This will be a basic overview of the Hobbycraft site, just to point out all the features that make it effective on many customer experience, usability and conversion fronts.

If you’re already an ecommerce expert than this will cover ground you’ll already know, but often it’s still useful to go over the basics from time to time.

Homepage

Hobbycraft ensures visitors are completely aware of all its customer service propositions clearly at the top of the homepage. This helpfully answers many questions that a new visitor may have when they arrive on site.

These messages also remain when exploring search results and on the product pages so its not just visitors to the homepage who see it.

  1. Click and collect: click and collect is an ideal way to tie up your ecommerce business with your offline presence, achieving the holy-grail we like to call ‘multichannel’. For the customer it gives them almost complete control over delivery as they can pick up purchases when and where they choose. Here’s what we learnt about click and collect this Christmas
  2. Free delivery: being clear on your free delivery threshold is a must for all ecommerce stores. You’ll be surprised how many spend more money just to qualify. Stats from a UPS study show that 58% of customers have added extra items to their shopping basket in order to qualify for free delivery.
  3. Free returns: far too many ecommerce stores hide their returns policy behind multiple links, hidden at the bottom of the screen. Here Hobbycraft proudly displays the fact that returns are available online and in-store (another key to multichannel success) and just as importantly, are free.
  4. Basket: having a nice clear basket, kept in the top-right corner is an obvious must-have, as is indicating how many items are currently in the bag. Hobbycraft also keeps the item in your bag after you’ve left the store. Check out how 10 top UK retailers present returns information.

Retargeting

Because I had previously registered an account with Hobbycraft, the retailer has my email address and it’s put it to good use. Upon leaving the store and abandoning my cart, I received the following basket abandonment email about fifteen minutes later…

According to eDigitalResearch and IMRG research 77% of online shoppers abandoned their baskets in 2013 so it’s clearly a huge problem for online retail. Sending email reminders is a good start in combatting cart abandonment, and you’ll be surprised how few retailers do this

Here are some more reasons why you should be sending basket abandonment emails.

Search

It’s imperative that your site has a great search tool, and this definitely means providing automatic suggestions when a visitor begins typing.

As you can see from the above image, Hobbycraft also provides thumbnails to increase a product’s attractiveness and to make certain that this is what a customer is searching for.

It has also served results in two different categories: individual products and categories. All very helpful stuff.

This search tool also forgives spelling mistakes, and will serve results matching the closest approximation of the term.

Click here to find out how John Lewis, M&S and Debenhams handle on-site search.

Search results

  1. Search term is clearly stated.
  2. Sorting tool so you can see results based on bestselling, price, availability etc.
  3. Filters: good varied selection of filters, with transparency on how many results are available in each.
  4. Number of results: clarity on how many results are available over how many pages.
  5. Nice big colourful images: It’s also wise not to show too many on the page as this will diminish the detail of each one.
  6. Clear pricing.
  7. Availability. This is something not often featured on a results page.

There is room for improvement here. I would like to see an ‘add to basket’ option direct from the results page to encourage quicker conversion. 

Perhaps also alternative views of the products could be offered when a use hovers their mouse over each image.

Product page

It’s vital to have a well-laid out product page, without any clutter or distraction, plenty of white space, clear navigation and a focus on the product in question. Hobbycraft does this exceptionally well.

  1. Clear breadcrumb trail so visitors can find their way back along the journey.
  2. Hoverzoom. It may not be clear here, but a good alternative to showing multiple alternative images is to provide a tool that a user can control by hovering the mouse over a specific portion of the product.
  3. Clear pricing, that stands out from the rest of the text.
  4. Social proof can be utilised by using customer ratings and reviews. People love to buy what other people like.
  5. Increase amount: idiot-proof tool for increasing product amount.
  6. Bold call-to-action, designed so it contrasts with everything else on the page and offers no ambiguity on what its function is.
  7. Wishlists are a great way to help customers keep tabs on what they’d like to buy at a later date. It can also be used to personalise the experience for return visitors, as recommendations can be served based on these favourited items.
  8. Returns information is freely available on the page and not hidden down the bottom.
  9. Clear options for delivery.
  10. Copywriting that’s concise, easy to read in a large dark font, and includes bullet-points for the most important information. 

Basket

The key to increasing conversion is to make sure the checkout contains as little distraction as possible, is fluid and most of all quick.

  1. Changing amount: plenty of easy to understand options for changing or removing items.
  2. Delivery options: every delivery option is displayed clearly, with the price and also a message to say how much more the user needs to spend to qualify for free delivery.
  3. CTA: it couldn’t possibly be more obvious.
  4. PayPal: right from the beginning the user can see that faster payment options are available.

Guest checkout

Forcing users to register their details before they checkout is one of the quickest ways to lower your conversion rate. 

Once a customer is ready to buy something from your store, presenting them with page after page of forms in which they need to fill out the most unnecessary of personal details is a sure fire way to send them packing.

That’s why guest checkout is a must-have feature for almost every online retail experience, much like Hobbycraft’s here…

For more information, check out: Be our guest: a guide to ecommerce guest checkout best practice.

We’re a big fan of the single-screen checkout here at Econsultancy and it’s a shame Hobbycraft doesn’t have one, but it does make the process as fast as possible…

  1. Stages: clarity on how many stages there are in the checkout, with as few pages as possible.
  2. Auto-fill has been enabled for added speed.
  3. Postcode: the postcode is still recognised despite the lack of space.
  4. Fast postcode finder tool.
  5. Same as billing address: don’t make your users fill in the same address twice.

Then you’re through to a final screen in which you input your card details or pay with PayPal.

This has been a pleasure to use, it’s quick, intuitive and makes me want to use the site again. The only thing that I can add is that Hobbycraft could easily ask if a customer would like to save their details after the purchase with a simple option to create a password, that way the retailer captures their data and provides convenience for the customer.

Mobile

And of course, last but certainly not least, the site is fully responsive, so mobile and tablet users can take full advantage of the features on offer. 

The mobile site also offers geolocation so a user will automatically be served results dependant on their nearest store, with options for click-to-call and integration with Google Maps for accurate directions. This further makes Hobbycraft an exemplary multichannel retailer.

ROI

Just as a quick amendment to this article (I’m writing this 13 March), Fact-Finder has sent me the following information on Hobbycraft’s success since improving its navigation…

Hobbycraft’s conversion rate from site search has increased 170% (between March 2013 – January 2014). Furthermore, the number of onsite searches on Hobbycraft’s webshop has increased from 300,000 to approximately 750,000 per month during the past year.