The e-Commerce site is a top channel for consumers to learn about a brand, its offerings and values. As a result, it is vital that retailers create an engaging browsing and buying experience that is consistent with their brand image.
To help create an environment that is more memorable and interactive for its loyal customer base — and better promote the social mission for its non-profit foundation for children in need — the Life is good apparel retailer has overhauled its e-Commerce site.
Life is good partnered with Demandware, an on-demand e-Commerce solution provider, to reformat its online storefront into four sections: Playmakers, Shop, Festival and Good Vibes. The integration offers the brand “a platform that scales easily and enables the realization of the Life is good vision, including achieving online business goals and delivering multichannel initiatives,” according to Caroline Cabral, Public Relations Manager for Life is good. It also helps funnel attention to the Playmakers section of the site to bolster the company’s non-profit efforts.
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Through Playmakers, the brand effectively promotes its foundation and future activities, and encourages visitors to sign up and participate in events. Consumers also are offered resources and information on certification programs, which allow participants to become educated on running events with children.
Life is good’s online transition has helped the brand “blur the lines between its for-profit and non-profit initiatives,” Cabral reported. “Across the new site, it’s easier for customers to learn more about the work that the Playmakers group does — through improved site organization, an informative new video and other resources,” Cabral said. “Within the Shop section, customers also can make in-cart donations to The Life is good Playmakers.” Additionally, in the Festival section, Life is good promotes its annual music festival, through which a portion of all ticket sales are donated to the company’s charity.
Another new feature of the site is the Good Vibes section, which is designed to cultivate the brand’s community and allow members to share inspiration with optimistic, user-generated content. Members also can comment on images via their Facebook accounts, as well as “Like” images and share them on Twitter and Google+.
Through the new site, Life is good offers merchandising tools, social sharing, referrals/reviews and other multichannel strategies to boost awareness of its charitable efforts.
Fluid — a digital service and solution provider and a Demandware LINK Solution Partner — helped design and roll out the new socially-integrated site. Additionally, Life is good adopted several pre-built integrations to third-party technologies available through the Demandware LINK Marketplace to optimize the e-Commerce experience. These applications include Avalara for sales tax automation, Bazaarvoice for ratings and reviews, and ExactTarget for interactive marketing.
Enabling Omni-Channel Retail
Life is good’s primary goal in partnering with Demandware was to build out a seamless omni-channel presence continually across its entire brand, including retail, wholesale, Good Neighborhood Shoppes nationwide and the e-Commerce site, according to Cabral. Initiatives enabling this effort include:
· Gift cards available for purchase in stores and online;
· iPads that allow customers to purchase on Lifeisgood.com, which are present in all seven retail locations; and
· A new store locator functionality that allows customers browsing on Lifeisgood.com to search for the nearest retail, wholesale or Good Neighborhood Shoppe.
The Demandware platform and solution suite allows Life is good to manage sites across channels and geographies more efficiently on a centralized interface, eliminating organizational silos, according to Rob Garf, VP of Production and Solutions Marketing for Demandware. Now Life is good is accelerating multichannel operations, and offering a personalized and memorable brand experience.
“A big pain point for retailers looking to revamp e-Commerce operations across channels is ensuring they’re capable of delivering consistent consumer experiences across channels and devices,” Garf said. “In order to achieve its vision, Life is good required a new e-Commerce platform that was scalable enough to handle significant growth as well as potential global expansion.”
