New QuickLive platform implementation leads to massive increase in net retail sales for luxury British fashion retailer

Portaltech, a UK e-commerce systems integrator and consultancy, has been key to driving a significant increase in sales and customer conversions at L.K. Bennett, the luxury British fashion retailer, since its implementation of the Portaltech QuickLive eCommerce platform went live at the end of January 2010.

In the first five weeks since launch, net retail sales increased by over 100% year-on-year and by over 70% compared with the previous season. In addition, customer conversion experienced an uplift of over 100% year-on-year. 

Results outstrip expectations

Kate Smyth, head of e-commerce at L.K. Bennett, said: “The response has been incredible from the increases we’ve seen in trading to the feedback from our customers.”

Portaltech’s multichannel commerce platform, QuickLive, is providing the backbone to L.K. Bennett’s web presence. The aim of the website is to become the flagship ‘store’ for the brand globally, reflecting the instore customer experience and attention to detail and service for which the retailer is renowned. 

After signing the contract in October last year, L.K. Bennett and Portaltech collaborated closely in order to re-platform within an ambitious 12-week timeframe. A detailed discovery phase helped to establish and determine the key business objectives, critical functional specifications and the deliverables for the website and platform.

Working within tight deadlines

Smyth continued: “The timelines for this project were exceptionally tight, so it took absolute commitment from all the teams involved to produce the final high quality site. As an e-commerce team, we have been really thrilled with how straightforward the platform is to use and we are really benefiting from the management we now have over our online presence.”

Portaltech have a policy to partner with ‘best of breed’ technology providers. 10CMS was used to provide the rich media and merchandising content on the new site. This has enabled the fashion retailer to manage its brand presence using aspirational lifestyle images and hot-spot overlays that display product information and pricing. As a result, customers can reach product detail pages directly from the homepage, with less clicks of the mouse, improving the user experience.