Great Little Trading Co., an online and catalog retailer of children’s toys, furniture and outerwear based in the United Kingdom, has deployed a new e-commerce platform and added new search and rich media features to its web site, among other technology upgrades. The new technology, from Fresca Ltd., also gives the retailer’s call center staff faster access to product information and aims to improve responses to customer inquiries and telephone orders, says Will Dymott, head of marketing at Great Little Trading Co.
“Our old site was a classic Microsoft Commerce Server site, with a standard left hand navigation bar,” Dymott says. “It looked like a different brand -- it was very ‘90s.’”
Great Little Trading Co. launched its web site in 1996 and about 60% of revenue comes from e-commerce. The company expects to push closer to 70% by year’s end, Dymott tells Internet Retailer. Great Little Trading contracted with Fresca about one year ago for the technology overhaul, which included a new e-commerce platform, back-office modules and the web site redesign.
In the past, the company’s catalogs were easier to update than the web site, a problem that’s been solved with the new site design. “Customers now have two ways to navigate. They can shop by department or room and the departments reflect the ‘navigation’ of the paper catalog,” Dymott says. “A huge proportion of our web sales are driven by the catalog. We want people to have the same experience on both,” he adds.
Dymott is hoping for a 5% sales increase from the site redesign, primarily driven by increased average order value.
Great Little Trading carries 1,400 SKUs targeting children ages 2 to 8 and their parents. Products include toys, furniture, bedding and outerwear. The new rich media tools enable shoppers to mouse over product images to gain “almost immediate” close-ups with the zoom feature, Dymott says. That’s an improvement over the past web site and the catalog, giving shoppers greater detail, such as showing the interiors of doll houses.
The shopping cart also has been upgraded, shrinking from five steps to two in the new iteration, Dymott adds. And a more sophisticated in-site search and guided navigation system enables customers to filter products by type, availability, color, and other attributes.
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