Situation
Wellington Zoo, New Zealand’s first zoo and a charitable trust, has been working with GravityLab since 2018 to modernise its visitor and membership experience. The Zoo manages a complex mix of systems, including Rezdy for bookings, Lightspeed/Vend for point-of-sale, Silverstripe for its website, and ActiveCampaign for marketing automation. This combination gave the Zoo flexibility but also introduced fragmentation and complexity.
Problem
While the Zoo’s mission is clear, its digital stack was not always aligned.
Memberships, upgrades, ticketing, and event bookings were spread across multiple platforms, creating sync issues and inconsistent records.
Manual processes meant visitors weren’t always getting the right information at the right time, and staff had to intervene.
Attendance tracking and ticket delivery could break when product names or booking channels changed, leaving gaps in the visitor journey.
Reporting was limited, making it difficult for the business systems team to get a full picture of membership health and visitor activity.
The result: extra clicks and friction for visitors, and extra work for staff to patch over gaps.
Results
GravityLab worked alongside the Zoo’s business systems team to stabilise and automate key parts of the visitor journey.
Membership Management: Streamlined processes for sign-ups, renewals, and upgrades, including flexible pricing logic.
On-Site Logins & Ticketing: Robust mapping rules and clearer reprocessing playbooks mean smoother entry and fewer sync issues.
Automated Communications: ActiveCampaign automations now trigger transactional emails such as membership renewals and digital Zoopasses, ensuring visitors always have their information at hand.
Reporting & Insights: Cleaner integrations and reconciled records give the Zoo better visibility to plan and improve visitor engagement.
The Zoo now runs a more connected digital ecosystem, with less rework for staff and a more consistent experience for visitors.
The Future
Wellington Zoo is already extending its digital transformation with exciting next steps:
Single Shopping Experience (In Progress): A consolidated ecommerce flow where visitors can combine events, memberships, upgrades, merchandise, and renewals in one cart with one payment.
AI-Driven Engagement: Plans to introduce AI into ActiveCampaign and Salesforce to deliver smarter personalisation, proactive recommendations, and stronger engagement across every touchpoint.
With these changes, Wellington Zoo is continuing to set the standard for how a modern, mission-driven visitor attraction can deliver both seamless customer experiences and operational efficiency.
”From the start, GravityLab has felt like a trusted member of our team. They have helped us to continually balance our big thinking with available resources and have somehow magically managed to transform a highly technical and at times overwhelming process into something our entire team can not only understand but really get behind. We’re thrilled to have them as our partner and are comforted knowing they’ll be a resource as we continue to integrate Salesforce into our business.”
ALLIE BINACO, ACTING GENERAL MANAGER BUSINESS AND PARTNERSHIPS – WELLINGTON ZOO
