35% increase in online revenue with new website design
Strengthening University of St Andrews Shop’s selling power with smart functionality and advanced SEO
The University of St Andrews Shop offers an extensive range of high- quality branded merchandise, from clothing to gifts, memorabilia, and graduation essentials. Serving customers worldwide, the shop operates both online and from its welcoming location in the Student Union at the heart of St Andrews.
CLIENT
University of St Andrews Shop
SERVICES
PPC, SEO, Web Design, Development
INDUSTRY
Retail
LOCATION
St Andrews
Project Brief
University of St Andrews Shop came to Zinc with a site that had potential, looking for a digital partner to help them realise it. With a strong brand that was being imitated elsewhere and a site that they knew could perform even better, they wanted to take their strategy to the next level by enhancing the customer journey and elevated functionality.
- Simplify and enhance the website design
- Position the shop as the ‘Official St Andrews University Shop’
- Analyse and improve the customer experience
- Update the site with smarter functionality
- Establish and implement SEO best practices
The Challenge
The Zinc team needed to approach this project with balance. The brand was well established, and the site was already functioning well, so our approach needed to focus on fine-tuning instead of building from the ground up.
We don’t grow when things are easy; we grow when we face challenges.
The Solution
Working on Shopify, the Zinc team had lots to work with when it came to adding some customer-focused functionality to the site. We spoke with the University of St Andrews Shop team, they knew that they wanted to add in some eCommerce must-haves such as vouchers and a POS integration with their shop. The Zinc team analysed the site and made some further suggestions to improve the experience onsite. Alongside this, the marketing team audited the site and made a plan for the short and long-term. We knew that the site needed SEO input from the start to have the best launch, and once it was up and running we could bring in social selling, paid shopping, and content marketing.
- A stripped back website design
- A customer journey with flow
- An SEO healthcheck
- A plan for the future
New Website Design & Build
The previous site had good design bones, but needed refining. The client wanted to strip things back, simplify their design and allow the products to take centre stage. With a build on Shopify we were able to adjust the theme, keeping product images central and updating the menu to show the range quickly and clearly.
Advanced website functionality
With a constantly evolving list of products, customers, and needs the University of St Andrews Shop team needed a website that worked with them. We added personalisation options for the jewellery and clothing variations, abandoned cart and stock notifications, as well as currency management for international customers. The site now features an infinite scroll for browsing and lazy loading to keep everything running as quickly as possible. The result is a site that knows what the customer needs before they need it, and makes it as simple as possible to make a purchase.
SEO overhaul
As always, we started with a full SEO audit to identify the most serious concerns. Following this, we were able to identify the product pages that didn’t have optimal meta data, install product schema, and work on the technical side of the site. The team also worked on competitor analysis, to identify those imitating the designs of the official shop and ensure that the Official shop was the top performer. Alongside this, the team worked on building remarketing lists to be ready for our next steps.
The Results
The University of St Andrews Shop has been reaping the rewards of the new website and strategy. Their engagement rates are going up and bounce rates are going down. Alongside this, the work from the marketing team has ensured that the traffic is becoming increasingly more relevant, with a 23.6% increase in traffic from the local St Andrews area. Due to this, not only is their revenue up by 35%, but their product views have increased by 142% following the improvement of the customer journey. Key products are seeing even bigger revenue increases, with their embroidered hoodie sales up by 70%.
35%
increase in online revenue
27%
in website sessions
142.6%
increase in product views
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