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In 1905, Spiegel mailed its first catalog to women across America. Just twenty years later, the fashion and furniture retailer had 10 million customers. Soon after that, the Spiegel catalog was the first to introduce European trends to the American public. Nearing the end of the 20th century, when women began climbing the corporate ladder, Spiegel changed to meet their fashion and decorating needs. And today, after more than 100 years in business, Spiegel is still committed to meeting its customers' needs and desires with collections of versatile, unique apparel and functional, fashionable home products.
In 2004, Spiegel reemerged as part of the newly formed Spiegel Brands, Inc. At that time, the company set out to completely redesign Spiegel.com to make it easier for shoppers to find products, increase conversion, and reduce abandonment rates.
In order to determine how to streamline the shopping process on the Spiegel site, the company conducted several tests on the old site to determine how shoppers navigated and where they experienced trouble. For example, one analysis revealed that first-time shoppers had very low conversion rates. The "Idea Resource," a content-rich section offering shopping tips and advice, was difficult for users to find, but those that did find it had a 30% higher conversion rate than those that didn't.
To better understand why customers abandoned carts, a clickstream analysis - a test that determines how a shopper navigates a site - was performed. It revealed that customers often left the shopping process after reviewing shipping information and never returned to complete the purchase.
Qualitative analysis was also sought to inform the redesign efforts, so Spiegel solicited user feedback about the site through customer surveys and call center feedback. Direct comments from customers provided valuable insight that helped drive a new design that would better meet customers' needs.
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With testing complete, the redesign efforts began with very specific goals in mind.
Fry's usability experts reworked the site's global navigation to engage the customer and improve the shopping experience. They eliminated redundant links and "flattened" or simplified top category levels. Top-level categories that had been difficult to see are now accessible in two ways, via the Shop by Collection or Shop by Category link. The Shop by Collection area is used to showcase merchandised concepts, such as a collection of apparel. The Shop by Category in the top navigation provides a greater level of detail while using standard product category definitions. This integrated approach to information presentation and ability to purchase provides the "Idea Resource" guide with more useful links to product pages. Customers can now view an entire collection or set of tips about the merchandise with a clear and easy way to navigate to a product page where they can place an item in their cart. In addition, the new one-click shopping feature allows the shopper to add an outfit to the shopping cart while staying on the same product page, where she can also see alternate views and sizing charts. All of these improvements, including clearer category definitions and better organization of product content, reduce confusion and encourage customers to keep shopping.
Fry's creative team also removed clutter from the site's home page and set more of its product images against a white background to highlight them. Category browse pages now feature clearly displayed headers and the selection being viewed is correspondingly highlighted on the left navigation to remind the shopper where she is on the site at all times. A "view all" option was added to category pages to make it simple for the shopper to see more product thumbnails at once.
By providing more product information and streamlining navigation, Fry and Spiegel effectively simplified the shopping process.
Positive results of the redesign were immediately apparent. Shoppers are more engaged in the site with a 19% decrease in home page departures and a 14% increase in page views per session. A 15% decrease in onsite search sessions and a 45% increase in products added to the shopping cart from a product page prove the efficiency of the new shopping experience. Overall sales increased as a result of a 13% increase in average order value. Cart abandonment rates decreased by 20%, and conversion rates increased 59% and 43% for new and repeat visitors respectively, providing the company with double digit year-over-year sales growth.
"After comprehensive testing of our site, it was clear to us that we needed to simplify the shopping experience for our customers. Fry led the way in making recommendations for simple design changes that allowed our users to feel more engaged in shopping, and the results have been tremendous."
Tony Chivari - Senior Vice President, Marketing and E-commerce Spiegel Brands, Inc.
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