Driven by increasing mobile traffic, Habitat has introduced a new e-commerce platform to allow the brand to evolve its online customer experience after reporting an increase of over 35% in traffic in the last year.
Developed by an in-house team and digital agency Salmon, the new responsive site has been built on Magento Enterprise Edition with a mobile audience in-mind as Habitat predicts that mobile traffic is set to increase by at least 40% one the coming year.
Phase one of the project introduces a refined user experience with easier navigation and multi-divide image browsing, an easier check-out process, enhanced search function and improved rich editorial content.
The platform will also allow for near-term developments such as the introduction of user-personalised experiences across channels and a click-and-collect service from Habitat flagship stores and its 84 Mini Habitat stores nationwide.
Launched last month after an extensive Beta testing phase, the new site has already seen strong conversion uplifts year on year and significantly increased revenues.
“We’ve already received very positive feedback from customers about their online experience with us on the new site and conversion figures show the new platform is making it much easier to shop with us online,” says Jackie Bullock, Head of Ecommerce at Habitat. “At the start of the project we identified a series of customer demands that we simply could not meet with a platform that was being outpaced by our competitors. Our aim was to upgrade to a more flexible, sustainable platform that would support our multi-channel growth and at the same time allow us to develop an inspirational brand experience – and this is what the new platform has allowed us to do. Now our customers are more immersed and inspired by their online journey and we’re excited about starting phase two and showing the true capabilities of the new site.”
Neil Stewart, CEO at Salmon said: “Habitat’s new Magento platform brings the flexibility and scalability it requires to engage with its clients at every touchpoint, whenever and wherever they choose to shop. It marks a truly exciting time of growth and improvement for Habitat by enabling it to respond to the market demands at speed, whilst delivering a more personalised customer experience. Phase two will see Salmon deliver further enhancements to enable a rich multichannel experience for customers.”
