Big Bus Tours
- International website re-design
Big Bus Tours wanted to improve their multi-national e-commerce site in order to drive more sales of tour tickets online. The existing site layout was seen to be confusing and difficult to use, leading to a drop-off in users prior to purchase. At the same time as a Magento 2 re-platform, they wanted to improve the experience of the website to better appeal to an international audience, as well as adopt a mobile first approach.
Objective
Leading digital experience, it was my role to devise the experience strategy of a new e-commerce site that would satisfy business requirements across all Big Bus territories, and also meet user needs to help increase online revenue.
Approach
My starting point was to conduct research to understand users better, including their needs and motivations in relation to purchasing tickets online. Working with researchers, we interviewed customers as they were hopping on and off the buses, as well as analyse feedback and data collected through the existing website.
The insight from the research provided a clear picture of user types and their particular journeys. This ultimately gave me a starting point to help me to define the vision of what the new experience should be, and prioritise the requirements to focus on delivering those most important to the KPI’s.
Alongside this I identified the importance of the content strategy for the website, allowing us to focus on producing content that would target important SEO keywords, but also inspirational content that would help promote the tour concept.
Moving into delivery, I led both the design and development teams to ensure everyone was bought into achieving our experience vision.
One of my biggest challenges was to ensure all our stakeholders understood and were on board with the new direction, particularly when it meant aligning the needs of multiple international territories. Having the research findings allowed me to articulate the reasons for decisions and prioritise feedback in line with this.
It was also my job to make informed decisions during the development phase when a balance needed to be made between user experience and the technical and service capabilities available... and of course time!
"The results were breath-taking. Big Bus Tours enjoyed their best Easter period on record with a staggering 65% increase year-on-year. Conversion rates soared 50%, and mobile conversion simply exploded, with mobile revenue up by 70%."
