Fortnum & Mason says it has taken its famed customer service online with the launch of a fully-responsive website.
Customers can order from the luxury food and drink retailer’s new site for delivery to more than 130 countries. Developers say that it is responsive across both desktop and mobile devices while at the same time scalable and highly flexible.
The responsive site, which represents the first major redevelopment of the Fortnum & Mason site in four years, was quietly launched last month and since then mobile visits have improved 77%, year-on-year, while mobile conversion is up by 57% over the same period. New customers are converting at a rate that’s 15% higher than the previous site while calls to the customer service centre are 18% lower.
The new site was built by software development studio Red Badger using open source ecommerce platform Spree Commerce and Facebook React. The project was led by Fortnum customer experience director Zia Zareem-Slade.
“Collectively, we’ve achieved something very special,” said Zareem-Slade. “As well as being beautifully designed, the new site is fast, slick and easy to navigate – and is truly responsive, providing the same experience across multiple devices. The site reinforces the brand experience that our customers expect and since the site went fully live we have seen incredible results in increased revenues, increased conversion rates, but most importantly, amazingly positive customer feedback.”
Throughout development the Red Badger team tested it in Fortnum & Mason’s Piccadilly store, asking customers for their reaction to the site look and feel.
Cain Ullah, chief executive of Red Badger, said: “By working in full collaboration with both Fortnum’s and its customers throughout, and testing at every phase, we have managed to deliver a brand new fully responsive site in just eight months. The new site provides Fortnum’s with a robust and agile platform to support future business expansion and take advantage of the explosion of mobile and tablet usage.”
Fortnum & Mason first opened the doors of its Piccadilly store in 1707. Its second, at London St Pancras station, opened in November 2013, and since then it has also opened in Dubai and at Heathrow Terminal 5.
