Vail Resorts stands as a global leader in ski lift and mountain experience, renowned for its presence at top ski destinations worldwide.

The brand’s infrastructure solutions span ski lifts, season passes, rental equipment, lessons, retail, and more—setting the benchmark for world-class ski experiences.

Central to Vail’s business-wide growth strategy is empowering customers to easily discover, plan, and proactively book essential services online, including ski lift passes and equipment rentals.

In Australia, Vail Resorts operates multiple mountain resorts. However, its digital experience had become outdated, clunky on mobile devices, and misaligned with its growth ambitions. Recognising the urgent need for change, Vail sought expert guidance to revitalise its customer journey and digital capabilities.

Vail Resorts engaged Greg Randall, Founder of Comma Consulting, to identify immediate pain points and develop a plan to deliver quick wins.

With senior management’s buy-in, Greg Randall initiated a process to overhaul the checkout experience. While the ERP system’s data requirements were non-negotiable, the customer journey itself was ripe for improvement.

Greg undertook comprehensive behavioural data analysis to pinpoint where customers were abandoning their bookings. He also examined qualitative data from customer support interactions to uncover specific pain points and questions faced during checkout.

These insights laid the foundation for architecting a new, streamlined booking journey.

Collaborative Design and UX/UI Best Practices

Greg mapped the new customer journey using wireframes, illustrating every step of the revamped booking experience. This visual approach enabled Vail’s team to monitor the journey’s evolution and provide critical business context, enriching the process.

Throughout the customer experience journey mapping process, Greg embedded eCommerce and digital best practices, ensuring the final solution was not only user-friendly but also commercially sound.

The process culminated in a comprehensive UX/UI blueprint, which was handed to the design and development teams upon approval.

Greg continued collaborating with technical teams, acting as the “journey police” to balance technical requirements with optimal customer experience.

Due to the need to honour Vail's ERP with the correct customer data and ensure the new experiences work on the old eCommerce platform, a lot of collaboration was required to get this right.