-
Over the last six years >large have been building and refining our ecommerce platform. This platform forms the hub of the entire transactional system, defining workflows and pulling the website, payment solution, merchant system (product database), fulfillment system (warehousing and delivery), eCRM and Customer services interface together. Large need to understand these systems and the processes that underpin them to determine if they are efficient, effective and robust before they can specify appropriate workflows.
In particular, >large have built up an expertise in online retail for premium brands, with particular reference to the fashion and travel markets. Over the course of these projects, we have created an interface for existing ecommerce platforms, partnered with separate build agencies and integrated with multiple payment solutions, fulfilment systems, merchant systems, customer services systems and financial systems.
- Premium brands – Agent Provocateur, Bang & Olufsen, Lulu Guinness, Scandinavian Living
- Fashion brands – Karen Millen, Oasis Stores, Bodas, Pout Cosmetics, Sunglass Hut
- Travel Brands – Haven Europe, Warner Breaks
Customer profiles
Customer profiles aid designers and marketeers throughout the creative process by breaking down the customer research results into information we can easily relate to. The more specific we can be, the more targeted the communication material will be. By creating a collection of profiles, we can begin to "humanise" the demographic data and develop personalised stories that clearly define the communication goals. Once these personalities are in place we can then develop the key messages we would like to communicate to each audience and use these as reference points for any creative execution.
Once we have segmented the audience and developed a series of profiles it is important that we think about each stage of the brand-customer relationship. By analysing the different sales narratives we can differentiate between the messages we wish to deliver to the first visit visitor, the repeat visitor and existing customers.
To truly understand how a customer interacts with the brand and more importantly, which messages they are most receptive to, we need to understand these sales narratives – where customers have come from, why they are here and what they are going to do next. For example, the two sales narratives below require a subtly different set of messages despite the main purpose being “online research”:
- Press article > research via website > buy in store
- Receive email > research via website > purchase via website
Discovering these sales narratives and determining the appropriate messages at each stage is a complex matter and is dependent on extracting information from key stakeholders, sales associates and online retail experts. This information is extracted from key stakeholders via a series of workshops. There are typically 4 half day workshops facilitated by Large and attended by a cross-section of stakeholders – the premis of these workshops is that we don’t know all the right answers but we can confidently ask the right questions.
These workshops typically cover:
- The brand’s interests - Promise, attributes, messages
- The marketplace - Realities, imperatives, competitive factors
- The audience’s needs & desires - Relationship to brand, media preferences, purchase triggers, channel preferences, loyalty factors
It is our experience that once a specification document is written at the outset of a project, it does not see the light of day until acceptance testing, by which time it is too late to properly rectify any errors or omissions. A specification should be a live document subject to change as better ideas will undoubtedly emerge through the design and development process. As such, website specifications developed by Large are accompanied by a series of easily-referenced-schematics consisting of the sitemap, wireframes and flow diagrams of key functionality. Furthermore, it is at this point that we determine the success criteria that will accurately measure ‘Return On Investment’ post launch.
Information architecture
Once we have a thorough understanding of the brand, the audience, the business processes and the competitive landscape can we specify the information architecture and online strategy upon which the transactional website will be built. It is our objective at this stage to specify a sitemap, structure and associated set of templates, wizards and other tools that will result in an engaging and compelling website for customers that will results in true ROI.
Wireframes specify how information is managed on a page and form a visual check list for template development, ensuring consistency and decisions based on objective facts and research rather than the emotion and politics – we can leave these for the design phase! Furthermore, as they are visual, they are unambiguous to designers, developers and strategists on both the agency and client side.
-
- Oasis Stores
A style bible designed to give a full brand experience and bridge the gap between high street and designer shopping
- Agent Provocateur
"The site does more than sell, it's about telling a story, taking people on a personal adventure"
Joe Corré
Agent Provocateur founder
