The Challenge
Scubago.com, an online travel agency (OTA) for scuba diving, was launched by LiveAboard.com to expand their reach beyond luxury dive experiences. Despite LiveAboard.com's expertise, Scubago V1 was a commercial failure, with weak conversions and a poorly received user experience. The platform needed a complete overhaul to salvage its potential.
The Solution
LiveAboard.com engaged xCelery to strategize a turnaround. xCelery began by analyzing Scubago’s user data and booking analytics to identify conversion drop-offs compared to industry benchmarks. They also conducted user testing through semi-structured interviews, uncovering significant pain points, confusion, and unmet user needs. Based on the insights from this process, the product strategists pitched the board of the client on the concept of re-designing the platform around a narrower user type - beginner divers - and only featuring dive centres that could offer instant booking. This was expected to yield a 10x to 30x improvement in product performance.
Vimi.co led the redesign, exploring successful OTA designs from niche markets and iteratively developing and testing mock-ups. The process focused on optimizing for the higher-value beginner diver segment and eliminating key usability barriers for them. After several testing cycles, Vimi.co delivered a design that met user needs and cleared the way for development.
Two Bit Solutions, a New York-based development agency, built the minimum viable product (MVP) based on the new designs. Furthermore, VD Web Engineering was engaged as a tech advisor to oversee the build. The tech stack prioritized speed, with a bespoke architecture to ensure fast page load times, a simple content management system, Stripe payments, and Brevo email automations. This streamlined build allowed for rapid deployment and market testing.
North Star Media spearheaded the marketing campaigns to validate the revamped platform. Focusing purely on search marketing, they optimized campaigns to attract enough high-intent users to deliver enough actionable data to measure the platform’s success. Each iteration of the campaigns showed improved performance in terms of cost per click.
The Outcome
The redesigned Scubago.com performed 15x better than its initial iteration, achieving significant improvements in conversion rates and user satisfaction. The streamlined MVP and targeted marketing campaigns provided compelling proof of concept, positioning Scubago for acquisition by a strategic investor (who have since rebuilt the platform under a new brand).
LiveAboard.com turned a struggling project into a success story, thanks to the collaboration between xCelery, Vimi.co, Two Bit Solutions, and North Star Media.
“It's been a true pleasure working with you, and I'm grateful and proud for what you did.” - Martijn Duchatteau, CEO of LiveAboard.com