Project Overview
The MBL, NBA, and Australia’s own AFL just to name a few – New Era’s iconic headwear has been the official cap of every major sporting league across the US and Australia since its conception in 1920.
With history comes challenges, competitors, and complexity. Not only did New Era’s Australian arm break away from its US headquarters to take its online home into its own hands, but it did so facing digitally-savvy competitors, category constraints, and one of the most extensive product variants of any industry.
The outcome? An artful approach to making the complex feel simple, and the old feel new. This was achieved through creative and technically complex UX/UI solutions, reinterpretations of classic eCommerce modules, and the best technology platforms in the game. Ultimately creating an expansive, engaging yet balanced online experience where customers intuitively explore and return for more.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
Founder and CEO: Cal Wilson
Design: Cosmin Bejan
Front-end Development: Matt Crowley, Bianca Bejan
Deliver Management: Jusinta Briggs, Calvin Shelwell
Project Brief
Brands with this significant legacy are faced with a steeper curve when it comes to digital innovation. New Era Australia’s team was seeking a website that provided an elevated brand experience that mirrored its iconic heritage while managing and presenting a large number of products, categories, and diverse customer journeys.
The essential brief has been summarised into six key objectives:
Cater to different customer motivations – old baseball fans love the NY caps and girls that follow Kylie Jenner do too, fostering easy navigation journeys for a variety of shopping intents.
Promote products with an editorialized feel – showcase a wide variety of product collections that also provide an added sense of engagement, bring collections together, and feel aspirational.
Showcase a wide range of products without clutter – create solutions that communicate product variety without customers having to search for it themselves or miss alternative variants.
Enhance experiences throughout the customer's journey – implement technologies that will foster short-term browsing and purchases, and build long-term customer loyalty.
Reduce return rate – find content-driven solutions to ensure customers are confident in their product selections prior to purchase, and make the solutions accessible and engaging.
Project Need
New Era’s new online store is exceptional due to the creative and technically advanced solutions that were implemented to solve some of eCommerce’s most common challenges. In some cases, this meant innovating an entirely new concept, others it meant bringing fresh interpretations to eCommerce classics:
Hover-based hat display feature
This intelligent custom UI was developed from first-principles thinking. Through a hover, users can browse hats from more than 100 teams from five sporting leagues. The feature communicates the depth of the product range in a modern, interactive style. A perfect example of transforming a functional requirement into a memorable experience.
Scroll-based image carousel
Utilizing the collection of crisp product imagery, the scroll-on carousel presents customers with a wide range of products in a pared-back, animated style. Backed by a performant codebase, this fresh take on a classic module achieves maximum product display while keeping the visual noise to a minimum. It exemplifies how a simple change can leave a big impression.
Educating customers about size & fit
Helping customers to make the right choice about sizing & fit is one of the greatest challenges in eCommerce today. New Era’s online store engages technical illustrations and personable copy to turn this challenge into an educational, enjoyable touch point. The size guide is complemented by a ‘silhouette guide’ that explains design variations. Together, these helped lower New Era’s to 2.0%, compared to the industry average of 20%.
User Experience
User experience was at the core of this development. Every decision was made with the intention to tap into the specific desires of New Era’s customers and deliver them intuitively across desktop and mobile. By considering the customer goals at each step, New Era’s online store meets customers where they are: during navigation, while browsing, at purchase, and after the purchase is complete.
Simplified, intent-driven navigation
Whether a football fanatic, fashionista or streetwear style icon, the navigation caters to specific customer types. The site features a clear information architecture, navigable by Team, Collection, Style and Item, each with cross-category filtering enabled. This enables customers to hone in on what they’re looking for, irrespective of other shoppers' preferences.
Bespoke pre-order functionality
With a deep connection to sports, New Era’s customers want to purchase directly before or after an event – not when the stock is ready. Last year, the pre-order capability was live for the influx of Collingwood fans following the AFL Grand Final. The functionality, supported by alternative payment platform, Submarine, captured more than 1000 pre-orders shortly after launch and continues to grow.
Best-in-breed tech enhancements
A network of supporting platforms is essential to eCommerce success. In addition to Submarine, New Era’s store is also integrated with Nosto, Klayvio, Gorgias, and Loop Returns. By curating a selection of best-in-class eCommerce tools, experiences are enhanced at every touch point, while the technology is integrated into the online store seamlessly.
Project Marketing
New Era's success goes beyond these features. Solidified by consistent, incremental growth across all key eCommerce metrics. Since the revamp, here's New Era's performance metrics:
Bounce rate -2.23%
Conversion rate +7.39%
Average order value +16.94%
Add to cart rate +6.09%
Sessions per user +33.27%
1080 units pre-ordered in the following 3 months.
Repeat customers +8.57%
Return rate 2.0% (industry average of 20%)
Project Privacy
The project was completed in accordance with the comprehensive privacy policies of New Era, Shopify, and The Working Party.
https://www.neweracap.com.au/pages/privacy-policy
https://theworkingparty.com.au/info/terms-and-privacy/
https://www.shopify.com/au/legal/privacy
Digital - Retail & Shopping
Digital design that makes our online retail experiences seamless and enjoyable or have that Wow factor is what will stand out here.
More Details