VEENA WORLD - TRAVEL BOOKING WEBSITE
Digital transformation for a group travel company
Awards
Pioneers of innovative ideas and tours, Veena World is a travel brand that takes travel journeys beyond destinations, by inculcating a sense of community and their impeccable hospitality. With just 5 years of rich and experienced background, the company boasts 2.5 lakh satisfied guests, 800+ seasoned, dedicated team members, 165+ preferred sales partners, and 1000+ hoteliers, transporters, and associates.
Veena World first partnered with Leaf Design in 2013 to create a brand identity that reflected its all-encompassing ethos of ‘travel for one and all, anywhere around the world. In 2017 we collaborated again for the evolution of their brand, to help them stay relevant and grow with the times; and change the user perception.
Understanding stakeholders, users, and products
We started from scratch, by interviewing and observing the users, followed by preliminary brand work. The objective was to fully understand the contexts and the real-life situations travelers end up in, during the booking process and the actual on-journey experience. We also familiarised ourselves with Veena World’s existing services, offline booking process, and the current digital website.
The Challenge
With the change in consumer habits, Veena World wanted to mark its territory in its segment and chart a stronger direction by building a perfect customer journey.
The Approach
We took off to this new ambition by reintroducing the company to the world as an immersive platform; through an intensified online dialogue, built on grounds of an adaptable, scalable, and future-proof system.
Using customer journey to drive commerce
Once the business priorities were aligned, our team collaborated on mapping the customer experience with the user at the heart. The strategy focused on stitching cultural insights and user behavior together. Divided into True Travellers and Seekers, the site’s framework brought the brand to its audience in an experiential and unexpected way, similar to offline experiences. The ultimate goal was to keep the user informed in context, with complete clarity and transparency, speed up the consumer dialogue and reduce offline interaction.
Celebrate life through travel
The home page inspired people to go out there - travel, express and enjoy. The Scalability, dynamism, and flexible matrix of the site allowed the client to publish relevant data. The use of design cards to throw attractive destination pictures, served as a captivating vocabulary; while contextual navigation enabled discovery. With simplicity at the core of the user experience, the site came alive with rich content and delightful micro-interactions.
Enabling discovery through suggestive search
Vacation plans start with many parameters: location, time, budget or type of travel. Streamlining content about innumerable destinations, the site used the computational concept of Explore or Exploit to focus on helping users find what they’re looking for. By implementing utility to product listing pages, users could search by type of travel as well as through the traditional methods, such as destination and time. We enabled a thumbnail design that offered a quick overview of the key decision points and also caters to all the business requirements. This approach helps users to curate and, most importantly, aligns them with the brand’s positioning, bringing their unique personality and point-of-view forward.
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Elevating the product experience
Vacation plans start with many parameters: location, time, budget, or type of travel. Streamlining content about innumerable destinations, the site used the computational concept of Explore or Exploit to focus on helping users find what they’re looking for. By implementing utility to product listing pages, users could search by type of travel and traditional methods, such as destination and time. We enabled a thumbnail design that offered a quick overview of the key decision points and also caters to all the business requirements. This approach helps users to curate and, most importantly, aligns them with the brand’s positioning, bringing their unique personality and point-of-view forward.
Booking for ease and excitement: the path to purchase
Considering the fact that Group-tours, one of the key travel products, are extremely date-dependent; we ensured that the packages shown on the homepage were fetched basis departure dates, and subsequently progressed towards more decision-based criteria for the user to compare and choose.
A seamless three-step booking process enhanced the user experience, allowing them to make an informed decision, and then book a tour anywhere in the world, without a pause.
Stay connected with my account
We designed a personal dashboard to ensure that pre-travel anxiety doesn’t kill the joy of a well-deserved vacation for travelers. ‘My account’ specifically enhanced the pre-departure and on-tour experience with prompt updates and notifications about the upcoming trip. Every critical aspect of the tour was communicated to the booked travelers through this channel to avoid any confusion or chaos. It allowed ease of accessibility and offered the much-needed reassurance, before as well as on-tour.
The wide wide world
After delivering and rolling out the first product, the new platform generated multiple sub-verticals which were handled with the same expertise as before. At every step, only a consistent message and experience went through. As the brand evolves through several aspects, the site continues to expand and the platform continues to deliver.
Impact
The new website helped modernise Veena World but kept it firmly rooted in its legacy, maintaining the focus on community and making an already vibrant marketplace even more vibrant. The new veenaworld.com became the first of its kind travel operator to offer a smooth online booking experience, whilst setting a benchmark in experiential e-commerce. It facilitated seamless and responsive interactions, showcasing the brand story while contextually promoting products, with an optimised Search Engine in place.
As with all things digital, Veena World’s marketing and product teams continue to ensure a consistent and smooth rollout, as the product continues to evolve and grow.
70%
MORE AVERAGE TIME SPENT
5x
ONLINE BOOKING
20+
NEW MARKET REACH