Virgin Holidays comment on their 25% increase in online conversions

Virgin Holiday is beginning to reap rewards from its long term overhaul of their site.  The first stage of this redesign has seen online conversions rise 25% and key to this strategy was usability.

As the website operation manager, Steve Evans says: ‘We needed to produce a site that was as simple as possible for our customers to use.  Therefore the imagery was made larger, the navigation easier and the whole user journey considerably enhanced.  Additional search criteria were also added such as the ability to search by region or country through maps and drop down menus.’

The uplift in conversion has been increasing since new elements were added six months ago and are still increasing as Virgin further tweak the site.  Chris Roe, Virgin’s E-Commerce Manager saw the importance of usability in the redesign claiming ‘it’s important to take a step back before taking a step forward.’

Roe wanted to make sure that central to the redesign was understanding what their customers wanted rather than just bolting on the latest Web 2.0 fad.  It seems Virgin’s tactics to iron out the basic rather than jump onto the Web 2.0 hype has paid off and may see other companies becoming more cautious in their Web 2.0 strategies.

There is a trend of companies racing to stay cutting edge investing in the latest online fad without investigating how it will affect sales.  The danger for any company is that a rapid overhaul of their site may alienate their existing customer base.  Chris Roe will be reviewing the current changes to the Virgin Holidays site as well as previewing their future online plans at EyeforTravel’s 6th Distribution Technology conference taking place on 16-17th January in London, for more information please download the brochure at www.eyefortravel.com/tdt/more-information-logix.asp.