What makes the difference between successful and worthless e-commerce strategies? There are many factors, but
research is undoubtedly among the most important ones. It formed the basis of our preparation for the project and had three main focal points -
gaining detailed understanding of ATG’s product range and business processes
, target market research and analysis of the best online lighting stores globally and the company’s local competitors.
With the help of
in-depth analysis,
we built the optimal online business model for the company. Our tests with virtual personas that had the prospective customers’ characteristics showed what interface and features would increase online sales. Thanks to the analysis of the best examples of e-commerce websites for lighting fixtures and the local competition,
we knew what would give the company competitive advantage and what mistakes to avoid. We presented the ready
digital strategy, which included the concept for the online store, to ATG’s team and discussed it thoroughly. Thanks to the valuable feedback, we had the perfect concept and were ready to start building the e-commerce website.
What’s the secret to e-commerce success? How can an online store gain customers and generate ever higher revenue? We believe that there are three pillars to success: the e-commerce website must present the products in the most impressive way, provide for customer engagement and have a checkout process which is incredibly simple and quick. Let’s find out how we erected these pillars to help ATG become profitable online.
We built a responsive e-commerce website for ATG to provide for sustainable growth. The strategic purpose of responsive web design is to facilitate the decision-making and buying processes. Everyone can shop for lighting fixtures online on their tablet, smartphone or phablet as conveniently as they would do it on their desktop computer or laptop. Since people tend to use more than one connected device to buy a product on the web, the convenience which they receive helps the online store generate higher revenue.
The captivating images are the main elements of the e-commerce website’s design that we created. A huge slider with attractive photos welcomes visitors. What better way to start shopping online than viewing the most impressive lighting fixtures on offer in the different product categories? We used images for presenting the various website sections even in the menu. Since the brain processes visual content more quickly than text, the images naturally increase the chances of shoppers going to the product pages. On these pages, products are presented with one or more photos which can be easily zoomed in. This enables visitors to see all details just like they would at a physical store.
Another approach which helps for visitor engagement at the online store is presenting special and personalized offers. When shoppers choose a product category in the menu, they see the special selections “New Releases”, “Recommended Products”, “Best Sellers” and “Most Searched for” along with the subcategories. On each product page, there are sections with personalized offers. These include “You may also like”, which presents other models from the same collection, “More offers for similar products”, “Customers who viewed this product also viewed” and “Other customers are currently viewing”. This approach helps to keep shoppers on the website and maintain their interest.
As a result, they are more likely to make a purchase.
The “Favorites” feature, which enables shoppers to create a wish list, is an effective marketing instrument. People can add the lighting fixtures and accessories which have grabbed them to the list and come back to them later on to decide which ones to buy. The comparison tool is also effective for conversion. It helps shoppers decide between two or more items, whose features and specs are arranged in a table to make comparison super easy.
Why should customers shop online instead of visiting their local ATG store? Here are some good reasons which we gave them when building the company’s online store:
- Finding the desired product is easy - The product categories are perfectly organized and the e-commerce website’s search engine works superbly. It’s possible to sort items based on eight different criteria. Visitors have two options for viewing multiple products - in rows of three or four. They can easily specify their requirements with the help of the various filters. The current PDF catalogues of the brand can also be viewed online.
- Quick product view - With the touch of a button, a small overlay window with the product details appears on the same page. Customers save time as they don’t have to go back and forth between the category page and the individual product pages.
- Personalized user experience - Visitors to the online store can create an account to use multiple convenient tools such as a list with shipping addresses and order tracking. Via an online chat with a sales assistant of ATG, they can receive personalized professional advice.
- Quick checkout in 4 steps - These include viewing the item in the shopping cart, entering the shipping address, selecting a payment option (and payment, if it’s made online) and purchase overview. The checkout process takes only a few minutes to complete. Just compare this to paying at the register, loading the items into your car’s trunk and driving to your home or office.
- A complete range of payment methods - For attracting the largest possible number of customers, we integrated multiple payment options: Fibank’s virtual POS terminal for paying with debit and credit cards - MasterCard, Maestro and Visa, online payment via ePay.bg, ATM payment using B-Pay, cash payment at EasyPay or a bank branch, bank transfer or payment on delivery.
Our team enabled the use of important tactics for winning customers online. Buyers can place an order for a product which is not currently in stock and the company will contact them personally to give them a timeframe for delivery. We also created special icons for ATG’s services which include installation, custom design and an after-sales service.
The custom-built management system of the e-commerce store enables the company
to deliver customer service of the highest quality and to optimize work processes which results in time and money savings. It is easy to list new products and to change the categories and subcategories. We automated order processing to make it more effective and to minimize the risk of errors. Managing enquiries is equally easy and customers receive a reply in the shortest possible time.
The system has everything necessary for
sales management,
enabling ATG to be highly responsive to changes in the market.
It generates daily, weekly and monthly data on the online store’s performance, processes it and presents it in charts and tables. ATG’s staff can make queries and export data in Excel spreadsheets. With reliable analytics, both the marketing and sales processes can be optimized on the go. The two-side integration with the company’s inventory management software not only provides reliable stock information, but gives them the opportunity to react adequately and quickly when the demand for certain products increases.
We designed the online store’s management system to have different levels. Each staff member gets a personal account. The tasks which she can perform and the content sections that she will have access to are determined in advance. For example, this employee may be able to change or only to approve a specific type of content.
ATG’s online store and digital strategy which we built for the company are already producing excellent results. Whiz provides maintenance to the website and full support - the company’s team can reach us at any time by phone, email or online chat.
Our personalized service guarantees long-term stability to our client. We take active part in the e-commerce website’s future development with optimizations and upgrades to ensure that it will retain its competitive position.