Project Overview
Order of Style are an online fashion retailer, offering a range of premium Australian and international fashion labels including J Brand, Rebecca Minkoff, and Sol Sana. We have been Order of Style’s digital agency for nearly five years, and have helped grow the brand to compete alongside e-commerce giants such as ASOS and The Iconic.
We kicked off this partnership in 2014 with an end-to-end website development. Although the site was still performing well and bringing in significant business, technological advancements over the past four years meant the website was not reaching its full potential. We therefore embarked on a website redevelopment project that included UX workshops, strategic consultation, advanced SEO, an Algolia search integration, Craft Commerce, and full design and development.
To differentiate Order of Style from the competition, we elected for a boutique look and feel that still provided the same kind of slick user experience e-commerce shoppers have come to know and expect from digital retailers. Because we knew the site had to be a top performer in terms of site and search speed, we customised a powerful search interface following extensive product and data mapping that helped users easily find products that perfectly matched their search criteria. Given the competitive nature of the fashion industry, we performed extensive SEO and built clear pathways that would lead users to precisely the top, pant, or shoe they were after, whether through an on-site search or through a search engine query.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
Antony Corrales
Ed Raine
Andrew Tesdorpf
Matt Cordell
Francesca Buratti
Rom Palmas
Project Brief
After nearly half a decade of working with Order of Style, we have a deep understanding of the fashion industry and what customers have come to expect from online fashion retailers. Our objectives for this project included:
1. Redesigning site templates based on the existing sitemap
2. Integrating the site with Algolia for a powerful, advanced search experience
3. Facilitating shipping rule management via the site’s CMS
4. A progressive reveal of billing details during checkout
5. Payment gateway integration with PayPal and Stripe
6. Payment integration with Xero
7. The ability to configure promotion codes and showcase selected products via the CMS
8. Advanced tracking
Ultimately, we wanted to create a focused, tailored shopping experience for users, placing their wants and needs at the forefront of the site’s design.
Project Need
As mentioned, we identified a need to refresh Order of Style’s website to keep it in line with website best practices and take advantage of technological advancements since the original development in 2014. To capture a boutique look and feel, we went with a minimalist design aesthetic, but added in emojis and animated gifs for a bit of playfulness and personality.
In addition to elevating the overall user experience, SEO was another key consideration for the project. With a high volume of monthly searches for the brands that Order of Style stocks, and a competitive marketplace, we had to build the site in a way that would result in strong SERP performance. We enhanced the sitemap to include detailed brand pages with content and product filtering; this was done to give Order of Style high visibility to users searching for particular high-end brands, drawing them in to a segment of the site that directly satisfies their needs.
User Experience
Our research confirmed that the easier it is for a user to find exactly what they are looking for, the more likely they are to convert. This inspired a filtering and selection process that allows users to drop in relevant criteria (for example, colour, brand, or size) and, as they make selections, automatically produce a catalogue of suitable products.
A common issue with e-commerce sites are that users often click the ‘Add to Cart’ button before selecting a size. This typically results in clunky and even confusing validation. To overcome this, we allow users to add to cart prior to selecting a size, and then prompt them to choose a size in a modal post-click.
We also streamlined and stepped the checkout experience to remove superfluous detail and focus the user’s attention on the task at hand (converting to a sale). We removed the standard menu and footer to limit the user’s chances of getting distracted and clicking back out of the checkout.
Project Marketing
We have worked with the client on an ongoing basis, running various digital marketing initiatives with a focus on conversion.
Project Privacy
Standard privacy procedure was followed in accordance with best practice on all contact forms and other areas of the website where personally identifiable data was collected. In addition we ensure that no personal information is passed through Google Analytics (eg. email addresses). Regular penetration testing is conducted to ensure the site and server are secure. The website, hosting and infrastructure pass this testing with no significant issues identified.
Digital - FashionTech
FashionTech is changing the way fashion does business, disrupting the traditional relationships between consumers, brands and garments. They are creating a faster and more innovative ways to shop, market, educate and ultimately experience the fashion. This is the place for all those with a fashion connection.
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