The company’s Canadian subsidiary has rolled out a new ecommerce site, which is powered by Kibo and implemented by Echidna.
Kibo, a cloud-based omnichannel commerce platform, has announced the launch of Brother Canada’s new eCommerce website, brother.ca, which has already delivered “significant improvement” in customer engagement and net sales for the OEM. The new mobile-friendly and responsive website was implemented by Echidna, a leading eCommerce system integrator.
The new site launched in July, bringing to market enhanced product selection tools and a streamlined purchasing experience for Brother Canada customers. Since launch, according to Brother Canada, the growth in net sales, transaction volume and unique visitors has been “substantial”. The cart abandonment rate has also dropped “significantly.”
The Brother Canada legacy website was built on an outdated platform that lacked agility and the ability to quickly and easily modify content by business users. The site structure was organised and built with a product-centric perspective rather than based on customers’ needs. There was limited ability to cross-sell or upsell and constant challenges with rolling out new promotions. With a recent launch of its new brand image, Brother Canada took the opportunity to develop a new website to reflect their “dynamic, lively and colourful branding”, and completely reconfigure their customers’ eCommerce experience.
After an extensive vendor evaluation, Brother Canada selected Kibo for its scalable eCommerce solution and Echidna as the system integrator of the project. The Kibo multi-tenant cloud eCommerce solution was determined to have the best time to market and overall total cost of ownership. Echidna provided the expertise in leading large projects of this scope and could provide integration capabilities critical to driving the experience Brother Canada was striving for.
The new website empowers customers to engage with Brother Canada’s content, discover the appropriate products, and easily make purchases through a host of experience-rich features, including:
- Product comparison guide
- Product selection grid and tool
- Customer reviews
- New shopping cart
- New guest checkout
- Repurchase button and recurrent purchases
- Mobile-friendly and responsive site design
“It was not only about selling products,” says France Landreville, Sr. Director, Marketing and eCommerce, Brother Canada. “We also wanted to convey who Brother Canada was, and what its soul is. Finding that balance of telling our story and selling was not easy to achieve, but we are very happy with the results.”
In addition to reflecting their new brand and enhancing the overall user experience, Brother Canada needed to address two very different target customers: buyers of sewing machines and buyers of home or business printers. These groups have very different buying approaches, behaviours and engagements with their respective products. Printers are typically more commoditized and customers tend to focus on price and product specifications. The sewing machine buyer considers this part of their lifestyle and is a highly-engaged, community-building customer. These distinct segments are able to filter product results based on their individual needs, making the path to product discovery quick and easy.
With the new website, Brother Canada also launched its new loyalty program called “The Brother Care Program.” The program allows customers to register eligible products to gain access to different levels of benefits such as extended warranties, trade-in discounts, savings on supplies and exclusive offers. With the launch, customers can sign into their account at brother.ca to access registered products and warranties, along with additional loyalty benefits.
“This website represented one of the biggest projects at Brother Canada,” says Patrick Paré, Sr. Director, Operations and Customer Centre, Brother Canada. “Our expertise to launch a new transactional website and project of this scope was limited, as were our internal resources. Kibo and Echidna were able to take our functional and brand requirements to launch a world-class website.”
“Brother Canada came to us with a vision for their brand, customer experience and backend usability,” says Kelly Lynn, Principle Product Manager, Kibo. “Together with Echidna, we were able to bring that vision to reality and we couldn’t be more pleased with the results. Brother Canada has a deep understanding of their market and it is no surprise that customer engagement has greatly increased.”
“We are proud of Brother Canada’s accomplishment,” says Mike Pierce, CTO, Echidna. “You couldn’t ask for a better client. Their goals were ambitious, their direction specific, and their commitment to excellence apparent from the start. We are happy to hear that all the hard work is paying off and that their customers appreciate the experiences we and Kibo were able to build for them. There is no better feeling than to know your efforts contributed to the delight of another. We imagine great things to come for Brother Canada.”
Future developments for the Brother Canada website will include content personalisation, A/B testing solutions, and renewing its B2B site and CRM ability.
