Success stories are always uplifting and we’d like to share one that is close to our hearts. One of our customers, Vans, which operates on WCS V7, has reported a 12% increase in 2019 revenue, grossing over 3.2 Billion dollars. It has become the must-have shoe that everyone is wearing.
Vans’ success is a testimonial for a solid digital commerce platform which is scalable and secure to support the brand image for the past 20 years. For companies who are operating on WCS (now HCL Commerce) Version 7, this is an inspiration as the brand’s authenticity comes shining through the user experience of the site. For other V7 companies, there may be some uncertainty as to what the future may hold. With the end of support extended through April 2021, there is fear of support abandonment in addition to future viability of the platform. Companies are challenged with a decision to remain on V7, or migrate to V8 or V9. And this analysis paralysis may prevent you from making the right investment on what you currently have. You have to push aside all these distractions, put a stake in the ground and carry out what you think is best. Regardless of what version you are on, the following tips are universal.
A Frictionless User Experience for Your Brand
Putting fear and uncertainty aside, companies should take a page out of the Vans’ success story to focus on the business and provide a user experience that is fast and responsive. It’s time to look at your website through the lenses of your customers and truly ask whether you are servicing them or discouraging them from shopping on your site with slowness and a lack of mobile presentation. Through our work with Vans, we know how important website loading speed is to the brand. One second delay can hurt conversion rate as much as 7%.
A Best-in-Class Merchandise Assortment
Are you making informed decisions on the placement of your products with respect to analytics, i.e. conversion rate, inventory availability in color and size, social sentiments (such as ratings & reviews). The Vans team uses Smart Merchandiser on a daily basis to stay in touch with their customers likes and dislikes.
A Simple but Powerful Search
How is your Solr set-up and implementation? Do you have the right faceting and filtering properly defined so customers can easily find what they are looking for? Solr has helped Vans set the foundation for an effective search. Nothing fancy, just solid implementation.
In summary, if you are doing all three tips mentioned above, then there is an opportunity to put metrics in place to measure, iterate, and enhance and repeat. Your KPIs will certainly improve over time and bringing in the revenue you need to invest back into the platform, or finance your new endeavors. Remember that nothing good will happen if you don’t show bottom-line revenue.
Resources
Get the V7 Extended Support Guide
Read the 163% ROI Case Study on Mobiecom
Disclaimer: Vans is not currently using Mobiecom, a ReactJS storefront to replace Aurora. This storefront clocks in at 2 seconds per page without the use of a Content Delivery Network (CDN). If you need help with implementing any of these tips, or are looking for help with staying on V7 or a migration to V8 or V9, we can help. Give us a shout at info@zobristinc.com and let’s get started.
