Premium purchasing experience. These are three words that summarise perfectly the approach taken by SQLI, formerly Redbox Digital, to design the Charles Tyrwhitt website.
The SQLI UK design team created a fresh and modern site that takes the Charles Tyrwhitt customer on a journey. The brand ethos is captured perfectly in the clean visuals, elegant styling and simple lines. The experience itself, enhanced by the gamification of purchasing, unlocks discounts for the customer rather than using flashy, downmarket discounting.
The goal was to provide Charles Tyrwhitt with a platform that aligned with its upmarket branding strategy and which appealed to a broader customer base. The result was precisely what the customer wanted.
Led by SQLI’s UK creative director, Paul Lewis, the website design set out to overcome three very specific challenges for the Charles Tyrwhitt brand.
Simplify discounting to introduce a premium feel
Charles Tyrwhitt wanted its new site to simplify its multi-buy approach and communicate premium value as opposed to overt discounting. It was important for the user experience to flow throughout the purchasing experience so customers could see they were financially benefitting from making multiple purchases.
SQLI introduced a subtle gamification process that encourages multiple purchase loops. It uses a visible progress bar that shows how close the customer is to unlocking lower pricing. The simplified multi-buy approach uses flags to indicate how many shirts the customer needs to purchase before a lower price is unlocked and is applied throughout the shopping experience.
This multi-buy feature is automatically added to the basket as well as the checkout process so repeat purchases are easy to make, and it activates across the site so the customer isn’t forced to hunt for relevant products.
This was further enhanced with outfit building tools and repeat sizing so that the customer doesn’t need to constantly re-enter information. This automatically removes a consistent customer pain point and streamlines the route from basket to checkout.
As a result, the customer no longer sees ‘in your face’ discounting. Instead, every step is subtle and carefully designed to create a clean and simple space where the customer enjoys a straightforward shopping experience.
Create a purchasing journey
Charles Tyrwhitt required a site that did more than ‘just sell shirts’. Instead, it wanted a full-service customer portal that encouraged increased purchasing of its products. For this, it needed to create different journeys for different clothing categories, increase conversion, improve cross-merchandising, and redefine the site’s visual appeal.
To achieve this, SQLI discovered new ways to sell trousers, accessories, suits and knitwear, et al, through an innovative outfit building tool. Embedded within the listing page, the tool helps customers ‘Get the Look’ with just a few clicks, and encourages deeper engagement throughout the Charles Tyrwhitt site. This ‘Get the Look’ user design is incorporated into list pages and allows the customer to benefit from the multi-buy offers while also creating a style that suits their needs. This fundamentally refined the purchasing process and supported Charles Tyrwhitt’s strategy of being about more than ‘just shirts’.
The team made product selection easier and more intuitive through visual filtering and wizards, with a crisp and contemporary display that highlights products and lifestyle imagery to their full potential. SQLI considered all aspects of the brand from photography to typography, messaging, layout and conversation methodologies throughout the design process.
Optimised for mobile
Thirdly, Charles Tyrwhitt wanted to improve the mobile experience so anyone, on any device, could benefit from the user experience and site design. This was a critical factor for the brand as it wanted to ensure that its upmarket and premium look and feel was conveyed throughout all touchpoints in the omnichannel. A mobile-first strategy also aligned with the brand’s focus on a contemporary and younger demographic without alienating its older and more traditional customer base.
SQLI created a mobile-friendly design that introduced a fresh and confident feel to the site. The final design conveys a sense of relaxed confidence and elegant ease that appeals to both the older and more contemporary markets. The resulting user experience is logical, practical and classical – the perfect combination for a site that wants to attract a dynamic and aspirational market.
The final touch
SQLI re-invented, re-thought and re-imagined the Charles Tyrwhitt experience without compromising on the brand’s integrity and strategy. The team developed a clean and crisp site that allows for easy flow of customer movement throughout the Charles Tyrwhitt product range. One that gamifies the discounting process, and allows for innovative outfit building and customer engagement. It met every part of the Charles Tyrwhitt brief and elevated the website to meet the brand’s sharp, stylish and innovative persona.
