Revamped Cruise Booking Website to Improve Conversion Rates

Challenges:

The Virgin Voyages mobile site experienced significantly lower booking rates (under 1%) compared to its desktop counterpart, despite higher traffic. Faced with a critical need to revamp the mobile site within a tight three-month window before peak season, Virgin Voyages sought a partner with deep expertise in User Experience (UX).

Furthermore, the redesign required a sustainable solution that would maintain usability in the long term, beyond the initial launch.

Solutions:

Monstarlab conducted a thorough investigation and analysis of the existing mobile site. This involved starting with an understanding of the current user experience, establishing benchmarks, formulating hypotheses, and conducting A/B testing.

The research revealed that while the process of selecting a ship and planning the trip should be the primary focus for those considering a cruise, the existing design presented clarity issues on smaller mobile screens, leading to user frustration.

To address this issue, Monstarlab visualized the branching paths of the user experience. By incorporating simpler and more intuitive design and expression, they reorganized the information presented to users and implemented improvements across eight key areas, including features to address points of inconvenience. This resulted in the design of a new mobile site.

Subsequent user testing based on a demo confirmed a conversion rate increase of 2.5% to 4% across all tested items. Furthermore, recognizing the success achieved with the mobile site, Virgin Voyages extended the collaboration to include improvements to the desktop site.