Oroton “impressed” with results after website relaunch

Heather McIlvaine

18th Oct 2017

Since relaunching its e-commerce site last month, luxury fashion brand OrotonGroup has seen a “huge improvement” in online conversions, reduced bounce rate and increased revenue, according to the company’s head of e-commerce and client services, Melanie Grafton.

“We’ve been impressed with the results we’ve seen so far, it’s been really good,” Grafton told Internet Retailing.

Until recently, Oroton operated five different websites for different parts of the world, which made it both costly and time-consuming to update stock and imagery and implement new features.

But earlier this year, the company began the process of developing a new, global website, which could adjust to reflect the user’s location, language and currency and work on any device – laptop, mobile phone, tablet and even television.

The months-long project, completed with the help of NOW Solutions, involved automating the process of uploading new products from Oroton’s ERP systems, developing a personalisation tool and creating an overall fresher look.

“Our strategy was to invest in delivering a world-class online experience. One that drives traffic conversion, average transaction value and repurchase,” Grafton said.

“The update was a key strategic milestone in improving the user experience online. It wasn’t just about making it look a lot nicer and fresher and giving it an aesthetic update, but making it more functional and easier to navigate, search and purchase.

“The primary reason for the update was the fact that we have seen such a huge increase in the amt of people on mobile, so we wanted to make the mobile experience a lot more streamlined and easier for customers to view,” she said.

This is just the first phase of Oroton’s broader investment in e-commerce, which Grafton said will soon include the ability for customers to pick up online orders in-store.

“We haven’t yet launched click and collect, we’re working on that at the moment. It’s coming very very soon,” she said, adding that it’s the next “natural progression” of the company’s e-commerce strategy.

While e-commerce represents only around 10 per cent of Oroton’s overall sales (according to one analyst), Grafton said it would be a mistake to let that figure dictate the company’s investment in e-commerce.

“The person who shops online doesn’t only shop online, they shop in-store as well. Any updates we make to the online portion of the business helps all parts of the business,” she said.