Following market research that showed significant potential for Laithwaite’s Wine to increase their income generated from gifts, we worked with Laithwaite’s to develop a business case and identify how to turn this opportunity into an online experience to deliver increased engagement, overall sales, incremental income, and increase the potential to be built on and developed over time.
What we delivered included:
- Quantitative research development and data analysis
- Stakeholder ideation workshops
- Innovative mobile optimised user journeys designed to enhance the gift buying experience
- Gift section restructure and redesign
- Prototyping and user testing
- Agile design & development
Stakeholder engagement
This project involved stakeholders from across the business to ensure engagement and to get everyone on board we launched the projects with an interactive workshop where we explored the market place and considered the emotive aspects of a gift buying experience
We took an iterative approach to the ongoing development of the design presenting updated prototypes and insight to key stakeholders on a regular basis.
Insight driven architecture
We used insight from a variety of sources to ensure we developed a new hierarchy and architecture for the Gifts section based on users needs and motivations. This meant creating new gift categories that guided users, supporting both a browsing experience as well as those who know what they want.
A sub navigation bar on mobile allows users to bypass the hamburger menu to find what they are looking for quickly.
A sleek new look focused on users needs
We implemented a recently developed design system across the gifts area of the website, introducing engaging landing pages and sleek product pages optimsied for mobile and with the crucial information needed to make a purchasing decision.
An online gift voucher experience
As part of this project we created new customer journeys for the purchase of gift cards which were identified as a big growth opportunity, with a focus on creating an engaging evoucher experience.
An integrated technical approach
Laithwaite’s, a brand of Direct Wines, have a complex interconnected platform of different systems and technologies which our solution would need to integrate with in order to be effective. Surfacing requirements from their IT team along with prototyping and exploratory exercises within their systems, we defined and built a solution that both fits within their existing technology stack and interfaces with their inventory management and customer experience systems, manifesting as a JavaScript app built using React.
Additional control over the customer experience was enabled by implementing Contentful, a powerful headless Content Management System, giving the gifts team greater and more immediate control over product detail and content of the site than they were previously able to. The architecture and application of Contentful for Gifts would form the basis of potential use of the CMS across Laithwaite’s UK operations.
Results
Since the launch of the new gifts experience, Laithwaites have enjoyed a significant uplift in gift sales. The gift experience will continue to be developed with further phases planned.
