In 2019, Topps Tiles, the UK’s leading tiles specialist, made the decision to improve its online customer experience. Although the award-winning company has more than 300 stores and 1,500 specialist experts, it was operating a limited e-commerce platform that couldn’t support the growing level of digital traffic to its website and the omnichannel strategy the retailer wanted to offer to its increasing customer base.

Topps Tiles chose to work with creative agency Tom&Co to develop a personalised Adobe Commerce platform that would replace the bespoke in-house website it was using.

“With 332 stores, Topps Tiles’ key objective was to integrate its offline and online worlds,” says Tom McCaul, Founder & Director at Tom&Co. “With Adobe Commerce, Topps Tiles can do just that by bringing its showrooms to life online, and offering the flexibility that customers want.”

Combining offline and online worlds

Creating a true omnichannel customer view is no easy task, but Tom&Co were able to successfully deliver a seamless connection between Topp Tiles’ stores and online experience via ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) integration. This allowed distinct areas for consumers and trade customers to shop on the website, creating separate and clear customer journeys for each audience. The headless setup also creates flexibility for development, whilst reducing any risks when experimenting with new features, layouts and customer journeys.

Having a synchronised system also powers the store tills, tracking all in-store and online transactions to allow better visibility of stock availability. Customers are also now able to start their journey online and end offline. In the past year, Click and Collect options have become increasingly popular across the UK. To reflect this, Topps Tiles’ new e-commerce platform successfully integrated all 332 stores with a Click and Collect service. “Customers are now able to see which products are available in their chosen store directly from the website, something that’s especially beneficial to trade workers who are planning renovations and gives customers more choice in how they choose to shop,” remarks McCaul.

Another integration has been the Home Visualiser Tool that allows customers to upload a photo of the room they’re redecorating and view and evalutate how different tiles will look. “Leaping into the world of interiors can be overwhelming. That’s where Topps Tiles’ visualising tool really comes in handy,” says McCaul.

The visualiser allows customers to filter tiles by material, colour, shape, finish and suitability, download an image, order samples and get a cost estimate. “A quote can then be generated with the products the customers has chosen and can be redeemed anytime, online or instore, making the shopping experience incredibly seamless and simple however customers choose to shop,” comments McCaul.

Driving B2B customer loyalty

The ERP integration and headless set up within Adobe Commerce enabled Tom&Co to design a separate shopping experience on the website for trade customers, highlighting trade savings and multi-buy products.

Acknowledging that trade customers are a vital part of Topps Tiles’ custom portfolio, Tom&Co implemented a Trade Loyalty Programme called Rewards+ to increase brand loyalty and customer retention by offering bulk-buy discounts and loyalty points for future spending. “Through the loyalty system integration, we’ve enabled B2B customers to track their points and account balance easily. The programme has really contributed to the huge B2B success that Topps Tiles has recently experienced,” says McCaul.

Trade customers are now also able to shop Topp Tiles’ products and deals directly through its new Trade App, where trades customers can instantly view their points balance and expiry, and access the in-app Rewards+ Card on the go from any smart phone device.

Improving the customer’s journey

Shortly after the platform’s launch, the pandemic took hold in the UK, permanently changing the retail industry and the way consumers shop forever. During the UK lockdowns, Topps Tiles saw a huge increase in website traffic as consumers focused on home improvements. Despite an unexpected sharp rise in traffic, the new website successfully processed the increased level of interest. Sales skyrocketed, trebling during the lockdown and remained consistent at +45% growth across the year.

Meanwhile the high-performance website has increased customer engagement and doubled the number of trade sales. After the launch there was an immediate 30% increase in customer revenue, and a 1,000% increase in trade website visits.

The platform’s ability to allow Topps Tiles’ staff to better understand and support customer needs has also been especially useful for converting early interest into sales, driving conversion in this area from 0.7% to more than 4%, whilst customer satisfaction levels now exceed 80%.

“The growth Topp’s Tiles has seen is incredible and we’re delighted to support the business as it goes from strength to strength and delivers new features and innovations to inspire its customers,” concludes McCaul.

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