How did a transfer company win back almost half of its sales from intermediaries in three weeks?
In short: after moving from a website builder to its own fast website, direct sales grew roughly fourfold, and ChatGPT started sending customers overnight, who booked more often than visitors from paid ads.
- +300%growth in sales through the company's own website, about fourfold
- ×60traffic from ChatGPT right after the new website went live, more than sixtyfold
- ×8how much more often customers from ChatGPT booked than customers from paid ads
- 46%the website's part in the value of sales after three weeks, base 15 days of sales from all channels
Calculated on the value of all company sales across every channel: base 20 days before the new website, then 11 and 15 days after launch. Amounts are not published and the client remains anonymous.
The challenge
The company drives tourists from the airport to their hotels on a Greek island. Demand was there, but most bookings came through intermediary platforms that take a commission on every ride. The company's own website ran on a popular website builder and brought in about one ninth of sales. It looked fine, but it loaded slowly and its content was hard to read for search engines, including those powered by artificial intelligence.
The diagnosis
The problem was not demand but the path to purchase. A tourist searching Google for a transfer, or asking ChatGPT about one, rarely landed on the operator's website. They landed on an intermediary. On top of that, ads still pointed to old addresses and the booking system lost track of where each customer came from, so nobody could tell which source actually sold.
What we did
- We built a new website from scratch: light, fast and written so that its content is readable from the very first second, for people and for search engines alike.
- We described every service clearly: from where, to where, how long the ride takes, what is included. These are the answers tourists look for before they book.
- We connected the website to the booking system so that every booking carries its source.
- We moved the ads to the new addresses and set up measurement that counts completed bookings only.
The result
The website went from bringing in 11.5% of sales to 28.5% within the first eleven days, and after three weeks it passed 46%.
- Sales through the company's own website grew by roughly 300%, about fourfold.
- Traffic from ChatGPT grew more than sixtyfold right after the new website went live. Before, it practically did not exist.
- Customers from ChatGPT booked about 8 times more often than customers from paid ads. In that period it was the company's most effective sales channel, and the company paid nothing for those visits.
- The company's total sales stayed at the same level. What changed is who earns on them: more and more goes to the company, with no commission for an intermediary.
What we learned
AI search engines recommend websites they can read and understand. A good looking website from a builder can be almost empty to them. A fast website with a clearly described offer can start selling through ChatGPT from day one, without paying for every visit.
Questions and answers
Can a brand get customers from ChatGPT?
Yes. In this case ChatGPT started recommending the operator right after its offer became readable on its own website. What it takes is content a search engine can read without running scripts, plus clear answers to customer questions: route, time, price and how to book.
Why can a website builder page be invisible to AI search engines?
Some builders assemble the page content only inside the browser. A person sees everything, but a bot that quickly gathers information for an answer may see very little. A website that serves its content straight away is a complete source for such bots.
Can your own website replace intermediaries?
It does not have to replace them to pay off. Here total sales stayed the same, but within three weeks almost half moved to the company's own website, with no commission. Intermediaries stayed as an extra channel rather than the only way to reach customers.