Smyths Toys
Smyths Toys is a leading provider of children's entertainment products with 24 stores in Ireland and new stores now open in Greater London.
Early in 2007 Smyth’s decided to contact Magico.ie to conduct Web Usability Sessions with consumers to explore visitor’s user experience.
Irish mothers and dads were asked to complete certain tasks and to give their first impressions of site navigation, usefulness of internal site search and overall value of services such as In-Stock Guarantee and Gift Vouchers.
Based on the findings from this initial research Magico.ie made several recommendations for a redesign of Smyth’s online stores.
Key Features of SmythsToys.com and Toys.ie:
Design and Navigation
Stronger secondary navigation and internal sign-posting helps a typical user would to always be aware of their navigation options.
Site Search
As anyone who knows anything about successful ecommerce will tell you, an effective and accurate site search application is absolutely critical to getting shoppers to the products they want as quickly and painlessly as possible. To underline this fact, a recent Marketing Sherpa study showed that online shoppers turn to a site’s internal search before any other navigation element. Magico.ie, Smyth’s ecommerce partner, recommended Celebros, a multinational leader in the growing internal site search business.
Christmas eCatalogue
Magico.ie will be publishing an “interactive version” of Smyth’s 300 page Christmas Catalogue using the RichFX™ platform. Redeploying a print catalogue as eCatalogue definitely helps to create a positive shopping experience and independent research has shown that this richer shopping experience often results in more items being added to cart.
Online Store launches
UK & Northern Ireland
On July 20th Magico.ie launched the UK version of Smyths Toys online store www.smythstoys.com to coincide with their first London store opening at Chadwell Heath.
Together with a specialist cartographer Magico.ie created local and regional maps of Smyth’s stores. Given that Smyth’s are new to the London market, it was important that prospective customers could go online and quickly check on the Store Locator the exact location of their new stores. These maps can be printed out and used to guide shoppers to their destination.
Republic of Ireland
The ROI website (www.toys.ie) was launched with special attention to Online Product Merchandising and Offer Promotion. In the lead up to Christmas Magico.ie will be working closely with Smyth’s to grow the number of customers requesting In-Stock Guarantees, in other words a customer can receive a Guarantee via email that the product they are interested in is on the shelve of their local store. If is for any reason not available the customer will receive a Gift Voucher worth €10.
Now with stronger navigation, site search and new feature rich elements, this years Christmas shopping in Smyth’s online stores will be as easy as unwrapping gifts!
Why not try it yourself by visiting www.toys.ie or www.smyths.com