SOUTHERN DISCOVERIES

Southern Discoveries are Milford Sound's original cruise operator, and have been in business over 60 years. They now operate a range of experiences that are nothing short of spectacular, in both Milford Sound and Queenstown. They approached us to redesign their website, with a sharp focus on increasing their online conversion rate.

One of the main challenges of their business is the complexity of their products. They normally run several base cruises, each with a variety of options around transport, food, add-on activities, discounting and so on. This complexity had not been resolved on their old website, and the process of trying to book a product on their old site was confusing and overwhelming.

Our strategy for increasing conversion was to radically simplify the way Southern Discoveries present products to customers, and to create an "add on" approach to booking, rather than overwhelming them with many options up front.

We designed a custom booking process, purpose-built to manage the bulk of the product complexity in the background, and present the customer with a simple, frictionless set of choices for booking. Our booking site is fully integrated with their reservation system (IBIS). Stock is managed in their reservation system, and the website automatically updates in real-time with the latest pricing, departures and availability.

We also redesigned the front-end of the site, to ensure that the experience of choosing and understanding products was simple and seamless from first impression to booking. Our design moved video and photography to the forefront, letting the epic scenery of their locations do the talking. The content on the site showcases the experiences, but there are also dedicated sections that are optimised for SEO.