The Fitting Room required a website that could flawlessly meet the unique needs of their clientele while being adaptable to the changing requirements of their business. With some clever digital tools and an approach that prioritised user experience, we delivered a niche e-commerce platform that will meet the diverse and evolving needs of customer and business alike.
Good UX is much like that of good fashion. The result of carefully applied expertise is a piece that endures through time – one that delivers equal parts style and substance while ensuring the user has graceful ease of movement and lasting support.
We needed to keep this approach front of mind in our work for The Fitting Room. Operating since 2005, the popular Christchurch business specialises in D-K cup bras and post-mastectomy products, ensuring their customers can assuredly find well-fitted lingerie and swimwear.
With two stores in the Garden City and a reputation for personalised and attentive service, they needed the online offering to match the quality of their in-store experience. During the scoping process it quickly became apparent one size does not fit all – and nor should it.
This was a complex e-commerce build, one that required a range of different components working in unison to achieve the right result. With a custom-built back-end we ensured the business could improve and future-proof important aspects of stock management, search functionality and customer education.
A tailor-made wireframe
One of The Fitting Room's key service focuses is on delivering empathy and ease. Providing a ‘don't make me think’ customer mindset meant a harmonious ecommerce user experience was mandatory. The site needed to have a strong, supple wireframe and intuitive pathways from arrival to checkout and beyond. With the careful analysis of visitor journeys and outcomes the new site was designed to ensure no offering was missed, no detail overlooked.
One-piece functionality
It was vital the site’s platform offered flexibility of use to the Fitting Room team. Our development team recommended the Craft CMS with the Commerce plugin for this key aspect. This choice provided custom workflow upgrade options and overall ease of use.
For example, the product import module keeps the stock numbers up to date during the day across The Fitting Room's two stores. And, as all product information gets imported automatically via their new-stock delivery portal, there’s now no manual labour needed when uploading products.
Searching the range
A guiding principle for The Fitting Room in their personalised service is 'don't be annoying'. They were aware just how many sites become frustrating because they don't deliver key information promptly and accurately during the search process.
Search results were markedly improved via a new product filter – which the development team added custom-fit features too for enhanced functionality. This new feature helped streamline search results as, even though pages were statically cached, the filters only returned available products.
Room to grow
Now, with the site live, everything is working as planned. The attention to detail in UX has made a big difference and, much like fashion design, a lot of hard work behind the scenes has delivered a seemingly ‘simple’ result.
However, this is just the start of the story. Unlike the relatively static websites of the past, the new site is now viewed by the store as an organic work in progress. It is consistently evolving with new features and improvements, the online experience matching both the changing aesthetic and the unwavering service promise of the in-store experience.
