Modernising the Painting Industry: Upgrading Little Greene to the Latest Adobe Commerce

Quick Results

Stats taken from data gathered between July 2023 - October 2023 vs previous 4 months (March 2023 - June 2023)

 

About the Client

Based in the UK, Little Greene is an independent manufacturer and supplier of luxury paints and wallpapers. Little Greene remains committed to the socially and environmentally responsible production of premium decorative paints and wallpapers. Their colours and designs are inspired by and created in collaboration with the National Trust. 

Little Greene strives to emulate their luxury in-store consultancy in their digital presence, selling directly to the public, online and in-store, as well as via selected retailers.

Business Challenge

Little Greene has been a valued client of ours for many years. We have focused on several goals throughout our time working with Little Greene. These include increasing their brand visibility and revenue from online sources, improving the user experience and aligning Little Greene’s online presence with the quality they have become known for from their offline customers. 

Little Greene are now embarking on an ambitious digital transformation programme which goes beyond just their website and includes operational change. 

As part of this, they wanted to become more digital, with the website forming part of their broader transformation programme. Therefore, we have upgraded Little Greene to the latest version of Adobe Commerce. With the move, we needed to modernise the paint industry online and address the challenges of the unusually large buying cycle of purchasing paint. 

Adobe Commerce Build and Upgrade

In the initial project, we designed and built Little Greene’s eCommerce site, which included integrating with Little Greene’s in-house ERP system to allow easy synchronisation of orders, price lists, samples and shipments from the website.

We also added multi-language capabilities and introduced a fresh, consistent look and feel. The integrated website ensured Little Greene was well positioned to capitalise on the ever-increasing quantity of eCommerce sales. Little Greene now operates in the UK, Ireland, EU, Netherlands, Germany, France and the USA. 

The move to upgrade to the latest version of Adobe Commerce was essential not only for security but also to have a supported version since the previous version was nearing its end of life.

Unique Design

Building on the striking, fully responsive design we had already created, we needed to combat the challenge of the extended buying cycle inherent in the paint industry.

Leveraging key user stories, we identified opportunities to reimagine the user journey and how consumers engage with paint, aiming to alleviate their pain points and enhance their purchasing experience significantly.

Our solution was introducing a brand new, unique design crafted to simplify the complex process of selecting paint colours. On the website, users can now seamlessly explore paint colours organised into intuitive categories such as warm neutrals, gray base neutrals, green based neutrals etc.. Once the consumer clicks through, there is a whole new set of information where they can experience different combinations of colours that complement each other without the need to buy unnecessary samples. 

With the integration of Prismic, we introduced headless content for the front end, enabling dynamic features like the wallpaper calculator. This tool empowered users to calculate the precise amount of wallpaper required based on their room size and the pattern repeat. Similarly, our paint calculator transformed the way customers estimate their paint needs, considering room dimensions.

These innovative solutions eradicated the guesswork for customers enabling them to now effortlessly choose colours that compliment with their selected wallpaper or other hues, removing the stress associated with colour coordination. By alleviating the complexities associated with buying paint or selecting wallpaper, we’ve created an unparalleled user experience, reinforcing Little Greene’s position as a leader in the luxury paint market.

 

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Personalisation at Scale

Leveraging advanced technologies, we personalised every touchpoint of the customer journey. From tailored product suggestions based on individual preferences to a dynamic inspiration section reflecting the customer's chosen colours, personalisation became the cornerstone of Little Greene's digital strategy.

Using Nosto and Ayden, we not only enhanced user engagement by 10.2% but also facilitated cross-channel interactions, allowing online and in-store experiences to seamlessly blend, fostering customer loyalty and trust.

With Nosto, we created a tailored and personalised experience for Little Greene’s customers. We've experimented before in understanding if someone seems to prefer certain undertones. We’ve taken this information and tailored positions so that paints with the customer’s preferred undertones appear further up. We can also change whether wallpaper or paint appears at the front based on consumer preference.

To further personalise the consumer experience, we’ve tailored the ideas and inspiration section of the website to show living rooms with the consumer's preferred colours. Coupled with that, consumers are able to purchase and see the sample pots together so they can recreate a room’s feel in their own home without having to search manually.

With Ayden, the payment provider, we have been able to allow Little Greene to accept payments both online and in-store. This helps to build journeys across sales channels and fosters a personalised shopping experience by recognising customers. For example, an online customer would be recognised if they made an in-store purchase. The customer can then be offered automated loyalty points and an emailed receipt.

Efficient Automation

                               

Have you found your perfect shade

Our implementation of robust automation, powered by Dotdigital, streamlined the customer's path to purchase. Automated email campaigns, strategically placed prompts, and follow-up emails post-sample requests ensured that potential buyers were gently nudged along the sales funnel. This automation not only increased user engagement by 8.6% in organic sessions but also boosted brand loyalty, making the customer journey a delightfully convenient experience.


Our initial successful automated email campaigns led to boosted brand engagement; within that, we separated marketing communications to offer personalised and accessible marketing for all consumers. With Dotdigital, we’ve gone even further and integrated many automation flows across the customer journey.

When a consumer creates an account, they are encouraged to purchase through several prompts throughout their journey. We’ve strived to make this journey as easy for the consumer as possible. For example, if requesting a colour card, the consumer will receive an automated follow-up email with the aim of moving the consumer through the journey. The next step could be ordering a paint sample pot, and if that’s done, then we aim to motivate the consumer to come in-store or use the online store to purchase the paint. 

Engaging User Experiences

Through an engaging design and a deep understanding of customer behaviours, we crafted a unique online space where choosing paint became an enjoyable, intuitive experience by blending together Little Greene’s expertise in paint and our expertise in digital, we’ve curated a whole new way to buy paint.

Our innovative design solutions, including colour categories and interactive calculators, empowered users to explore, experiment and make informed decisions effortlessly. 

We enabled Little Greene’s customers to buy sample pots of different paint colours together as part of the same user journey, they can explore the inspiration section and add the bundle to their basket to receive the products used in the photos, and they can use the wallpaper and paint calculators. They can also use the colour combination element of the product pages to easily have access to products that fit perfectly with the desired product they are looking at. 

Our close work with the client has allowed for all these elements to be brought to life, creating a seamless, fuss-free user experience for the consumer, alleviating the usual struggles of purchasing paint. With our UX/UI design elements leading to a 9.1% surge in new users and an impressive 7.2% increase in purchase conversions in just four months.

 

Quality Assurance

All of our projects undergo rigorous testing, throughout the software development process. In order to deliver the utmost quality for clients and their respective users, our in-house QA team ensure that all end products perform accurately and reliably under normal and abnormal conditions. Testing is followed by continual monitoring of software performance, to prevent reoccurrence of any issues and to ensure efficient ongoing operation.

As such, we were able to confidently deliver a well-designed, scalable and technically stable result.

Results

In summary, our digital transformation initiatives, centred around an Adobe Commerce migration, have not only secured Little Greene’s online future but have also positioned them as pioneers in the digital paint industry.

The substantial 8.6% increase in organic sessions and the 10.2% growth in user engagement stand as a testament to the success of our collaborative efforts.

By blending creativity with technology, we have not just overcome challenges but have propelled Little Greene into a new era of digital excellence, ensuring sustainable growth and unmatched customer experiences.

CTI Digital has been crucial to our online business. Based on the fantastic results we have seen, we are now working with them across marketing and website development for one of our other brands.

Ruth Mottershead, Marketing Director at Little Greene