Ann Summers marketing and business development director Julian Baker said the retailer wanted the site to be as up-to-date as possible and was not prepared to put the site live until “the entire web concept was perfect”.
The site is now the retailer’s fastest growing sales channel. Ann Summers said that the development of the site’s new platform was necessary to support ongoing expansion.
The project will now continue with the launch of updated sites for both its Knickerbox and party-planning businesses on the same platform as the main site.
Baker said that the new platform provides both style and substance. “As well as much-improved usability and aesthetics, the site is designed for increased scalability and resilience.” he said.
“In addition, we can reflect our in-store promotional plans, offer dedicated web promotions and be far more dynamic in our cross- and up-sell activity.” He added that it is also now more straightforward to configure the sites for effective search engine optimisation.
“Most importantly, by moving to IBM Websphere, we now have a platform that allows us to continually enhance and improve the sites,” he said.
New features will be launched on the Ann Summers site, the first being online product promotions. Baker added: “The decision to launch product promotions through the e-commerce site is to bring online retail offerings in line with our in-store promotions, working to reflect a true multichannel approach.”
Ann Summers has worked with Salmon to develop the new web platform and is using Claranet to host and manage its web systems.
Ann Summers has also created a viral video to coincide with the launch of the Sex and the City film. The video, which was created by Cowan Group, will run as an exclusive on Handbag.com for two days from May 26, before going live on the retailer’s site.
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