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Fashion meets function in a digital engagement platform that increases conversion rates and drives high-value sales
The lingerie market has traditionally been a selective shopping experience for women who want to see and touch the products before buying. Over the past decade, however, that has been changing with growth coming from the ecommerce channel, driven by younger, digitally savvy consumers. Boux Avenue, one of the UK’s largest independent women’s lingerie, nightwear, and swimwear brands, wanted to expand sales beyond its 30 domestic stores into a global footprint to include shops in 10 other countries, supported by an ecommerce platform.
Boux Avenue’s global aspirations required that it would be able to respond to its consumers both online and offline with superior experiences, products that were culturally relevant, and a personal touch that built meaningful relationships and sustained brand value. However, the company was hampered by an antiquated platform that had separate desktop and mobile websites, which had been custom-built years ago. While these sites functioned properly, it was difficult to add critical experiences and functionality to support international expansion and keep up with ever-expanding customer demands. When Boux Avenue set out to replace its transaction-oriented website with an experience-driven digital commerce ecosystem, it looked to Astound for vision and executional excellence.
Boux Avenue had a clear brand personality and aesthetic in mind as its leadership team contemplated what the new commerce ecosystem would be required to do, and they looked to us to help them execute an elegant, consumer-centric, experience-driven approach in every aspect of the project. According to James Fernie, ecommerce director at Boux Avenue, one of the primary objectives was to present shoppers with relevant product options earlier in the journey. This required that thinking beyond the appliqué of a new user interface onto a threadbare infrastructure. The Astound design team custom-tailored a digital engagement platform based on user journey insights and in-store experiences, and embroidered it with stylish details.
“Astound immediately understood what we were trying to achieve with our new user experience,” Fernie recalls. “Their approach was logical and methodical—it was clear their recommendations were based on years of knowledge and experience.”
We began by decoupling the front-end and back-end modules, allowing Boux Avenue to maintain its online presence while we created a new platform based on Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Our team of experts audited the previous structure to identify navigation bottlenecks and determine what areas of the site were the most popular so that a new interface would be engaging and frictionless. Boux Avenue invests heavily in its fashion models, styling, and photography, as well as social media campaigns that leverage influencers, so to obtain the most value from these premium investments, we created visual elements that were lush and glamorous, surrounding new customers with personalized experiences that could not be duplicated. Finally, we created frictionless features that let shoppers jump to specific products without having to navigate through multiple pages. Thanks to real-time inventory updates, customers can instantly see if the items they want are available.
Boux Avenue’s new digital ecosystem is helping the retailer to quickly gain ground in a highly competitive segment of the women’s fashion market. The site is opening doors to new wholesale partnerships and offering an edge against other competitive brands. Dynamic product recommendations and a more frictionless process is boosting conversion rates and driving higher value sales. Fernie praises the Astound team for its “big-picture thinking” and “sensible approach” to designing a creative and engaging user experience. “Astound has done everything they said they would do—it feels like a real partnership,” he concludes. “We now have a future-proof website that will stand us in good stead for years to come.”
