Menswear goes mobile.

Retail Apparel Group uses Adobe Commerce to bring their fashions into a mobile future.

Established

1987

Employees: 894

Waterloo, New South Wales, Australia

http://rag.net.au/

336%

Increase in organic traffic

Products:

Adobe Commerce ›

Objectives

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

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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 solution. In 2009, RAG had invested heavily in a proprietary solution, 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% of their traffic thanks to a successful email marketing programme. Using the old e-commerce solution, 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 solutions 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 Adobe 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 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 Adobe Commerce. The main reason for the decision was that Adobe Commerce ensured RAG maintained complete ownership of their investment — an opportunity to innovate and differentiate from competitors. Importantly, Adobe 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 Adobe Commerce and the future roadmap of the solution, particularly Adobe Commerce features such 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 Adobe Commerce ecosystem presented a number of quick win opportunities for RAG. The 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 extensions.

“We chose Adobe Commerce 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.