This was actually a serious of projects, each with the goal to assist the customer in finding what they
are looking for. Ultimately, wine.com wanted to increase conversion (visits to orders) by making it easier for customers
to find wine that they are looking for.
| Release
| Goals
|
| Oct, 2004 |
- Update an aging look and feel for the storefront.
- Replace hard to navigate, non-intuitive navigation elements.
- Direct customers to products quickly and efficiently.
- Simplify or remove expensive/complicated database queries.
- More targeted search results. Return what the customer wants.
|
| Oct, 2005 |
- Add Endeca navigation to the Gourmet Food, Gift Basket, and Accessory shops.
- Simplify left hand navigation across all shops.
- Refine search results. Attempt to create the feel of aisles by separating out each shop (wine shop, gift baskets,
accessories, etc.).
- Define different price points for wine and non-wine product.
- Attempt to increase traffic to glassware products.
|
| July, 2006 |
- Consolidate Gift Baskets, Gourmet Food, and Accessories shops into a Gift
Center shop.
- Cleansing of Occasion and Gift Basket type, as well as redefining Gift Types.
- Clearly defining what lives in the Wine Shop vs. Gift Center.
- Add most popular gift functionality to the Gift Center.
- Allow merchandising team to dynamically manage marketing lists of products.
|
Each release had unique considerations that factored into development. Two considerations that were
consistant across the board were: 1. Limited resources and 2. Extremely tight deadlines.
The section below will identify some of the other considerations that had to be factored in during
development.
| Release/Considerations
| Implementation Features
|
|
Oct, 2004
The wine.com team attempted to accomplish multiple tasks with this initial launch. The entire site went through a
redesign, and a 3rd party search and navigation software package was installed.
Some of the key considerations of this release were:
- Contracted design firm to provide new visual design and layout.
- Contracted with search engine optimization (SEO) firm to define best practices, and review site upgrades.
- Implemented third party (Endeca) search
and navigation software.
|
- A simplified primary navigation – one with less options and broader terms.
- Left hand navigation elements allow the customer to filter on multiple options.
- Continue to present products as the customer navigates the site.
- Add filter/navigation options to search results. Allows the customer to further refine the result set.
|
|
Oct, 2005
After working with the Endeca software platform, and researching customer behavior, the wine.com team refined various
search and navigation aspects of the web site to make it easier for customers to find the products they are looking
for.
Some of the key considerations of this release were:
- Greater input from the merchandising teams. Helped give the development a better understanding on how the
merchandising team would like to market their products.
- Use of focus group and Omniture
data to assist in understanding consumer behavior.
|
- Removed unused navigation elements: wineries, ratings, and brand.
- Clean up and simplify bread crumb trail. Make it more intuitive to step back through navigation.
- Updated left hand navigation so that, as a customer selects their criteria, navigation elements that are no longer
applicable are removed. This process allowed the customer to know where they are at all times and is also echoed in the
breadcrumb.
- Break search results into appropriate "shops." Show left hand navigation elements based off of selected shop.
Group the initial search results by categories (wine versus gift products).
- Defined Gift Price and Wine Price navigation elements. Allows marketing team to use
different price points for the Gift Center and Wine Shop.
- Incorporate custom, search engine optimized, glassware page
|
| July, 2006 |
- Separating out marketing lists into three unique Endeca dimensions: popular links, quick links, and easter eggs.
The values of these dimensions would map to primary key's instead of text values, allowing the marketing team to
change the name/description of the list at will.
- Removed Gourmet Foods and Accessories from global navigation. Products migrated into the
Gift Center.
- Added Endeca navigation features into the Gift Center.
- Updates to search to reflect site changes.
- Provide DHTML blah blah blah Group the initial search results by categories (wine versus gift products).
- Multi-tiers search: name/region/varietal/winery, then description, then product affinity
- Incorporate new sort field (Popular Gifts) into Endeca.
- Updates to the sort dropdown logic for property placement.
|
