Given their increasing tablet and phone traffic, Stein Mart officials desired a responsive website and simplified checkout to enhance customer engagement and customer experience.
As a result, fashion retailer Stein Mart partnered with Kibo to launch Stein Mart’s updated website powered by the Kibo ecommerce platform. As part of Stein Mart’s overall omnichannel retailing strategy, the feature-rich and responsive designed site allows Stein Mart shoppers to now have the same experience across all of its retail touch points, giving customers a more personalized online shopping experience.
Stein Mart officials sought an agile platform that would be the foundation for its current and future omnichannel business needs. Stein Mart’s online sales rose 70% in 2015 and officials expect to continue that trend with the launch of its new responsive website.
Sara Meza, Director of Ecommerce for Stein Mart, told Loyalty360 that the new site has a fully responsive design to support all devices, easier navigation, improved on-site, and natural search.
“In addition, the customer experience has improved with the ability to visually merchandise all the categories we sell online (apparel, accessories, shoes and home),” Meza explained. “We are really pleased with the initial response we are receiving from our customers. We were looking for a new ‘front end’ platform partner when Radial (former eBay Enterprise/GSI Commerce) decided to move away from this part of the business to focus on the back end. Radial has been a good partner with us on the ‘back end technology’ and continues to lead our order management, fulfillment, customer service, and drop ship services. With our growing tablet and phone traffic, we also desired a responsive site and wanted a simplified checkout. Having a site that was easier for the customer to navigate and search was a must have.”
New features on Stein Mart's redeveloped website include:
-Expanded visual merchandising capabilities for all categories
-Responsive design to accommodate customers’ screen size orientation on various devices
-Optimized SEO for improved organic search
-Easier navigation for searching and shopping
-Simplified, one-page checkout
-Customer ratings and reviews
“Ecommerce is a significant sales-growth opportunity for us and also drives brand awareness and traffic to our stores,” Meza added. “It will continue to remain a focus. The updated platform is the foundation to omnichannel. It is important to us that customers receive a consistent experience in store and online. Steinmart.com provides the same promotions, pricing, and loyalty program as the in-store engagement.”