In-depth: A fashion brand CRO case study

How golfing brand Lyle & Scott achieved a 48% Increase in Revenue Per Visitor

Throughout its 140 year history, Lyle & Scott has built a global reputation for distinctive, beautifully designed, high quality knitwear, combined with the brand’s solid authority and presence in the golfing sector.  The company is committed to developing new and exciting products, making them available to customers across multiple channels. The Lyle & Scott website (www.lyleandscott.com) now retails in over 50 countries worldwide making ecommerce one of the major components of the company’s sales structure. This case study shows how they increased the vital revenue per visitor KPIs by following the AWA Digital Ecommerce CRO process.

CRO project background and objectives

Lyle & Scott’s objective was to increase the conversion rate of the Website. The ecommerce team wanted to augment online sales by increasing revenue per customer.

The ecommerce team had built a substantial customer database and were already mining the data, optimising it by creating new segments but felt that there was room to improve once those customers reached the website.

Will Dymott, Head of Ecommerce at Lyle & Scott explained the opportunity from CRO:

“Whilst our conversion rate was good we felt there was room to improve it further...

[Editor's note: For quantifying CRO and marketing investment uplift we have this conversion optimisation return calculator for members and if you need to compare your current conversion rates with what others are achieving over desktop, tablet and smartphone see this conversion rate average by platform blog post].

After a rigorous selection process, Lyle & Scott chose AWA digital for the conversion rate optimisation project. AWA were selected because of the company’s proven track record, understanding of the retail sector and outstanding reputation in CRO.

The objectives for AWA digital were as follows:

•  To convert more customers online

• To increase average order value

• To deliver on AWA’s guaranteed 20% online sales uplift

Furthermore, these objectives needed to be delivered whilst respecting the established Lyle and Scott brand guidelines and working with a busy and stretched e-commerce team

Will Dymott said: 

“I gave AWA a clear objective, and knew that by increasing our revenue per visitor by even a modest amount they would not only pay for themselves, but had the potential to add significant value to the bottom line.  

CRO implementation

AWA digital implemented its 5-step Conversion System. A proven methodology created by the company that comprises 5 key stages: tool set up, diagnostic, triage, optimisation plan, and creative execution. As a full-service conversion optimisation and analytics company, AWA digital handled the project in its entirety, developing a complete test plan – including hypotheses, wireframes, graphic design, copy and web development.  Very little input was required from Lyle & Scott throughout the process.

Stage 1 - Funnel analysis and tool set up

Each time a customer attempts to make a purchase on the website there are a number of steps they need to take in order to complete the order.

Funnels helped AWA see these processes easily by giving a visual representation of the conversion data between each step.  AWA analysed 6.8m user sessions and segmented up to 53m data points. This gave them a deep understanding of visitor flow through the site, specifically looking at the difference in behaviour between people who bought and those who didn’t.  The analysis allowed AWA digital to:

• Determine what steps were causing customer confusion or trouble.
• Highlight any bugs, browser issues and other technical nuisances.
• Decide what research would be required to understand why visitors were dropping out of the sales process.

Stage 2 - Diagnostic review of website

AWA digital used a range of voice-of-customer tools - including interviews with store managers, online surveys and moderated usability testing. Exploring the psychology of a Lyle & Scott customer gave the team a better understanding of why they weren’t converting. As an established and globally recognized golf brand, the AWA team drilled down on specifics which included a survey of golf club members chosen to test drive the site.  The results revealed clear differences between multi-buyers and one-time buyers.

As part of the deep-dive analysis, the team also visited Lyle & Scott’s London stores to observe customer behaviour and interview managers about perceived brand positioning. They needed to understand why customers preferred Lyle & Scott over competing brands.

Stage 3 - Identification of conversion killers

AWA deployed its prioritization process (Triage) - to identify the key conversion killers. These included a poorly converting category page with too many choices, the location of the search filters, a high checkout drop-off rate and too little emphasis given to order-builders.

This is the new category page:

Stage 4 - Testing strategy

The team prioritised the various sections of the website for the first round of optimisation. The evidence pointed to the category and basket pages being key optimisation opportunities rather than the home page. Having gathered and compiled the information, the team made its recommendations. AWA digital then created an optimisation plan that was agreed and signed off by the Lyle & Scott ecommerce team. 

Stage 5 – Split testing

Before launching split-tests the team got feedback from usability testers previously recruited in the diagnostic phase. This process enabled the team to gather necessary feedback on proposed wireframes and designs before launching their split-tests. Incoming traffic to the website was then distributed between the original site and the different variations without any of the visitors knowing that they were part of an experiment.

This next screen capture gives an example of the product page after optimisation.

[Editors note: To see more best practices for different types of retail site page templates, check out our new 115 page Ecommerce design "Bible"].

Project results

At the time of writing AWA’s split-tests have shown an increase in revenue per visitor of over 48%. This came from just two split-tests, with the first delivering over 19% increase and the second 30%. This gave an ROI -  £19.55 of additional sales for every  £1 spent with AWA digital.

Will Dymott of Lyle & Scott gave this assessment of the project overall

“The AWA team have done a tremendous job for us and we are delighted with the results. By using  AWA to do all the heavy lifting the project was delivered with very little drain on my team’s time. Bottom line is they guaranteed a 20% gain in revenue per visitor and that’s exactly what they delivered – and more. We are beginning to see the huge impact this has had on our business and we are looking forward to working with the team on the next phase of optimisation.”

Lyle & Scott have extended their contract with AWA digital for a further round of customer research and optimisation.

Thanks to Dan Croxen-John for sharing his advice and opinions in this post. Dan is CEO of AWA digital, a conversion rate optimisation agency with offices in London, York and Cape Town. You can connect with him on LinkedIn or follow AWA Digital on Twitter.