We continue our series of articles with a website overview, the interface and the design that helps solve business problems. Good design helped more than one store, and unique and personalized features delighted and attracted customers.
We have prepared several points that you should pay attention to for your eCommerce store:
- The interface must fully correspond to your target audience (compare to the nature, vision and nature of the target audience)
- Convenient navigation and interface and usability (the store should be intuitive, logical and most convenient to use)
- Personalized service (interest-based search results, customer acquisition, upsell, cross sale)
- Website adaptation for all electronic devices
The main task of any online store is to lead the visitor from the first click to the moment of making a purchase using many elements, taking into account the convenience and psychological perception of the client.
To help you decide on the ideal design and functionality for your store, we analyzed the main features of the American bohemian apparel and lifestyle retail company “Free People“.
Brand History
To begin with, We would like to share the history of this brand, their vision, and aesthetics, and then it will be easier to understand why their store is designed in such a way and how they personalized their brand for their ideal consumer.
In 1970s, Dick Hain opened a store in Pennsylvania called Free People, and a store focused on people who were looking for freedom in the clothes they wore. When Dick Hain decided to expand and open a second store, the name was changed from Free People to Urban Outfitters. Over time, the demand for products became immediate, and to meet the demand, Dick and his wife decided to create a wholesale line. For a while, the wholesale line took on many personalities: Bulldog, Ecote, Cooperative, Anthropologie, and then in 1984, a new life was breathed into the name Free People.
In 2001, the brand decided that Free people embody favorite images, femininity, courage, and spirit. And Dick Hain chose to return to the original concept.
Free People has become a more mature, modern brand. Now the clothing brand embodies each girl’s intelligence, creativity, and individuality while maintaining its high quality and affordability.
This is exactly what the free people brand wanted to achieve: a 26-year-old girl, smart, creative, confident, and comfortable in all aspects of her being, free and adventurous, sweet to tough to tomboy to romantic. A girl who likes to keep busy and push life to its limits, with traveling and hanging out and everything in between. Who loves Donovan as much as she loves The Dears, and can’t resist petting any dog that passes her by on the street.
Once you have found your ideal customer image, the brand offers a wide range of options where there is something for everyone, for every lifestyle, and every occasion. Looking individual, attractive and free is very easy with the free people brand.
Free People has four wholesale showrooms in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and London. The Free People team is constantly looking for clients who believe in the Free People aesthetic and want Free People to be a part of their lives.
User-Friendly Home Page
On the main page, you can immediately find categorized pages with the most important categories. Here you can find the standard “New”, “Top Rated”, “Dresses”, “Clothes”, “Swim” and so on. On the main page, you can immediately find categorized pages with the most important categories. Here you can find the standard “novelties”, “Top ratings”, “dresses”, “things”, “swimsuits” and so on. But besides this, you can also find such categories as “New under $100”, “The FALL collection”, “The bottoms edit” and a “New season shoes”.
In addition, we would like to note that the entire main page is divided into useful sections. The beauty of the photos is also impressive, and even if customers did not want to buy anything from a certain category, after looking at the photos taken by the brand, they cannot remain indifferent and come at least to consider this product. And this is one of the most important tips that can be given to any brand, the main thing is to take high-quality photos.
Now let’s talk about navigation on the site, since the site is thought out thoroughly, here you can easily find the necessary product. As you can see in the outdoor clothing example. In addition to the usual, classic categories of goods, there are also categories by type of activity as well as by collections, which can greatly facilitate your search for the necessary goods.
Also, you can find links to the store’s blog on the main page. The blog is also a handy feature of the site. A blog will help your store drive traffic, get new customers, and build trust.
We also would like to pay attention to the call to action to go to live broadcasts. Now it is a very popular solution to show how things look in life and the opportunity to look at them, it is also the trend of eCommerce in 2022. In Free People Live, you can immediately go to the product page and buy them.
Free People Live
Let’s take a closer look at what the live broadcast looks like on the Free people website. The most convenient thing is that you can immediately see what product is being considered at the moment, directly ask all your questions in the chat, be the first to see the new collection, and for this, you don’t even need to go to the store. Modern buyers greatly value their time, so that they will appreciate such a feature. So don’t be afraid to experiment and add modern solutions to your e?ommerce store.
Now let’s move on to the product card
Brilliantly Designed Product Card
The product card in the free people store is brilliantly designed. The card describes in detail the characteristics of each product, its advantages, and a huge number of photos and videos about the product, which, of course, can motivate you to buy.
There is a product evaluation function in the product card, in addition to marketing selling triggers that motivate a person to buy and convenient functions for choosing the most suitable model and its design. At the same time, the evaluation is carried out not in general for the product but according to its key characteristics. The rating at the beginning of the page is average, based on the ratings of customers who leave it in their comments.
This is a very convenient and helpful feature because on its basis, you can draw subjective conclusions about the product. Another plus in the product card is the interaction of the store with its customers.
It is also convenient that there is a transition to similar products. This method will help increase sales, as the client can make an additional sale in addition to the main product or replace the selected product that the client has changed his mind about buying.
Now let’s move on to the details and product description and size chart. Store free people have chosen the tactic of a very detailed product description, size description and even care tips. It is also a good solution to describe the size that is on the model and the size, so if the client of the same parameters can clearly see how the model will sit.
As for the size table, it is standard and useful here. But since each product has an additional feedback scale in which customers leave feedback on sizes, it is very difficult to make a mistake in size.
Free People care about their customers and post a return policy on every product card. That also encourages customers to be more confident in the product.
By the way, if you do an analysis of the product card, the store is very concerned about reducing product returns, if you read our article, you can know that 60% will read your terms of sale and return before placing an order online. 69% of customers don’t even make a purchase if they do not find an exchange and return policy, and 33% of customers will change their mind about purchasing if they cannot easily find the exchange and return page.
Free People care about their customers and post a return policy on every product card. That also encourages customers to be more confident in the product.
If you analyze the product card, you can conclude that the store is concerned about reducing product returns. If you read our article, you know that 60% will read your terms of sale and return before placing an order online. 69% of customers don’t even purchase if they do not find an exchange and return policy, and 33% of customers will change their mind about purchasing if they cannot easily find the exchange and return page.
The company also uses all the methods to reduce the number of returns that we discussed in our article, such as relevant descriptions of products, VR/AR, dynamic sizing tables, offer alternative products, allows customers to leave detailed product reviews and for sure dynamic sizing tables. Therefore, we advise you to be inspired by working with the store’s “free people” site and take note of these valuable features.
Aesthetic Free People Movement
Now let’s move on to my favorite page “free people movement”. Free people movement is the unification of people who are close in spirit to the aesthetics of the brand and to each other. In this section you can find things that are ideal for entertainment organized by a team of free people.
This solution helps to build sales, retain your customers and turn them into true brand followers.
Also, for the brand, this is a huge additional sale, since for each new event or entertainment by the participant, you will need to choose a cool, laconic bow from your shop.
Convenient Payment Method
Free people offer all convenient payment methods. You can purchase as a guest or register.
On the left side, we see the selected products and the payment methods on the right. Also, a helpful feature for any store is the section to postpone for later. Firstly, this section will remind them of the products they want to buy, and secondly, it will help them make additional sales.
This is exactly the case with the “you might also like” section; it creates additional sales for your brand and helps customers find personalized products for the client. It is also convenient that there is a transition to similar products. This method will help increase sales, as the client can make an additional sale in addition to the main product or replace the selected product that the client has changed his mind about buying.
Sustainability Initiatives
The environment, quite rightly, is of great importance to almost everyone these days. Since many consumers are aware of how their actions and daily lives affect the world around them, they now seek to do business only with those who demonstrate brand sustainability, and “free people” are no exception.
The Free People team is committed to supporting our product turnover and reducing waste across all aspects of our value chain from design to manufacturing to the final product, with the goal of moving from a linear to a regenerative model.
Free People on Mobile
A mobile application for an online store helps to increase sales. The “free people” store does not forget about this and implements all the necessary functions into the mobile version.
Going to the mobile version, we see the excellent speed of loading content and the same convenient and intuitive navigation through the site. We can see the same beautiful sections, which are easy and convenient to switch to from the mobile version.
The mobile version also provides the option to pay via Apple Pay. This will make it very easy for your customers to buy.