Ecommerce

Twinings

Creating the ultimate customer experience for tea lovers

Please note for the avoidance of confusion that this case study refers to Twinings legacy Kentico ecommerce solution and is not reflective of the current live website, which transitioned in August 2021.

Twinings has been bringing the finest teas and freshest flavours to the lives of UK consumers for over 300 years, making it one of the UK’s most trusted brands with a global following of tea enthusiasts in over 100 countries. The Twinings team needed a flexible and functional ecommerce platform that would bring the story behind the brand to life. We built a Kentico site underpinned on user centred principles that offers personalisation and automated marketing capabilities. The solution was incredibly efficient for the Twinings team to manage.

The agency’s ability to translate ambitious business goals into complex technical solutions that are customer focused is credit to the talent and experience of the team. Ecommerce Manager

Telling the brand story

The essence of the digital strategy was to provide customers with a flavour of the Twinings brand and experience, and to nurture not only sales, but brand loyalty and advocacy too. This was achieved through longform content for key products to illustrate their heritage and style and demonstrate the high quality ingredients as a luxury product to be enjoyed. We created a site that enabled Twinings to create content to engage a loyal following and build a community of tea lovers.

The Darjeerling page was an excellent example of how Twinings have achieved this. The history of the tea was conveyed through photography, illustrations and text designed to encourage exploration and engagement. The site provided a reflection of the exclusive experience that visitors receive at the flagship store on London’s Strand through insight to the brand’s extensive range

Understanding the user experience

With a clear vision of a compelling user journey, Twinings worked with our strategists to solidify navigation and functionality with wireframes and live prototypes. We considered the challenges of the wide range of possible journeys a customer may take with Twinings and created personas for key audiences to make their experiences as tailored and smooth as possible.

By using Kentico's personalisation and automated marketing functionality, scenarios were built and personalised content and targeted emails have been created for an optimised user journey. This in turn encourages return visits, increasing loyalty and sales.

Visually stunning

Beautiful photography and design created a strong visual impact for a highly engaging and enjoyable way for customers to purchase products online. An exclusive look had been created through the use of rich colours to reflect the premium nature of the products, and lifestyle imagery reinforces the brand’s association with British high society.

The use of white space enabled the visitor to focus on the products and explore the range, and a delicate look has been achieved to mirror the elegance of tea drinking. High quality imagery of the products is part of the site’s appeal, naturally encouraging the customer to explore the site.

Seamless integration and ease of use

We integrated the site with enterprise resource planning (ERP) and delivery systems, SAP and MetaPack to communicate in real time for a seamless flow of data to enhance operational efficiency. The site had been developed to make it as simple as possible for the Twinings team to use to ensure they can update their hundreds of products quickly and easily.

Mixing heritage with market-leading innovation and style, Ridgeway produced an online ecommerce experience for both trade and consumers that nurtures not only sales, but builds brand loyalty and advocacy all through one integrated content management, ecommerce and marketing platform.

It's a winner!

The website was awarded Best Ecommerce Site & Global Site of the Year at the Kentico Site of the Year awards, the Wirehive Ecommerce Site of the Year, and has contributed to our ecommerce victory at the RAR Digital Awards.

Getting ready for Christmas

Seasonal gifting is an important facet of Twinings’ promotional strategy. We worked with the brand to develop a number of components and journeys to showcase its product offerings at Christmas. This included a specific Christmas gift shop and product personalisation to make gifts that little bit more special for the festive season. We also created an interactive gift finder widget, making the shopping experience easier and more enjoyable for visitors, also listing featured products for gift inspiration.

Optimising the site for the customer

Page weights were consciously kept light for Twinings’ on-the-go customers to ensure the best possible mobile experience. Caching and cookie use has reduced load times to deliver personalised content that customers are most likely to engage with immediately. We saw a 158% increase in mobile sales year-on-year, and a 35% increase in mobile conversion.

Since the initial Kentico launch, we added features to enhance conversion rates across devices, including quick shop functionality. Customers were able to add products to their basket via key landing pages to speed up the buying process. A new product recommendations section on product pages ensured cross-selling and up-selling is achieved simply and effectively.

We’re delighted with how we have managed to save time and cost by re-using the existing template, but still given the site a personality of its own. The site is easy to update and really helps us to tell the story of what it’s like to work at Twinings to ensure we attract the right people into a career with us. HR Manager

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