We leveraged data-driven insights to transform website and digital communication, boost traffic, and reduce bounce rate
Goal
This project was undertaken for a prominent, reputable company that chose to maintain its anonymity under a non-disclosure agreement. That's why we've anonymized the case study. downloads in the first 2 months
To revitalize the website and digital communication for one of the shopping mall chains owned by a company that controls hundreds of stores worldwide, with an imperative to be intensely data-driven.
Challenge
This was far from a regular website revamp; it was a complex process of bridging two worlds—the offline and the online. This required us to gather and analyze vast amounts of diverse data.
Solution
We provided two concurrent streams of services: Discovery and Delivery. The Discovery stream started a month earlier and continued even as we initiated the Delivery phase, which was designed to continuously build upon the value discovered.
Discovery
The Discovery involved a combination of qualitative and quantitative research with the overarching goal of designing a smooth customer experience.
Qualitative part
- The qualitative part covered both online and offline areas. The offline area investigated using the Participant Observation research method. Its goal was to understand the entire customer journey: starting from the desire to go shopping, the chosen path to the shop, finding the specific place to make a purchase, the act of buying, the path back, unpacking, trying out the products, sharing with friends, and coming back. We accompanied our clients on their shopping trips to gain firsthand insight!
- We used Usability Testing to study the online area. It helped us understand the stage of the customer journey where they become a website user. The problems identified during this phase helped us focus on further website building.
Through the examination of every aspect of the customer journey — both offline and online — we generated numerous solid hypotheses to improve the customer experience.
Through the examination of every aspect of the customer journey — both offline and online — we generated numerous solid hypotheses to improve the customer experience.
Quantitative part
The quantitative part ran concurrently and, first of all, helped us clarify the customer segments we focused on during the qualitative research phase. And, of course, we diligently tested the hypotheses found in the qualitative part.
- Web analytics worked with the online component, proving hypotheses, identifying drops in conversion rates, and detecting various errors in the customer's online journey.
- An offline poll of 1000 shopping mall visitors helped us discover segments.
- Web polls involving 5000 users further enriched our data.
Crafting the answers
- Who are our customers, and on which segments should we focus our efforts?
- What are the customer journeys for each identified segment?
- What obstacles should we remove from the customers' path?
- Which design approach would be best suited to meet the needs of all segments?
Delivery
The Delivery stream kicked off one month post Discovery, operating in parallel to continuously build upon the value discovered.
The UI design process was steered by the expertise of our designers, complemented by the tested hypotheses from the Discovery phase. Each section of the website was carefully crafted to seamlessly guide the customer through their shopping mall experience:
- Our design struck a balance between fashion-forward aesthetics and resonating with our target audience.
- We introduced a new navigation system and a convenient shopping mall search panel that elegantly slides out from the top, filling the entire screen.
- We blended the online and offline experiences, giving customers more value through a smooth, easy journey.
The tech team, guided by the design, built the website from scratch. Following our agile development practices, the usual "tech design-code-test-deploy" pipeline ensured a predictable and on-time delivery. Our thorough QA phase left no room for glitches, providing a seamless user experience.
The tech team also designed an API and relevant backend infrastructure, facilitating easy future integration of a mobile app and further enhancing customer satisfaction.
Results
The final outcomes of our projects included:
- A brand-new website featuring a sleek and adaptable design.
- Comprehensive guidelines for all digital and offline communications, including social networks, banners, mailings, and more.
- A prioritized backlog of features ready for implementation, carefully evaluated based on the value they bring to both customers and the business.
- A robust mobile application API and backend infrastructure, seamlessly enabling future integration of the mobile app.
As a result, the website experienced:
- a 20% surge in traffic,
- a substantial increase in page views per visit, from 1.2 to 2.5.
Additionally, user engagement rose:
- the average session duration extending from 48 seconds to 1.5 minutes.
- bounce rate decreased from 16.2% down to 13%.
