Menswear goes mobile.
Retail Apparel Group uses Magento Commerce to bring their fashions into a mobile future.
336%
increase in organic traffic
Products:
Create a responsive interface.
Streamline checkout process and site search.
Institute comprehensive tracking and conversion optimisation strategies.
Results
336% increase in organic traffic
84% increase in paid traffic
99% increase in page views
A mobile overhaul for menswear
Retail Apparel Group (RAG) is the largest menswear specialist retailer in Australia. They comprise four brands: Tarocash, yd., Connor and Johnny Bigg. These brands have become synonymous with smart casual menswear in Australia and in 2015, RAG ventured into women’s activewear with the purchase of Rockwear. However, the fashion e-commerce retailer was quickly growing out of their existing e-commerce platform. In 2009, RAG had invested heavily in a proprietary platform, but like many six-year-old digital solutions, it was nearing end-of-life. Their e-commerce websites were not mobile friendly, hadn't got a responsive design and — crucially for a fashion e-commerce company — looked dated. RAG needed a future-proofed omnichannel system that could support an ambitious, strategic roadmap with a phased roll-out.
RAG had omnichannel ambitions and knew that mobile accounted for over 50 per cent of their traffic thanks to a successful email marketing programme. Using the old e-commerce platform, it took forever to implement new features, which were expensive. RAG was also unable to innovate or compete effectively and they felt limited by a single software integrator. The retailer was committed to laying a strong omnichannel foundation with a mobile friendly approach, but was looking for powerful, flexible e-commerce platforms to pull off a future-proofed system. Naturally, they needed a responsive interface, but they also wanted to streamline their checkout process, revolutionise site search and execute comprehensive tracking and conversion optimisation strategies. After much research, they chose Magento Commerce.
“The immediate goal was to introduce an exceptional user experience and address the poorly optimised mobile experience.”
Peter Ratcliffe
Head of Digital, Retail Apparel Group
Going omnichannel with an eye to the future
Valuing their extensive experience in fashion e-commerce and omnichannel retail, RAG chose Netstarter as their Magento Partner. The objective of the project was to deliver a benchmark omnichannel solution that really performed on mobile. After an exhaustive review process including Demandware, RAG decided on Magento Commerce. The main reason for the decision was that Magento Commerce ensured RAG maintained complete ownership of their investment — an opportunity to innovate and differentiate from competitors. Importantly, Magento Commerce also enabled RAG to launch their brands without compromising on functionality or settling for a predefined template. RAG was also excited about the direction of Magento Commerce and the future roadmap of the platform, particularly such Magento Commerce features as CMS and B2B functionality. It was time to get busy.
The migration involved a complete overhaul of the UX and the introduction of extensive new functionality to improve the browsing and shopping experience, on all channels. The new shops needed to be more effective in showcasing the company’s brands and their respective product ranges. With enhanced merchandising capabilities, the team was able to present curated outfits in a more engaging format. They added faceted search and integrated an Elastic site search feature that indexed products, categories, FAQs and store content.
The result was a streamlined browsing experience. Meanwhile, a robust promotion rule engine ensured online promotions replicated in-store offers, creating an omnichannel experience for shoppers. Next, they install a click-and-collect implementation to drive traffic in-store and increase engagement. And finally, a granular optimisation of the checkout process reduced basket abandonments and improved the site-wide conversion rate.
The Magento Commerce ecosystem presented a number of quick win opportunities for RAG. The Magento Marketplace provided a good starting point to extend and tailor the site’s functionality while reducing time to market. RAG found the “promotional rules” extension particularly useful among thousands of free and premium Magento extensions.
“We chose Magento as our online platform due to its ease of integration so that we could offer the ultimate omnichannel experience to our customers and the future looks very exciting!”
Peter Ratcliffe
Head of Digital, Retail Apparel Group
Working like a dream
The new omnichannel experience was launched in November 2016, after six months of development. Straight away, RAG saw encouraging feedback from customers via social channels about the new customer experience. Finally, the e-commerce websites looked modern and fashionable and most importantly, they worked like a dream on mobile with their responsive design.