IN BRIEF
Drupal 7 development
Desktop fluid version + Mobile Website
Amap api
Store locator with CSV import of store locations
CDN set up and hosting recommendations
Use of local APIs
Lazy loading / High performance and caching optimisations
Date: 2015
Client: Sunglass Hut
Sunglass Hut is one of the leading retailer of sunglasses operating worldwide with more than 2,000 points of sales. The brand is part of the Luxotica group which owns Lens Crafter, Rayban and Oakley. IT Consultis designed and developed a Drupal powered website for Sunglass Hut targeting the Chinese Market. The website integrates all necessary scripts and plug-ins to have a China friendly website, also including tools to facilitate the brand's O2O strategy and lead Sunglass Hut to a digital success.
DEVELOPMENT
Sunglass Hut has a very precise Visual Identity mainly due to their partnership with all the brands they represent such as Dior, Chanel, Ray Ban, etc.. Therefore, flexibility in design was quite limited. What they needed though, was for us to take their global website and make it China friendly to optimise the conversion rate. All that in a limited timeframe of course.
Adapted UI for increased Brand awareness
A tremendous work has been done on the adaptation of the User Interface to fit the Chinese behavior. From the site map to Chinese social media integration, IT Consultis reviewed each page of the website and gave it a purpose in the overall User Experience.
Sunglass Hut is widely known in the US but very little known in China since they just set foot in the country. Luckily, the company has a very large brand portfolio we decided to use and leverage to acquire brand awareness.
Instead of simply listing logos of Armani, Burberry or Miu Miu, we created a dedicated page for each one of them so users can get more information about the brands Sunglass Hut represents.
One important feature and a must in China to launch a brand with a bang: local social media. To contribute to brand awareness and story telling, we've included:
A custom Weibo feed in the footer of the website to gain traffic and to drive users to become a follower of the brand
The WeChat QR code directly in the menu side bar so it is always visible for users to follow the brand on WeChat
O2O tools for more in-store traffic
Sunglass Hut launched their digital strategy at the same time they carried out stores opening across China (and they plan to have 200+ stores in China so they are doing things big).
For this first step of their market penetration, Sunglass Hut did not want to start right away with an e-Commerce. The macro goal of the website is to drive traffic to the stores.
Thus, the e-Commerce part was left aside on purpose for now. Instead of a "buy" button, users have a link to the store locator, a major component of the website.
We chose to use Amap api simply because there's a great flexibility when it comes to design, and it is of course accessible in China.
What we did differently compared to the global website, is to add photos for each store, giving a nice look and feel for users and attract them to the stores for a premium User Experience.
On mobile, the store locator approach is slightly different too. For an optimum conversion rate fitting mobile UX, the list of stores is given according to the user's location (while stores are filtered on the desktop version), with directions to the store according to different transportation types.
Overall optimisation
We've made sure to have each element of the website indexed for SEO, whether it is a picture or text content.
The great thing is since we tweaked the site map and added loads of additional content (brand pages, stores pictures, Weibo feed), we considerably increased the SEO of the website.
The entire website has been revised to facilitate an easy and fast access from China. The website is locally hosted for obvious connection reasons, local APIs were used and lazy loading was implemented to provide a flawless experience.
With smartphone addicted Chinese consumers and WeChat being the most used app in China, Sunglass Hut naturally decided to use WeChat in their communication strategy. It was crucial for performance and conversion to develop a mobile version rather than just having a responsive design.
RESULT
IT Consultis was able to deliver a powerful website optimised for China, with a seamless integration of O2O tools for an optimum conversion rate in a very limited amount of time.
"I am thrilled to have worked with such a passionate team. IT Consultis was the ideal partner for our brand: they're certainly not afraid of challenges and will always go the extra mile for their clients.
Our project was not the easiest one since the scope was managed by 3 different teams on three different continents. On top of that, we needed to go live asap. Still, IT Consultis took the challenge and outperformed. They've always made themselves available to answer all questions with clear explanations and training about technical aspects such as Drupal. They've also been a great help in our digital decisions including our O2O strategy in China, two areas in which they've proven to be very knowledgeable.
I really appreciated their professionalism and hard work, but what I've really enjoyed the most was the excellent relationship we've established. Working with the team is more like working with a partner than a supplier. For all these reasons, I would greatly recommend IT Consultis to anyone looking for a long term digital partner in China, or anywhere in the world as a matter of fact."
Stefano T. - Marketing Director