Nuts & Bolts: Case Study
Leveraging the Web for Retail
April 2008
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Solution: Relaunch the Web site with a comprehensive online inventory and gift center
Results: Sales increased approximately 105 percent in the first month
Remaining flexible as the marketplace shifts keeps companies sharp, and when retail traffic diminishes, merchants focus on the Web to entice customers to visit retail stores and make purchases. Because most consumers prefer to view jewelry pieces in person, providing a positive online experience often is a challenge. When Days Jewelers experienced decreased retail traffic last year, the 100-year-old Waterville, Maine-based company created a new Web site to better showcase its product inventory; create customer loyalty; and increase conversions, retention and customer satisfaction.
The Days brand is known for showcasing unique jewelry pieces, so the new Web site was designed to support that focus by featuring detailed product views using robust imaging. Days partnered with e-commerce retail technology and services provider MarketLive to develop the site and leverage advanced imaging in order to create a more customer-friendly online shopping experience, one that also reinforces the Days’ retail channel.
According to Jeff Corey, Days’ president and CEO, “In general, we are noticing a decline in traffic to our stores, and I think that this is going on all through the country. We were trying to find a way to drive more traffic to our stores, and traditional methods of advertising have become less and less effective. We wanted to be more convenient for our customers so they could do their shopping from home, and that seems to be working better for us because it shows appreciation by simply valuing the customer’s time.”
The new site more effectively capitalizes on market trends by advertising timely promotions and features.
Several structural aspects of the site were revised to improve searchability, navigation and merchandising capabilities. Shoppers now can search for the type of jewelry they’re looking for, and the site will display all pieces that fit the criteria, Corey says. Once a piece is selected, shoppers receive a detailed description of the piece and are put in touch with a sales executive who can arrange an appointment to show the piece.
In addition, the site now includes a gift center that showcases purchasing suggestions based on occasion. It provides guidance, grouping pieces from the 15,000-item inventory and showing the items most appropriate to the gift or occasion.
One of the main challenges Days faced was cataloging its large inventory, then creating effective navigation for customers to access those items. Using MarketLive’s Intelligent Selling system, Days created a way for shoppers to access any product in three clicks, reducing abandonment rates.
Since its December 2007 launch, the site has nearly doubled monthly revenue and increased average purchase size more than 40 percent. In addition, during the month of December, sales increased by about 105 percent.
What advice does Corey have for merchants working to improve their customers’ online shopping experiences? Allow ample time to prepare, he says. Merchandising the site “was a much more time-consuming process than I had anticipated ... it took a full concerted effort between merchandising, IT, marketing and even our front-line people.”
Corey now manages keywords and search terms based on how his customers are searching the site. “Choosing effective keywords, I recently realized, is very exciting because we are in a unique industry. There is not a lot of history in the fine jewelry arena as it relates to e-commerce,” he concludes.
—Kate DeBevois
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