Jane Clayton started making curtains at her kitchen table in the 1970s. Initially supplying bespoke curtains and blinds for friends and family, word soon spread and by 1979, Jane Clayton & Company was born. Today, Jane Clayton & Company creates some of the UK’s highest quality curtains, blinds, cushions, and headboards.
With over 70,000 products from 100 different brands, Jane Clayton & Company has one of the most extensive fabrics and wallpaper offerings online, with dozens of new collections added each week. The company employs a skilled team of interior designers, makers, stylists and fitters who design and install interiors for show homes, hotels and private clients across the UK.
The context
Over recent years their ecommerce offering became outdated. Deficiencies in existing technology hindered the company’s growth and reduced the quality of the user experience – from product discoverability, SEO, UX and the overall mobile experience. Besides, utilising the site by the merchandising, content, and marketing teams was difficult and frustrating.
Jane Clayton Co. sought to build an interactive shopping experience and brand portal to encourage engagement, conversion and product interaction. The brand’s plans to grow and expand internationally required both a brand and a website refresh to effectively communicate Jane Clayton’s offering, including the made-to-measure service.
Superb’s knowledge and expertise made it the perfect candidate to take on the challenge in this scenario. The agency has a specialised team to tackle each of the project’s specific needs: A development team to update the e-commerce platform, including the building of tailor-made solutions, top-level designers to improve the site’s interface and usability, and specialists in e-commerce and SEO to enhance the entire shopping experience.
The approach
The brand needed a modern and elevated design. The new website required an improved user experience. It had to consider security for payment data and high levels of availability, stability, and loading speed. Not only for retail customers but also for business customers to create accounts and self-service online.
Using the platform was frustrating and time-consuming, so it was mandatory to provide the business with control over content management through an easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface. Strong SEO implementation and access to insights, data and reporting were critical to improving Business Intelligence and decision-making. Additionally, the brand expected bespoke customer tools, including fabric and wallpaper quantity calculators, and made to measure product journeys.
Superb took the time to understand and analyse the business objectives and project requirements to deliver the right approach. The first conversations with the client gave us an idea of the project scale, followed by a more pragmatic and elaborated projection of the tasks to be performed, allowing us (and the brand) to visualise the entire workflow in more detail.
“We understand the scale of the project when requirements were translated into a plan in JIRA. Yana’s (Superb Project Manager) very meticulous and hard working approach was what we needed here. She was always available, answered queries, and advised us on the right approach to solve problems. Having access to a team of good people across all areas (UX, UI, SEO, project management and web development) was very helpful for us to gain access to good resources all under the same roof.”
Gareth Irvine, e-Commerce Director, Jane Clayton
The strategy and implementation
Jane Clayton looked for a distinctive and branded visual design to enhance the user experience, including device optimisation. Whilst the former site made them look “like a smaller niche player with an outdated website”, the new design and user experience reinforce its position as a market leader without alienating any part of its audience.
The SEO and product management approach was a key part of the project. With such a high number of products and collection pages, there were a lot of areas to consider. In addition, many fabrics are available in fabric and wallpaper, which can add to the natural duplication through the website.
When dealing with such an extensive catalogue of items, it was necessary to use product information where possible to help create default rules for certain SEO elements. This allows new items to be added to the website without micromanaging each element and avoiding delays.
Some of the main challenges for the development and design team were the number of different templates needed due to the differences in product categories’ attributes and technical features and the building of bespoke tools. For instance, to highlight the made-to-measure service, the teams are required to fully understand some of the more technical aspects of Jane Clayton’s product offerings.
“Mike and Nick (Superb designers) were both excellent in talking through ideas, coming up with concepts, and trying their best to get under the skin of our product – which is quite technical and required several customisations to the standard methods of presenting the product on e-commerce sites. They both worked quickly and efficiently and took on board our comments while also appropriately pushing back and standing behind their expertise on a few occasions.”
Gareth Irvine, e-Commerce Director, Jane Clayton
The results
Since the launch, the feedback has been positive. Users and business partners alike have complimented the brand’s new site. The users’ adoption has been almost frictionless, and even other brands want to work with Jane Clayton exclusively. Besides, the metrics have been very positive. The new site organic traffic is up by 60%, and the site conversion rate has increased by 45%, while the checkout process abandonment rates and bounce rate have decreased up to 8%.
“Without Superb, nothing could have moved forwards. They provided excellent resources across the wide variety of skill sets that we needed, all under one roof. They were able to put huge energy and commitment into delivering work and into solving problems, and their skilled developers produced a high-quality website that is delivering commercial gain for us.”
Gareth Irvine, e-Commerce Director, Jane Clayton
Project leaders:
- Gareth Irvine, eCommerce Director, Jane Clayton
- Bertie Clayton, Managing Director, Jane Clayton
- Edward Lewis – Head of eCommerce, Superb Media
- Mike Sullivan – Design Director, Superb Media
