How we improved Hippychick’s online shopping experience
Hippychick specialise in innovative products for babies and toddlers. They needed a bespoke eCommerce website designed for their users that complemented their brand.
1.Challenge
It was time for Hippychick to have a website that aligned with their business values.
Hippychick is a family run, multi-award winning business specialising in products for babies and toddlers. Their success is built on a desire to bring innovative products to family homes and help new parents navigate parenthood – all whilst providing exceptional customer service. Hippychick decided their business needed a modern eCommerce website to complement their brand and their products. We were delighted to help.
Hippychick’s pain points
- Their old website didn’t reflect their values as a brand.
- The checkout process on the old website took too long, losing them sales.
- The old website wasn’t designed with the user in mind.
- The old website didn’t stand out from their competitors.
- The old website wasn’t designed for mobile devices.
2.Approach
We knew understanding what Hippychick’s customers needed from an eCommerce website was key.
One of Hippychick’s goals was for their new website to reflect their values. As Hippychick strive to make parents’ lives easier, it was important this was reflected in the design of the website. We needed to deliver a website that provided a first class user experience (UX).
To do this, we studied how Hippychick’s customers behaved on their old website. Google Analytics, heat maps, and user journey recordings were some of the sources used to gather data. We then produced a detailed audit that shaped the early stages of the new website design.
The checkout process was also a key area for improvement. The previous website architecture and layout wasn’t designed around the needs of the user. The journey to checkout was taking far too long and there were concerns that valuable sales were being lost.
Website research
- User interviews & surveys
- Analysis of real user journeys through the website
- Industry and competitor research
- Website page structure and navigation analysis
3.Results
A purpose built eCommerce website makes shopping online for Hippychick’s customers easier and more enjoyable.
We created a website with the end user in mind, improving the entire process of shopping with Hippychick online. The checkout process is now slick and quick, and the entire website is simple to navigate and enjoyable to use.
It was also important to Hippychick that their new website was about more than quick sales. Alongside fast functionality for busy parents, the new website is imaginative, creative, and fun to look at – a website that parents and their children can look at together.
A huge amount of thought went into the mobile functionality of Hippychick’s new website, as so many parents browse on the go. Working in partnership with Springboard IT we simplified Hippychick’s internal processes by integrating the new website with stock management software, Khaos, putting an end to duplicated tasks and saving staff a huge amount of time.
How did it benefit Hippychick?
- A faster checkout process and an improved, enjoyable user experience.
- Time-saving third party software integration.
- A website that stands out from the rest and reflects Hippychick as a brand.
Enjoyable shopping experience
It was important the new website reflected the Hippychick brand and target market. We designed it to be soft, subtle, and intuitive. They sell a lot of products so with careful consideration around product categories, and complex but easy to use filtering, we were able to make the shopping experience simple and enjoyable.
Informative but clean
To enhance the shopping experience further we opted for clean and simple product pages. The key function of the page was to entice purchases so the crucial elements were front and centre, with the product description, FAQs, and delivery info etc lower down the page.
Painless checkout
One of Hippychick’s main frustrations with the old website was the clunky and lengthy checkout process. With the introduction of guest checkout, additional fast-track payment methods, and making the delivery information super clear the new two step checkout process is now quick, simple, and painless.
Improved mobile experience
With the majority of Hippychick’s users browsing from a mobile, we designed the shopping experience to look and work similarly to that of an app. Simple navigation, large product images, clear filtering options all helped make the mobile website a success with their audience.
Wishlist to increase sales
Not everyone visiting your eCommerce site is ready to buy, most will be doing their research first. In order to improve the experience of the ‘researchers’ and become memorable we built a wishlist so that users can save products of interest and buy at a later date which has proved a great success.
Preloved products
Hippychick are constantly changing stock based on their audience and trends which often leaves some unsold, ex-display products. They wanted a way to sell these to the public, so we created a preloved shopping area where customers could purchase great products at a lower price.
Attracting new customers
Having a seamless shopping experience is only half of the solution, you then need to attract new customers to experience it. With a strong focus on SEO, we created the Hippychick blog, which would become the hub every young parent dreams of with helpful tips, insights and information for bringing up little munchkins.
