A site redesign that provides for smoother checkout and optimizes pages for search engines has led to a 27% increase in conversion rates at billiards supplies retailer PoolDawg.com, director of marketing Mike Feiman says.
“We’ve also seen about a 300% increase in search engine traffic and a 15% increase in average order value,” Feiman tells InternetRetailer.com.
PoolDawg sells a range of billiards accessories, including billiards-themed apparel and jewelry, but 75% of its sales are in pool cues, Feiman says. Before the recent site redesign, however, PoolDawg.com didn’t provide shoppers with easy access to the information they need to make purchase decisions, particularly for cues, which come in a wide variety of cue tips and other specifications, and can be costly to ship, he adds.
“A big part of buying pool cues is understanding the specifications including different tips and inlays,” Feiman says. “And when shoppers got to the one-page checkout and chose expedited shipping, they’d get sticker shock.” The result was often aborted shopping visits, he adds.
A year ago, PoolDawg traded in its modified version of an “off-the-shelf” e-commerce platform for a completely new platform from Netconcepts. The Netconcepts GravityMarket 2.0 e-commerce platform offers a flexible design that, for example, supports the placement of content that has proven to help shoppers complete purchases, Feiman says.
Pool cue product pages now let shoppers click multiple tabs to view additional content on detailed product specifications and related products. The checkout process now includes a shipping cost calculator that lets shoppers key in their ZIP code to get an estimated cost of expedited delivery.
PoolDawg also has improved site navigation and implemented a new customer rating system that gets updated in real time as shoppers rate products on a scale of one to five stars.
Feiman says PoolDawg plans to continue making improvements on the GravityMarket platform, which the retailer licenses and runs on its own network servers. “Customers tell us the new site is a lot easier to use,” Feiman says. Next up, he adds, are plans to add customer reviews and product zoom.
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