P&O Cruises’ website has been upgraded to improve the user experience, especially for tablet users who now account for more than a quarter of all traffic.
P&O Cruises reveals revamped site after tablet bookings rise seven-fold
P&O Cruises’ website has been upgraded to improve the user experience, especially for tablet users who now account for more than a quarter of all traffic.
Tablet bookings are claimed to be up by 700% on last year, although figures were not released by brand and digital consultancy Nucleus, which has carried out the improvements.
The line has seen a four-fold rise in access from mobile devices in the past 12 months to 35% of all traffic with tablets alone accounting for 26%.
P&O Cruises briefed Nucleus to address tablet-friendliness of key pages as a priority.
As a result, the homepage, product pages and a new ships section have become scrolling pages with a 3-column format and larger typeface.
Sections within the page are easy to jump to, thanks to a smart, in-page navigation tool.
The new homepage has resulted in a higher click-through rate in key sections: the cruise deals page is up 9% week on week and bounce rate decreased by 2%.
New ‘ships overview’ pages feature large format image carousels, each of which focuses on one aspect of life on board. These make use of mobile-friendly, 360-degree virtual tours of the relevant facilities to bring the experience to life.
The cruise product pages have also been enhanced with 360-degree virtual tours and large scale interactive maps. These allow visitors to explore itineraries by clicking on ports to open up destination information, while a ship icon traces the route the cruise will take). The maps are optimised for the iOS and Android operating systems.
New landing pages have been created to present the proposition of P&O Cruises’ different holiday offerings and encourage online research and booking.
Further enhancements are planned during 2014 to include fully responsive templates to improve smartphone user experience.
P&O Cruises head of digital Claire Hazle said: “We are seeing such a sharp growth in mobile access to our website that this absolutely has to be a priority for us now and into 2014.
“We know that our passengers enjoy researching their P&O Cruises holidays using a wide variety of resources including our brochure, our website and other materials that they receive from us or their travel agent.
“In the same way that they can gain inspiration from their printed brochures anytime, anywhere, they should be able to go online whenever they like through any device they choose and immerse themselves in the P&O Cruises experience.”
