional value to its airline partners. .

First, the company needed more detailed data on user behavior. Its previous in-house tracking system was limited. It lacked flexibility and robustness, which prevented CarTrawler from capturing detailed user interactions.

Secondly, CarTrawler wanted to provide more valuable Customer 360 insights to its airline partners. Kyle Fitzpatrick, Insights Architecture Manager at CarTrawler, underlined this need:

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“If an airline partner has two people and they both took a €50 flight with them, then they’re going to be treated the same on their loyalty program. But if one of those people is actually viewing more valuable car rentals, insurance, and other ancillaries on the CarTrawler platform, then they’re a more valuable customer to the airline. As a result, they should be treated differently and we wanted to provide this insight to airlines.”

KYLE FITZPATRICK | INSIGHTS ARCHITECTURE MANAGER, CARTRAWLER

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CarTrawler also prioritized  balancing personalization with compliance, particularly with GDPR regulations. This was critical to maintaining trust with both partners and customers.

Additionally, CarTrawler needed faster and more accurate product sorting and pricing algorithms. As Fitzpatrick pointed out:

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“We have 100 milliseconds to decide what kind of the ideal car type for this customer, based on the insights we have about their specific preferences and needs.”

KYLE FITZPATRICK | INSIGHTS ARCHITECTURE MANAGER, CARTRAWLER

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Lastly, the company wanted end-to-end control over its data infrastructure. It felt that traditional solutions had limitations in terms of flexibility and cost efficiency. This would have made it difficult to develop and scale customized data products.

To maintain its leading position in the market, CarTrawler was looking for a cost-effective solution that would provide the flexibility, accuracy, and control it needed.

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Solution

Transforming Data Collection, Analysis, and Real-Time Recommendations with Snowplow CDI

CarTrawler’s requirements led the company to Snowplow’s Customer Data Infrastructure (CDI). With Snowplow, the company has a sophisticated data pipeline that has transformed its approach to data collection, modeling, and analysis.

From the beginning, Snowplow enabled CarTrawler to collect detailed data on user behavior, particularly recommended product viewability. As Fitzpatrick noted:

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“Tracking “in-view” elements greatly improves outcomes. What we found was that a lot of the cars that were included in the sort recommendations, may not actually be in the viewport of the end-user at the time they’re looking at car rental options.  Incorporating this information in training data substantially improves the model’s predictions.”

KYLE FITZPATRICK | INSIGHTS ARCHITECTURE MANAGER, CARTRAWLER

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This insight was essential for enhancing CarTrawler’s AI-driven search and recommendation rankings because they could use the granular viewability data captured via Snowplow to focus the algorithm training on the cars customers had seen and considered. 

Additionally, CarTrawler is working to improve its understanding of customer journeys by using Snowplow to capture detailed UTM parameters. This capability is providing a more complete view of customer journeys across two different platforms: the airline’s booking website and CarTrawler’s embedded car rental experience. Crucially, it allows sophisticated partners to understand how their upstream promotional activities impact their car-rental ancillary sales.

The company also used Snowplow and Snowflake to launch "Data Connect’ - a CarTrawler service for securely sharing Customer 360 data with airline partners. It achieved this using Snowplow behavioral data in combination with Snowflake’s secure data sharing capabilities. Now, CarTrawler can share near real-time data with its airline partners boosting collaboration and increasing the value provided.

Crucially, Snowplow provided CarTrawler with end-to-end control of its data infrastructure. By integrating Snowplow with Snowflake, CarTrawler has created a powerful, flexible, and cost-effective data ecosystem. Thanks to this integration, CarTrawler’s Data Connect service delivers flexibility and control of its journey analytics with a cost-effective platform that can handle the high traffic and complex customer journeys of the travel ecosystem.  

Snowplow not only addressed CarTrawler’s immediate challenges but also positioned the company for future innovation in data-driven decision making. By providing personalized experiences, optimizing recommendation algorithms, and strengthening partnerships in the travel tech industry, CarTrawler can now drive additional value for both users and partners. All of this is achieved while maintaining data ownership and cost-effectiveness.

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Results 

Enhanced AI-Driven Recommendations Drive Conversions

Snowplow’s granular behavioral data, particularly on item views, improved CarTrawler’s recommendation engines dramatically. Kyle explained the impact:

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“We’ve restricted our recommendation engine’s training set now to ‘in views’. This means it only trains the model based on the number of times a car was actually visible on the user’s screen, as opposed to the number of times it was included in the search results but wasn’t seen by the user.”

KYLE FITZPATRICK | INSIGHTS ARCHITECTURE MANAGER, CARTRAWLER

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With smarter recommendations, CarTrawler drives higher average purchase value per visitor.

This improvement to the models was only made possible by the quality of behavioral data that CarTrawler is able to collect and operationalize with Snowplow. It’s led to more accurate and effective car recommendations, which in turn improves the end user experience. Initial results are promising, with expectations of significant additional improvements in conversion rates and purchase values. 

Connected Customer Journeys 

Notably, CarTrawler can now track 95% of user interactions on their platform using Snowplow, compared to only about 70% with their previous tracking systems. This improved data capture means CarTrawler has a much more complete picture of user behavior, leading to better insights and more accurate recommendations.

The ability to capture and use UTM parameters has been a game-changer for CarTrawler. Now, the company can connect customer journeys across platforms, providing a comprehensive view of customer behavior. This has proven invaluable for airline partners. Kyle highlighted the value of this approach with a practical example: 

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“Person A went down the funnel five times but didn’t buy an ancillary. Person B didn’t go down the funnel at all. Who am I going to send the CRM special offer to? Person A.”

KYLE FITZPATRICK | INSIGHTS ARCHITECTURE MANAGER, CARTRAWLER

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With this new level of insight, airline partners are now able to make informed decisions about customer engagement and marketing strategies. 

Driving Innovation & Partnership Value with Data-Driven Insights

CarTrawler’s new Data Connect service has significantly enhanced CarTrawler’s relationships with airline partners. It can now securely share valuable customer insights with airlines, positioning itself as an indispensable partner in the travel ecosystem. 

Fitzpatrick emphasized the impact of Data Connect:

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“With Data Connect, we’re strengthening our partnerships by sharing valuable customer insights. When airlines see the insights we can provide about their customers’ behavior on our platform, they recognize the added value we bring to the relationship.”

KYLE FITZPATRICK | INSIGHTS ARCHITECTURE MANAGER, CARTRAWLER

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This data sharing capability has become a unique differentiator for CarTrawler in the market, which is helping to drive partner retention and expansion. 

Cost-Effective and Controlled Data Infrastructure

CarTrawler deployed Snowplow in its AWS environment and integrated it with Snowflake. By doing this, the company has achieved significant cost savings and maintained full control over its data infrastructure. Kyle explained the benefits: 

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“Using Snowplow in our AWS environment gives us complete control over our data pipeline. We’re not locked into any proprietary systems or paying for features we don’t need. We can scale our usage up or down as needed, which helps control costs. Plus, we have the flexibility to customize everything to our specific needs, which wouldn’t be possible with off-the-shelf solutions.”

KYLE FITZPATRICK | INSIGHTS ARCHITECTURE MANAGER, CARTRAWLER

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Additionally, CarTrawler’s new data infrastructure empowers the company with the ability to maintain data security and compliance. It can now share data with partners leveraging Snowflake’s secure data sharing capabilities in a controlled, secure manner, addressing concerns about data privacy and regulatory compliance.

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Looking Ahead

CarTrawler is poised for continued innovation in data-driven decision making and partner collaboration. The company plans to expand its Data Connect service to more airline partners, leveraging the power of connected customer journeys. 

The B2B travel technology company also aims to further refine its AI-driven recommendation models, capitalizing on the insights gained from granular behavioral data. It is also exploring more advanced use cases for audience segmentation and real-time personalization with its Snowflake instance. 

The robust, scalable data infrastructure built with Snowplow and Snowflake positions CarTrawler to adapt quickly to emerging trends in the travel tech industry. The company is particularly focused on further improving the customer experience in car rental booking processes and enhancing its ability to provide partners with valuable insights from connected customer journeys. As a result, CarTrawler is set up to lead in the travel tech space, providing unique value to its partners and customers alike.

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