Interflora decided to focus on interaction and ease of use while using state-of-the-art technology beneath the surface. The mobile site was produced over a period of three months as a separate web application built with HTML5 and JavaScript. Since the launch of the mobile site, Interflora has increased recurring visitors by 20%, slashed bounce rates by more than 25% and boosted actual orders by a whopping 250%.
THE GOALS
Better understand customers’ ecommerce needs
Create strong online presence on all platforms
Increase sales on mobile
THE APPROACH
Kept branding consistent across mobile and desktop
Simplified shopping and checkout experience to enable on-the-move buying
Used Google Analytics’ advanced features for powerful tracking and reporting
Integrated Google Maps API to facilitate discovery of nearest Interflora stores
THE RESULTS
Increased value of sales on mobile by over 200%
Increased volume of orders by more than 250%
Recurring visits up more than 20%
Bounce rates down by over 25%
Founded in 1923, Interflora is the world’s leading flower delivery network. Via the Interflora network of over 58,000 affiliated flower shops in more than 150 countries, a bouquet can be handmade and delivered almost anywhere in the world within a few hours.
Interflora founded its first webshop in 1995, and the site has been evolving ever since to keep up with the latest trends and technologies. In recent years the company has seen a huge surge in visits from mobile devices. “Our product is something that people partly buy on the go,” says Interflora’s Martin Smeding. “We had seen a big increase in mobile traffic and decided that we needed a proper mobile commerce solution in place to cater to that spontaneity.” Google Analytics revealed that Interflora was losing money by not sufficiently catering to mobile users, missing opportunities every day to sell Interflora products. “Clearly the traffic was already there,” he says. “What we needed to do was take care of it.”
Getting things moving
Interflora decided to focus on interaction and ease of use while using state-of-the-art technology beneath the surface. “We saw no immediate reason or need to change our backend IT solution,” Martin explains. “What we needed to do was change the way we presented it to our customers.”
The design of the new mobile site included:
- A simplified online experience with efficient three-step navigation to express checkout
- Tight integration with Google Maps API, allowing users to find the nearest store in just two clicks from the start page
- Branding consistent with Interflora’s desktop website and physical stores
- Dynamic landing page functionality that adapts to the originating link and shows a corresponding message (useful in marketing campaigns such as Google AdWords)
- Powerful reporting through advanced Google Analytics
- End-to-end order tracking with the Google Analytics ecommerce module
The mobile site was produced over a period of three months as a separate web application built with HTML5 and JavaScript. Its modular architecture allows version handling and full control of user tracking. This means that Interflora can analyse traffic and behaviour down to each click, which enables the company to optimise design further by identifying exact drop-off points and most efficient entrance points.
A blooming success
“Once we took the step to implement a proper mobile strategy, we immediately saw the benefits of doing so,” Martin reveals. “Instead of losing money every day by not catering to the customer’s needs, we started making it. Being where the customers are is what it’s all about.”
Since the launch of the mobile site, Interflora has increased recurring visitors by 20%, slashed bounce rates by more than 25% and boosted actual orders by a whopping 250%. “All in all,” says Martin, “we’ve noticed an overall rise in traffic to Interflora.se – be it on mobile or on desktop – which in turn has increased our turnover. Especially on Valentine’s Day, when traffic skyrocketed. Needless to say, we’re pleased.”
Interflora now enjoys three times more sales on mobile compared to its old solution, not to mention access to exciting new customer groups, such as people who use mobile as their main device. Meanwhile, the new emphasis on mobile resonates perfectly with Interflora’s multi-channel strategy. “We had a hunch going mobile would increase store traffic, and we were right,” Martin explains. “We’ve seen a massive increase in customers using the mobile site to actually come by and visit our stores.”
