Sharetrip Is Going After the $7B Travel Economy of Bangladesh

Latest episode of our Women Startup Leaders Series.

For the latest episode of our Women Startup Leaders Series by Bangladesh Women Investors Network, we were joined by Sadia Haque, CEO and Co-Founder at ShareTrip, the country’s first and leading online travel platform that provides end-to-end travel solutions and experience. Since its establishment, ShareTrip has served more than half a million travelers and on-boarded over 5,000 agents onto its platform.

By utilizing the biggest tour operators, hotel distributors, and flight distribution systems in the world, ShareTrip offers its users unlimited flexibility when choosing their vacation destinations and plans, with over 2.5 million international hotel inventory, more than 1500+ domestic hotels, and hundreds of combinations of flights to every country at their fingertips.

Last year it raised an investment from Startup Bangladesh Limited to fuel its expansion, on top of existing funding from US-based VC Skycatcher, ahead of an anticipated Series A.

In this episode, she shares about:
- How she transitioned from her corporate role into becoming a startup founder 
- Advice for founders when fundraising across key stages 
- Concrete examples of growth hacks, including gamification, to increase user engagement

Listen to it here.

Snippets from the episode:

When we launched, we incentivized heavily on our online platform through social media promotions because we wanted to stir users’ motivations to download the app or login to our website and get the first experience. We knew that if they get into that comfort zone and realise that the user journey is easier through the app, it would be easier to acquire them.

Over the years, our banking and MFS partners have also given us a significant edge in acquiring users. When a financial institution endorses you, it gives the end user assurance about trying out the platform. Initially we were offering the lowest prices in the market but gradually our pricing strategy has rather shifted towards competitive pricing, which is made through various campaigns, offers and deals through our partners.

The customer acquisition is a lot easier now than when we had to spend more on marketing - we have experience, word of mouth, exposure through our loyalty partners, which helps to create the buzz.

When it comes to travel, customization and personalization are very important. We try to engage with users as much as possible, from the point where they browse for a ticket via the app to after the booking is made - we try to learn about their pain points and remove any obstacles to conversion.

We have, on average, a 75% user retention rate month-on-month, which is at par or above global comparables such as Agoda.

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