MyRepublic Roaming
Travel • Conversion • Optimization
COMPANY
MyRepublic
MY ROLE
User Researcher & Designer
Duration
3 months
Overview
MyRepublic wanted to revamp its roaming products and the in-app purchase experience to drive conversion. The revamp introduced four new categories — 24-hour, 7-day, 30-day, and pay-per-use packages.
The company was also weighing whether to introduce Travel eSIM and Pocket WiFi — but demand for these products was unvalidated. My job was to answer both questions: fix the journey, and find out whether eSIM was worth launching at all.
KEY OBJECTIVES
01 Optimize the purchase journey
Customers should be able to purchase our roaming plans quickly and intuitively
02 Increase conversion rate
Identify and introduce roaming plans that match what customers actually need
03 Validate demand for eSIM
Gauge appetite for travel eSIMs before committing to launch.
Why revamp
roaming?
In-base survey with 1,599 respondents
Q: I love MyRepublic because….
Value for money
Loads of data
54%
Easy to sign up
Roaming Rates
9%
Q: What are some new features or services you’ll like MyRepublic to introduce?
Affordable roaming
Cashback / Shopping
72%
Vacation Deals
Something for gamers
When we asked what customers love about MyRepublic, "roaming rates" scored just 9% — against 54% for value-for-money.
When we asked what they wanted us to introduce, 72% said affordable roaming, the top answer by a wide margin.
The gap between those two numbers was the business case: customers wanted roaming from us and weren't getting it.
What are the
market rates?
Competitor analysis
I benchmarked our eSIM pricing against two telcos and a dedicated eSIM provider across four destinations (Malaysia, Thailand, Asia, Global). Our plans were among the most expensive in the market — in the "Asia" category, our $30/GB compared to as low as $6/GB elsewhere.
This confirmed the survey signal: the problem wasn't just findability, it was price competitiveness.
MyRepublic
Telco 1
Telco 2
eSIM 1
Malaysia
$5.90/GB
$6/GB
$15 / 12GB
$12 / 10GB
Thailand
$5.90/GB
$7/GB
$15 / 12GB
$10 / unlimited
Asia
$30/GB
$18 / GB
$6/GB
$33 / 10GB
Global
$40/GB
$40/GB
$30 / 4GB
$19 / 3GB
Current UX Issues
Internal Focus group testing
I ran an internal focus group on the existing journey and scored issues by severity. Three critical problems emerged:
KEY ISSUES
The entrance ("Manage roaming") isn't visible and assumes you already have a roaming plan — a new buyer would never tap "boost your roaming data".
No search — users expect to search by country first
Current plans priced well above market eSIMs
Current entrance via “manage roaming” does not have enough visibility
-15
As a user, if I do not have an existing roaming data plan, I would not click on “boost your roaming data”
-10
I would expect to see a search bar at the top, which would allow me to search by countries
-10
I find the current plans available too expensive as compared to eSIMs
-10
Insights from Internal Focus group session
Alignment
I mapped business goals (plans that convert, protected margins, visibility), user goals (cheapest plans, network stability, easy setup), and market trends (eSIMs widely available and cheapest; telcos bundling roaming into plans). All three pointed the same direction:
Cheapest roaming plans
Network stability
Ease of set--up
Market
eSIMs are readily available
eSIMS are cheapest in the market
Telcos are bundling roaming data
into mobile plans
Business Goals
User Goals
Introduce roaming plans that convert
manage profit margins
Improve visibility of our roaming plans
Solution:
INTRODUCE
TRAVEL eSIMs
Constraints
PRODUCT MARKETING
Our native roaming data comes from a larger provider, so we can't flex pricing. Offering cheaper roaming meant engaging a third-party eSIM provider — and redirecting users to their website to complete purchase.
NETWORK TEAM
Customers would need to manually switch to the overseas data provider to receive roaming data.
TRADE OFF
The redirect breaks the in-app journey I'd just optimized. We accepted it because it was the only path to market-competitive pricing within the timeline — but I treated the handoff and post-purchase experience as first-class design problems rather than afterthoughts (see Post-Purchase below).
Usability
Usability testing with 5 participants
Usability testing helps us identify issues throughout the journey before going-to-market
What went well
Average rating for the testing session is 6.2/7
Users quickly found the new entrance and appreciated the recommendation engine ("popular destinations").
Users felt buying from MyRepublic took fewer steps than standalone travel eSIM apps; checkout was smooth end-to-end.
Overall, the navigation is smooth and users were able to checkout easily
What could be better
Users wanted larger data options (3GB / 5GB / 10GB per day).
Checkout needed start date & time details.
Price-sensitive users said they'd pick Travel eSIM over native roaming — cannibalization risk we flagged to the business.
Pay-As-You-Roam should be opt-in only, with active-state notifications so users are never blindsided by charges.
Introducing MyRepublic's Travel eSIM
We launched both products, with MyRepublic redirecting users from our app to the third-party provider's site. Product cards, pricing tiers, and in-app listings were designed to make the value proposition scannable in one glance: network type, daily data, minimum duration, from-price.
Travel eSIM
4G • Data refilled daily • Min. 3 days
1GB/Day
from
$2.90/Day
3GB/Day
from
$3.90/Day
Pocket Wi-Fi
4G • Connect up to 8 devices • Min. 5 days
5GB/Day
from
$6.90/Day
10GB/Day
from
$9.90/Day
MyRepublic’s Travel eSIM introduction
In-app product listing for eSIM and Pocket Wi-Fi
A 3-step Purchase Journey
To improve conversion, we want to design a journey that is intuitive and as short as possible. This means make the entrance on the home screen as clear as possible while following the customer’s expected journey of → Searching by country, → viewing available plans, → checking out.
Post-Purchase
Journey
We wanted to provide a way for customers to manage their roaming plans post-purchase and connect to the right overseas service provider post-purchase. This is why we created the active plans page and the “no internet connection page.”
MyRepublic’s Travel eSIM introduction
Impact
INCREASED CONVERSION RATE
13%
TRAVEL eSIM & POWI PURCHASES
4,000+
MONTH-ON-MONTH ESIM GROWTH
56%
REFLECTIONS
The third-party redirect was the right call for speed, but I'd fight harder for drop-off instrumentation on the handoff — we never measured how many users we lost between our app and the provider's checkout, which is exactly where I'd expect leakage. I'd also revisit the cannibalization signal from testing: price-sensitive users choosing eSIM over native roaming was a margin question we surfaced but didn't fully model before launch.
View More
Projects
Continue Scrolling
CREATING
USER STORIES
Components • Style Guides
MyRepublic Design System
CREATING
USER STORIES
Components • Style Guides
Muslim Pro - Design System
