Specialist online retailer responds to increased traffic via smartphones by building on existing e-commerce investment with new mobile-optimised website

Specialist online retailer responds to increased traffic via smartphones by building on existing e-commerce investment with new mobile-optimised website

Calendar Club UK, Europe’s biggest online specialist retailer of calendars and related merchandise, has this month launched a mobile-friendly version of its website, enabling smartphone customers to easily browse the entire catalogue and quickly buy online.

The new m-commerce site has been built and implemented by integrated multichannel retail and distribution software provider Maginus, together with Alastair Carter, Calendar Club UK’s senior e-commerce designer, who designed the new mobile website interface.

Meeting mobile demand

Calendar Club UK decided to build a mobile-friendly website after observing that 20% of its online traffic was coming through smartphones, but the percentage of completed orders was less than for non-smartphone buyers.

The company selected Maginus to build the new mobile friendly website in order to expand its existing website, which the provider built in 2009, both in terms of features for customers to enjoy and also ‘reach’ by satisfying the new demands of online shoppers.

Calendar Club UK said it already has a good conversion rate on its ‘standard’ website (above the industry standard conversion rates) and expects to exceed industry standard conversion rates on the new mobile-friendly website too. The online retailer can now also manage both websites via the same system, which share the same customer account, product and pricing information, so it only needs updating in one place.

Seamless shopping experience

Another key benefit is that customers are able to put goods in their basket on their smartphone and then complete their order on the standard website. This is already proving very useful to Calendar Club UK’s newsletter subscribers, who like to browse on their smartphone but quite often then review their selection at home on their computer before finalising their orders.

Helen Winterbourne, e-commerce manager at Calendar Club UK, said: “We selected Maginus for the project because they have many years’ experience in the market, as well as providing us with our current e-commerce website.”