Luxury accessories retailer, Lulu Guinness has improved dwell times and conversion rates with a new e-commerce platform and website from Astound Commerce.

Founded in 1989, the brand now has multiple stores, but online is becoming increasingly important, with more than a third of business turnover coming from digital channels.

However, its legacy site did not have the functionality necessary to achieve full sales and branding potential within the UK and abroad. In 2018, Lulu Guinness partnered with Astound Commerce, which re-platformed the business from Magento to Salesforce Commerce Cloud and redesigned the site.

Load time on the new site has been reduced by 31 per cent from 5.7 to 3.9 seconds, while dwell time has increased by 3.8 per cent year-on-year from one to 10 minutes. Conversion rates increased by four per cent year-on-year at 1.68 per cent and the percentage of return visits is 60 per cent of the audience mix.

Astound also introduced guided search functionality and more payment options, including Apple Pay. Swifter payments have been key to improving conversion metrics, with mobile now accounting for half of site traffic since the new site launched.

With an increasing proportion of traffic to the site coming directly from social media, and more of these visits converting into sales, social has been given a prominent role, with a page dedicated to user generated content, showcasing how customers can wear or style a product, through the #HowDoYouLulu hashtag and linked Instagram shop.

Paul Spinks, managing director at Lulu Guinness, commented: “With digital becoming increasingly important to the business it was natural for us to partner with Astound Commerce to guide us through the process of re-platforming.”

Astound Commerce UK managing director Terry Hunter added: “Lulu Guinness wanted an e-commerce platform that was not only future-proof but also visually desirable and engaging as this is a brand at the very forefront of fashion and creativity.”

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