Harry & David has launched a newly designed ecommerce site for both mobile and desktop, with the former accounting for 50% of the brand’s online traffic as online buying continues to shift there.
The company, owned by 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, upgraded its mobile optimization, including improved page load speed, a critical factor. It also improved visual navigation for mobile, with large “shop by price” buttons and streamlined department and category pages.
“Throughout this process we also focused on incorporating beautiful aesthetics to highlight the beauty and quality of the products,” said Oscar Castro, Vice President of Digital Commerce for Harry & David.
Castro the photography incorporated a new color palette and styling, as well as larger images. The website is now full-width, enabling more comprehensive storytelling.
There were also enhancements to the mobile checkout process, including streamlined shipping and payment forms.
Castro said the redesign was a continuation of a journey to make it easier for customers to shop with Harry & David. Last year, he said, the company launched a new look and user experience to better reflect the history of the brand and put a spotlight on the care that goes into its gourmet food gifts.
“We worked diligently to introduce this new digital experience in time for the busiest shopping period of the year,” Castro said.
Shoppers are able to utilize Apple Business Chat to ask a gift concierge about a product or service, and they can make purchases using Apple Pay.
Department and category shopping pages have been redesigned in the app to complement the look and feel of the homepage, depicting signature products, demonstrating the assortment and enabling more storytelling.
Castro said the biggest challenge was deciding which enhancements to prioritize. Since the brand has highly-engaged, digitally active customers, he said, the design team knew what they cared about most.
“We utilize shopping surveys, customer service feedback, analytics and user testing to better understand shoppers,” said Castro. “Search and navigation improvements, new department pages, redesigned product details and improvements to mobile and checkout are all enhancements we believe our customers will love.”
Site search and filtering options have also been upgraded, including product recommendations and filtering based on popular product attributes.
Checkout features a more intuitive experience, including the ability to send multiple gifts to multiple recipients at once.
Harry & David also reorganized and streamlined its product detail pages, including alternate views and more visible images. There is also a new customer service portal where shoppers can view real-time updates on order status, change orders receive live chat support.
Castro said the goal for Harry & David was to streamline every aspect of the ordering process across both mobile and desktop, update the look and feel to leverage its catalog content and enhance its customer service capabilities in the digital realm.
Upcoming enhancements will include tools like conversational commerce and a greater ability to demonstrate the product assortment.