Headout and Magpie Partner to Boost Content, Reduce Costs
San Francisco, April 8, 2020 -- Headout, the New York City-based reseller of tours and activities, has signed an agreement to utilize Magpie's content platform for supplier onboarding and ongoing content management. Under the agreement, Headout will serve as the foundational partner for Magpie's new product offering, implementing a white label version of the Magpie platform as its preferred method for tour and activity operators to submit and maintain their product content.
Partnership Perspectives
Headout CEO Varun Khona emphasized the company's focus on increasing the number of quality suppliers and products available to consumers, and the need for a well-designed content management system. By using Magpie, Headout aims to streamline the supplier onboarding process while empowering suppliers to make efficient use of their content across multiple channels, reducing the industry burden of content replication across proprietary systems.
Magpie CEO Christian Watts highlighted a key industry pain point: suppliers are currently forced to load and manage content in proprietary extranets for major OTAs, and deliver disorganized Word and Excel files to other reseller partners. The centralized, cloud-based CMS is designed to save significant time and resources at a moment when the industry can least afford inefficiency.
Differentiated Content
Resellers can differentiate their offerings through Magpie's platform. Typically, a reseller will want to customize highlights, long descriptions, and product names, while most other fields contain standardized information that does not need editing. With access to comprehensive and up-to-date product information, resellers can more easily maintain accuracy while crafting compelling descriptions that drive conversion.
About Magpie Travel
Magpie was founded in 2019 by Christian Watts, who also founded City Sightseeing San Francisco. The company delivers cloud-based content management solutions for the tours and activities sector. Founding investors include Rod Cuthbert, founder and former CEO of Viator (now part of TripAdvisor), and Kei Shibata and Kenichi Shibata, founders of Venture Republic, a Tokyo-based investment company with an extensive travel industry portfolio.