Modernisation of a leading British transport history archive
Transport Treasury is home to over 500,000 negatives and transparencies. Their catalogue immortalises rail and road transport history. The images date back to the 19th century. With such an ever-growing collection, the company needed an eCommerce hub where customers could swiftly browse the archive and make purchases. Learn how we've built an e-commerce website with 129,000+ products for Transport Treasury.Overview
An e-commerce store with 129,000 products and growing at an incredible rate is a challenge on its own. In the case of Transport Treasury, there was one more caveat. The website caters to an older audience – 74% of the visitors are in the 45+ age group.
This posed a unique challenge. Our team had to design and develop a website that worked for that audience. Considering a slower adoption rate of fast broadband across that age group, we’ve put extra emphasis on performance.
When they redid our website this year, we’ve gone up about 40 to 50% business-wise. All of that went swimmingly, and both were good experiences, and we had no complaints at all.Robin, Director at Transport Treasury Publishing
Outcomes
3.15x
higher click-through rate in Google
2.0s
Google Speed Index score
Takeaways
01. Designed for the target audience
02. Capitalising on search intent
03. Superb performance
01.
Designed for the target audience
A catalogue theme
Transport Treasury is as much of a catalogue as it is a shop. This gave us an idea to go for a library feel, rather than “traditional” e-commerce. We’ve removed all distractions and presented users with a catalogue and an easy way to add products to the cart.
Familiar audience
Our other e-commerce projects with the client gave us a good foundation for that decision. Customers often cited those “distractions” as a reason they didn’t, or forgot to, convert.
Toned-down look
We’ve opted for calm colours and a natural experience. The toned-down design complemented by pastel accents was well-received. It’s a perfect representation of what Transport Treasury is and how they want to be perceived by the visitors.
02.
Capitalising on search intent
18% click-through rate
The new website maintains an 18% click-through rate in Google search results over a 6 month period. This is the equivalent of ranking in the third position in Google. Transport Treasury has observed a 3x spike in CTR when we launched the new site.
03.
Superb performance
2.0s Speed Index
Our target audience meant we couldn’t compromise on the performance. Mouthwatering effects would’ve been detrimental to the conversion rate.
We ensured the site was as lightweight and as fast as possible – even with the massive catalogue of products. This helped our target audience, as they usually use a below-average Internet connection.
The SEO and UX benefits
The impeccable performance gave us a significant boost across the board. It’s an important metric for SEO ranking, but also for the user experience. The website as a whole has a bounce rate of just 31% across a 6-month period.
Questions? 🤔 We’ve got them, too!
What’s bothering you with the existing website? What’s the challenge you wish to solve with a new website? How will you measure the success of the new website?
Schedule a call with us, and let’s figure it out over a remote cup of coffee 😉
