The objective of the redesign in 2019 was to shift from the lead generation business model to an e-commerce business model. With this transition, our goal was to increase the conversion rate and return on investment. We also aimed to create a website that would contribute to enhancing the credibility of the brand.

To achieve this, we:

• Increased the quantity and quality of content on the site, organizing it more efficiently. Our goal was for visitors to quickly find what they are looking for and have all the necessary information to choose and book their trip with confidence.
  
• Integrated social proof, including user-generated content (UGC), customer testimonials, and toast notifications displaying how visitors interact with the site (e.g., “Lisa from Canada just booked a Working Holiday trip in Australia.”).
  
• Used geographic targeting and content personalization to display relevant content to visitors based on their location and how they interact with the site.
  
• Implemented a live chat so that users can easily and quickly ask questions to a team member.
  

In 2021, after analyzing user test results, user feedback, and their activity on the website, I redesigned the homepage, product pages and category pages. The company was also launching three new divisions (Study, Tour, Fly) that I had to integrate into the homepage in a clear and efficient manner.

The entire design process of the e-commerce website took about a year. Several months were dedicated to research, including competitor analysis, searching for best practices, and collaborating with a growth marketing/conversion specialist. She taught us a lot about e-commerce strategies and best practices aimed at optimizing conversion rates, return on investment, SEO, and user experience.

Afterwards, while the copywriter was creating the content, I was designing the wireframes and prototypes. I then conducted user tests with the final interactive prototypes. After analyzing the results and discussing problems and potential solutions with the team members, I made some modifications to the prototypes.

Once the prototypes were finished, I shared them with the web developer who began programming the website. As the programming progressed, I was responsible for quality assurance, ensuring that everything worked correctly and followed the design perfectly. If any changes were needed, I had to inform the web developer. I was also responsible for finding photos and managing the external designer tasked with creating icons and illustrations.

After the launch of the website, I conducted user tests (survey, A/B tests and heatmaps), and was responsible for regularly reviewing session recordings to identify issues and blockages encountered by visitors. I then had to find solutions and inform the web developer of any necessary changes.

The company was already performing well under the lead generation model since 2008, and the transition to the e-commerce website occurred progressively. Initially, we opted for a hybrid approach, simultaneously using both business models to minimize any negative impact on revenue. We redirected only a portion of the traffic from advertisements to the new site, allowing the rest of the traffic to be directed to lead generation pages. We gradually increased traffic to the new site until we were confident enough to make the definitive transition to the e-commerce business model. This approach allowed us to analyze user behaviour, identify issues, evaluate performance, and make necessary corrections.

After 21 months, half of the company's activity had shifted to e-commerce. Following the redesign of the main pages in 2021, we observed an increase in traffic at the payment stage, reaching nearly 40%.