Etam Group: a unified and refined shopping experience with Woosmap
“ After redesigning a geolocated checkout with Woosmap, the e-Commerce conversion rate increased by more than 50% compared to 2019. ”
“ Thanks to Woosmap, Etam offers a coherent brand identity on their interactive maps, customised offers based on users preferred store and a simplified checkout experience. ”
"After redesigning the geolocated checkout, the e-Commerce conversion rate increased by more than 50% compared to 2019"
Etam Group is a one-hundred year old French brand, specialising in lingerie and ready-to-wear. Made up of 5 brands: Etam, Undiz, Maison123, Livy and Ysé, it has close to 1,500 stores in over 50 countries. Although its target clientele is predominantly female, Undiz is distinctive in that it sells underwear for men. In a competitive market, Etam has set itself apart through historical know-how, an appealing “French Touch” brand image, and an innovative online and in-store shopping experience.
As regards its websites, in order to provide its customers with a streamline and unified digital experience, in particular for the checkout process, the French group uses the services of Woosmap, geolocation expert.
Focusing on innovation: a safe bet
Innovation is at the heart of Etam Group’s DNA in many ways. In some shops, fitting rooms are connected: the customer can browse through the store’s offerings without leaving the room. The website offers a Progressive Web App (PWA) for the mobile part providing an app-like experience in particular via the offline mode. The Try At Home service means customers can try on their items in their own home and only pay for what they keep.
Over the last few years, Etam has set itself the challenge of providing its customers a 360° experience, in particular with a streamline omnichannel customer journey. “This challenge has never been more important than in 2020 with the health crisis. We already had Click & Collect for years, but this service has become vital with the lockdowns and curfews. Also within the health context that we are experiencing, the e-Commerce share, which has been steadily increasing over the last few years, has made a quantum leap and more than doubled”, explains Sébastien Ribeil, the Group’s e-Commerce domain manager.
Etam is continuing to explore new consumption methods, such as Social Commerce, a concept where each brand develops its community as a sales relay. Live Shopping, direct presentation of brand products via social networks, has been set up as a new channel for generating sales. In spite of the current period, these types of innovations mean that it is possible to maintain proximity with the customer. For some innovations, the group’s technical teams work with specialist external service providers. This is the case for anything relating to geolocation: Etam turned towards Woosmap.
Optimising the checkout with geolocation
In summer 2018, alongside the launch of Google Maps Platform, the economic model changed. Etam needed a partner to optimise its use of geolocation data. With the help of Woosmap, an expert in the deployment of Google Maps services, the aim was also to redesign the user checkout process. Until then, the Group’s websites did not offer maps to easily identify a store close by. Therefore, the challenge was to rationalise and simplify the selection of a point of sale or order collection point at the end of the purchasing process.
The solution was Woosmap Store Locator JS, a Woosmap API dedicated to the geolocation of points of sale, and Woosmap Geolocation API, a service for locating the internet user in just one click. “For an even easier shopping experience, we integrated the Woosmap Address Finder, which autocompletes the address when the customer starts typing it”, explains Guillaume Brunier, Etam’s Lead Developer. Each brand website also saves the customers’ preferred delivery point so as to suggest it to them during future purchases. “Another advantage with Woosmap is that we keep the visual identity of the group’s brands on the various interactive maps, whether for selecting a store, a delivery address or a pick-up point”, adds Sébastien.
In April 2020, Etam Group’s e-Commerce technical team, consisting of around fifteen people, including several developers, project managers, testers and a release manager, rolled out a comprehensive geolocated checkout solution.
“Thanks to the API, the Woosmap part was extremely quick to integrate. The entire experience concerning the checkout maps took approximately 20 man-days for the group’s four brands, which represents around fifteen websites. We particularly appreciated the use of the clear and user-friendly console that we use for checking data use and carrying out Quality Assurance tests”
The group uses the Salesforce Commerce Cloud platform for its websites. Woosmap stores the store and pick-up point data. At the checkout, specifically, at the delivery stage when selecting the collection mode, the information regarding points of sale and collection points is displayed on an interactive map.
Reinventing the customer experience
Geolocation is a valuable asset for streamlining the eCommerce experience: “Instead of three clicks and a few seconds to enter an address, the customer only needs to click once, at a crucial moment of the purchasing process: the less time they spend at the checkout, the more they are likely to confirm their purchase. A simple and visual experience reduces the risk of confusion, which obviously every Retailer wants to avoid, in particular on key pages”, explains Sébastien Ribeil.
For a streamline omnichannel experience before, during and after the purchase, it is therefore not only important to offer geolocation at the checkout, but also for item returns, so that the customer does not have to search for the closest store.
By using Woosmap, Etam is thinking ahead: “Our developments are designed on a generic and core system. We prioritise partners with solutions meeting these requirements, as is the case for Woosmap. If in the future, we need to add another delivery service requiring a map, we will save time simply by adapting the existing Woosmap solution”, explains Guillaume Brunier.
Etam Group is always looking to improve the user experience on its websites. With this in mind, some adjustments related to geolocation are also planned as part of the partnership with Woosmap, such as the postal address checker for reducing the number of “Not Found at This Address (NFTA)” returns.
After redesigning the geolocated checkout, the e-Commerce conversion rate increased by more than 50% compared to 2019. “Although the context of the health crisis and other changes made to the sites should also be taken into consideration, geolocating the checkout has contributed to this increase. Geolocation is an innovative factor for the future. It is key to the consistency of the omnichannel shopping experience.” says Etam Group’s e-Commerce manager.
Source: Etam