cultureblog

This past summer, Durrani launched SkullsAndWings (S.A.W.), our very own online retail division. Now that the site has been live for six months, we’ve seen it grow and take on a life of its own. But with steadfast monitoring, we’ve been able to adjust a variety of factors to make the shopping experience positive for our customers in a fast-paced, ever-changing retail market.

You’ve heard it many times: "If you build it, they will come." We know that isn’t enough on the Internet. A website, particularly an e-commerce site, must constantly be monitored after its launch to ensure it’s goals are being met. We like to compare it to a rocket launch. When a spacecraft leaves Earth, the NASA team on the ground doesn’t just pack up and go home. Throughout the journey, they carefully monitor the astronauts, mechanics and external conditions among many other factors to ensure the success of the mission. It’s really no different than launching a website! Well, maybe just a little different.

So with the launch of S.A.W. and subsequent findings, we’ve reaffirmed the importance of constantly keeping track of activity. Here are some our observations:

• Refining the checkout process to ease the customer’s shopping experience is absolutely necessary, and comes with time after learning what works and what doesn’t.
• Measuring analytics often is another important tool— Where is traffic coming from? How long are people staying on a page? Why may they leaving immediately? These are all questions that have arisen from following analytics, and have allowed us to adjust accordingly.
• Offering new promotions and changing promotional banners to reflect sales or new arrivals is key to keeping content fresh for visitors. Fresh content = repeat buyers.
• Monitoring inventory, even inventory that isn’t stored in-house, can be easy by maintaining constant communication with vendors. Staying up-to-date on inventory has avoided hassles.
• We’ve gained momentum by learning what customers want. If a particular product is hot, we’ve featured it on the homepage, offered promotions and begun selling similar products.

Durrani is very pleased with S.A.W.’s success, which we attribute to giving it time to find its way but leading it there in the right direction.