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Please find case studies and examples of KPI improvements for companies in jewelry ecommerce.
Hello! Thanks for your question, "Please find case studies and examples of KPI improvements for companies in jewelry ecommerce."
The short version is that thirteen case studies were found relating to KPI improvements for companies in jewelry eCommerce. Below you will find a deep dive of my findings.
METHODOLOGY
A comprehensive search was undertaken for case studies showing changes/initiatives made on site, like a site redesign or changes in UX, customer experience/service, technical adjustments etc, that had an impact on the business, as reflected by the key performance indicators (KPIs) like website traffic, conversion rate, average order value, etc. The search yielded thirteen such eCommerce case studies, which are duly given in this research.
As requested, the case studies are presented in a bullet format.
INTRODUCTION
An initial search yielded several websites regarding benchmark conversion rates, strategies to increase conversion rates, and improving conversion rates by simple adjustments. Many case studies were found where the company name or web address was not given, supposedly to deceive the visitor with high claims and thereby exert influence to buy their services. One such case study claimed a 470% boost in conversion rate by an online jewelry retailer. However, the name or web address of the online jewelry retailer was not given. Another case study was found of Diva (Diva.net.au), but the site was inaccessible and seemed to be closed. Hence, such case studies could not be relied upon and were not considered in this research.
The emphasis in all the given case studies was on changes/initiatives done on site, resulting in improved KPIs of traffic, conversion, etc. Some case studies had SEO/SEM results; however, initiatives like changing keywords, or adding researched key phrases, or introducing rich snippets, or providing a review engine, etc, were done on site in a re-designing process, and hence such case studies are included.
The degree of usefulness of the information contained in the given case studies might vary, since some case studies have very little information, some have medium amount of information, while some have detailed information. All the case studies are included in this research as every case study is of a jewelry website, and thus, albeit in varying degrees, yet nonetheless, all are useful in some way or the other.
CASE STUDIES
* Changes/Initiatives in eCommerce site:
- strategic changes were applied to existing site
- installed Google Analytics
- used Google AdWords
* Resulting business outcomes:
- 41% more time was spent by visitors
- 26% more pages were visited by visitors
- 232% year over year increase in sales
- 32% increase in new visitors
* Changes/Initiatives in eCommerce site:
- tweaking of the existing website was undertaken
* Resulting business outcomes:
- increased sales
* Changes/Initiatives in eCommerce site:
- existing website experienced low volumes of traffic, inconsistent performance, almost no analytics, outdated technology, and poorly managed
- undertook 100% website redesign with 90% content revision in 120 day turnaround time
- implemented user-friendly, mobile-friendly, intuitive and responsive design
- site provided visitors with information, and helped them to select the correct setting and gemstone
* Resulting business outcomes:
- 60% increase in website traffic
- 40% increase in conversion rate
- 35% increase in unique visitor
* Changes/Initiatives in eCommerce site:
- the existing website of the client could not be discovered by keyword search.
- extensive SEO efforts were undertaken
* Resulting business outcomes:
- top No.1 Google rankings for 12 keywords, like, "custom jewelry Atlanta, Atlanta jewelry designers, Atlanta bridal jewelry, Jewelry design Atlanta," etc.
- 1000% ROI. "Took us from worst to first with 1,000% return on investment." - Jamie Kresi, Owner of Jewelry Artisans
- $120,000 revenue from foot traffic at the physical store, generated from the website
* Changes/Initiatives in eCommerce site:
- the existing side was redesigned
- Elizabeth Kline, a jewelry artist and metalsmith, wanted her site to be simple yet powerful enough to have eCommerce functions
- used WordPress as the content management platform
- integrated eCommerce functions
- installed social media links. Installed Open Graph Protocol Framework plugin so that Facebook images and descriptions were displayed without any changes
- unlocked blocked tags
- created a contact form
- modified and updated image galleries
- focused on images and not words. The design sparingly used words so that the images of the jewelry could do all the talking.
* Resulting business outcomes:
- steady increase in visitors was noted.
- the client was satisfied. The website successfully showcased "her work in the way her art show displays did: cleanly, simply, and with the focus not on signage and competing colors and patterns".
* Changes/Initiatives in eCommerce site:
- complete analysis of existing site
- scripts were generated to extract usable data from existing databases
- developed a manageable backend
- extracted data was successfully integrated with new data
- integrated powerful e-commerce solution
- developed a front end interface
- created a corporate logo, which may be used in marketing campaigns
- formulated SEO strategy and accordingly site was optimized
- product and category content written with meta data
- client suggested revisions, which were implemented and the site went live
* Resulting business outcomes:
- sales increased in less than a month
- plans are afoot for a new SEO strategy integrating social media management
* Changes/Initiatives in eCommerce site:
- prepared an initial report stating what changes were required for SEO
- tested client suggested keywords and phrases, and 5 keywords chosen as a starting point
- setup of client SEO panel for client tools, reports, and participation in social media
- update of product titles, keyword phrases, and descriptions in all pages
- installed caching software to speed up the site
- changed settings of the server and setup
- installed Google Analytics
- installed WordPress SEO plugin
- provided guidance to client regarding tasks the client could take up in future, like more SEO-oriented copywriting, and heavy interaction in social media.
* Resulting business outcomes:
- steady increase in traffic and more conversions
- " 'We’re delighted by the response and I reckon internet sales have accounted for between 10 and 20% of overall sales each month since this time last year. 90% of existing customers have been on the website prior to a visit, to clue up/browse and a similar percentage of new customers visiting the shop are as a direct consequence of Google searches taking them to our site in the first place! Brilliant…' ---Neil Smith ORRO Contemporary Jewellery"
* Changes/Initiatives in eCommerce site:
- client was doing business in jewelry and homeware markets. It had two websites, one for jewelry and the other for homeware. To increase market share, the client was undergoing a re-branding process.
- redesigned existing retail and wholesale/stockist websites into a single website having both retail and wholesale/stockist functions
- designed according to the client's re-branding guidelines of a site having a clean, minimalist, yet professional look.
- features included were large feature images, searchable categories, and an easy and a quick checkout process.
- with two sites merged into one, the client had hundreds of products. Each product category was drilled down to the last detail and the key categories were focused on the home page.
- installed Google Analytics.
- eCommerce packages installed and aligned with Google Analytics. The client obtained an easy-to-use interface to monitor conversions and sales.
* Resulting business outcomes:
- new sign-ups are registered every day, for both jewelry and homeware.
* Changes/Initiatives in eCommerce site:
- the client had an existing website, which could not be found in search engines, until the name was typed, and that too correctly. Baber Martin, the marketing firm of the client, contacted Big Oak for making the website appear in search engine result pages.
- a unique issue was that the client did not sell any jewelry online. Rather the focus was on making the online traffic seek a quote and then influence them to visit their Richmond physical store. "Maybe we’re old fashioned," Ronnie Adolf, president of Adolf Jewelers said, "but we like to deal with our guests on a face-to-face basis. It lets us really get to know them and help them find the piece of jewelry that’s right for them."
- basic SEO changes were performed on site. For example, keywords, and key phrases were changed. Headings, titles, and meta tags were changed on site for all pages.
- an in-depth SEM campaign was undertaken with articles, press releases, and link building.
* Resulting business outcomes:
- the SEO/SEM efforts were successful
- the client's site featured prominently on first pages of major search engines for Richmond-area jewelry terms
- within 10 months, the traffic jumped from 1,000 visits per month to 2,500 visits per month
- the footfall at the Richmond store increased
- the client increased its showroom size to include a new Engagement Center that exclusively featured wedding jewelry and diamond engagement rings.
* Changes/Initiatives in eCommerce site:
- undertook User Experience (UX) audit of existing website
- after many collaborative workshops, wireframes and prototypes were developed with respect to the following:
---"Landing points and orientation on the website.
--- Discovery of Shanore’s products and navigation.
--- Product selection and review.
--- Sales funnel, adding to cart, cross-selling and up-selling.
--- Checkout process simplification."
- examined the brand DNA of Shanore
- created a custom developed store
- customer experience was focused by filtering options, advanced features for product viewing, configurable products, and a checkout that was streamlined
- the checkout process was simplified by presenting all elements in a straight-forward manner. To avoid confusion, the customer was guided at every point. Multiple payment gateways and complicated shipping fee calculations were presented in a simple manner.
- the discovery of products and site navigation was optimized. After the baseline SEO, advanced methods like review engine and rich snippets were used. Bespoke product builders helped visitors to build their own customized jewelry. For visibility enhancement, re-marketing, up-selling, and cross-linking were used.
- each part of the sales funnel was meticulously tracked. Falloff was monitored. With A/B testing, each element was tweaked and the changes were measured for its effect on conversion rate.
- to provide enhanced customer experience, an option was presented where the customer could save the cart for later use. This triggered an automatic email with a message containing a link to their saved cart, so that they could easily continue with their purchase any time later.
* Resulting business outcomes:
- increased visitors and sales
- the website won awards for "2009 Runner-up in Best E-commerce Support and 2010 winner of Best E-Commerce Support."
* Changes/Initiatives in eCommerce site:
- implemented WooCommerce platform
- designed a new homepage, having big and bold images, section customization was made flexible, and a live Instagram feed was installed.
- defined attributes for all products and then built a new system for product filtering.
- redesigned custom jewelry order forms. The new layout was spread out, which enabled easy viewing. The drop down boxes featuring text selectors were replaced with graphic image selectors. The customers could select by seeing the graphic images, which made the process of selecting from the drop down boxes, much more visual and fun.
- installed a builder component for the landing page.
- created product titles, rich snippets, and product descriptions
- installed conversion tracking. The data from this was fed back to the client's AdWords campaign.
- integrated all technical components required for Google Product Listing Ads (PLAs). PLAs delivered a product image ad instead of a textual Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ad. For this the technical integration required was: Google AdWords account, Google Merchant Account, rich snippets, and a shopping cart that was able to create a live product feed to be used by Google Merchant Center.
* Resulting business outcomes:
- with a new homepage, the site became more attractive for visitors to spend more time on the site. Addition of product data like size, color, stone, and metal, made it easier for Google Shopping and other comparison engines, to understand the products that the client was selling. With this better understanding, they might serve ads of the client, to a more appropriate audience.
- with a new system for product filtering, visitors could browse by a collection, or metal color, stone color, occasion, gender, or birth month. This facilitated enhanced organic browsing with visitors quickly finding what they needed, which helped in increasing sales.
- with a new redesigned custom jewelry order form, custom order request grew by about 50%
- with a new builder component for landing page, A/B testing was easy and quick. Channels, conversions, and eCommerce data could all be tested efficiently.
- with conversion tracking data being fed into AdWords campaign, it was found that the client was budgeting more than 90% ad spend on generic items like bracelets, cufflinks, belt buckle, etc. While it was seen that almost every sale was for branded items like Hyo Silver necklaces, Hyo Silver jewelry, etc. This insight validated and complemented the brand awareness of Hyo Silver, but it also showed that the 90% budget allocated on generic items was not converting into sales. Due to this insight, budget reallocation was appropriately done by the client.
- with PLAs, only interested visitors clicked the ad. Before PLAs, if visitors typed in "sterling silver pendant", then a textual PPC ad was shown. When the visitors clicked the textual link, they saw that it led to a western-style piece. If the visitors were not interested in such a piece, they exited the site immediately. However, Hyo Silver incurred a cost as the ad was clicked, and this cost was a sheer waste. With PLAs, the visitors saw an image-based ad, and just by looking at the image, they knew that it was a western-style piece. Only if the visitor was interested in such a piece, the ad was clicked. This filtered the interested visitors from the uninterested ones, and reduced the wasteful cost of the ads. This also provided a greater probability that visitors who clicked the ad would be more likely to purchase the piece. So, the process of conversion from visitors to customers was enhanced.
- the email list grew by 600%
- the average PPC campaign ROAS (Return On Advertisement Spending) was 1500%
- the average monthly sales increased by 20%
* Changes/Initiatives in eCommerce site:
- the client is in the jewelry business since 1949 and desired comprehensive solutions that were not available in the existing website
- undertook detailed client consultation and website planning
- selected Drupal 7 as the base framework for redesigning the site
- focus was on images and text was kept to a minimum, so that the artistry of the jewelry could do better influencing
- installed a user interface (UI) that was easy to use and functional regardless of any digital device. The UI featured a consistent and optimized layout that was compatible with all the main browsers, along with menus driven by AJAX, and dynamic rollovers. The layout was intuitive, interactive and visually appealing.
- improved existing textual content with better copy writing that was concise and more user-friendly.
- installed interactive features like a search box and a Wishlist. The Wishlist could add jewelry items and it could be printed or emailed. Other features included a dynamic image gallery, title customization controls, meta tag incorporation at page level, and content sharing on Facebook.
- integrated social media like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.
- SEO was undertaken by analyzing the site by Google Analytics
- installed a blog
- the site was designed to ensure minimum maintenance requirements, and also enable future scaling
- website administrators were provided with login tools to manage the content and architecture of the site.
- technologies used included:
--- "Drupal 7 CMS integration for dynamic content editing including headers, footers and sidebars
--- Drupal custom modules for the slider, gallery, wishlist, newsletter, etc.
--- Editable slideshows built using the jQuery technology
--- Editable image gallery using jQuery for jewelry design display
--- PHP 5 and MySQL database"
* Resulting business outcomes:
- intuitive navigation, beautiful design, and compelling content
- business brand image enhanced with state-of-art website
- SEO quadrupled the number of visitors
* Changes/Initiatives in eCommerce site:
- developed eCommerce website
- SEO
- Branding
- Email marketing
- integrated Customer Relationship Management (CRM), website, and channels of digital advertising
- Social media
--- organized promotional raffle of a diamond necklace in Facebook
--- shared all products on Instagram and Pinterest pages
* Resulting business outcomes:
- 300% per month increase in web traffic
- 11,700 people targeted and 120 entries generated in Facebook raffle for a diamond necklace
- the jewelry preferences, upcoming anniversaries, and purchase history of registered visitors was known, which helped Kasson Jewelers to send personalized email marketing messages
CONCLUSION
To wrap it up, it may be concluded that the above given 13 case studies show how on-site changes affected the KPIs like website traffic, conversion rates, etc. It is to be noted that a combined analysis of all the 13 websites yielded the following insights:
i) A User Interface (UX) featuring an intuitive, optimized, and consistent layout that is compatible with all the main browsers, and additionally is easy to use and functional regardless of any digital device, improves website traffic, conversion, and sales.
ii) 90% of existing customers visit the jewelry virtual store to see the latest designs, prior to visiting the jewelry physical store to buy the same.
iii) The online monthly sales of a jewelry business, accounts for about 10-20% of the overall monthly sales of the business.
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