100% Australian owned and operated, Cheap as Chips started in 1985 with a store in Morphett Vale South Australia and have since grown into a company with 50+ stores, and over 12,000 unique products available in stores and online.
Cheap as Chips’ core purpose is the go-to place for value and range. Their vision is to be the customer obsessed national discount department store, focused on suburban and regional markets with a best-in-class omni-channel experience. Cheap as Chip’s principal product categories include daily essentials, supermarket, health and beauty, garden, pets, toys, apparel, household, furniture, hardware, party and seasonal ranges.
The Strategy
The project aims to build a new Shopify Plus website, focusing on mobile users who account for 72% of traffic, to improve the mobile experience and increase conversion rates.
The mobile-first design was requested to be completed and launched by 30th September 2023 to be ready for the busy retail months of November and December, which generates approximately 60% of online revenue.
The primary objective of the project was to increase customer conversion rate on the website from 0.7% (as of May 2023) to 1%, an uplift of .3%. The expectation is that the .3% increase will take effect within 4 weeks of launching the website with a consistent trend of that increase maintaining from January onwards (post peak seasonal trade influence).
A key goal was to drive in-store sales by adding “directions to purchase in-store” and Stock On Hand checkers.
The Technology
The current Cheap as Chips site was developed on Shopify Plus by the internal team with the help of an external partner and had significant customisation, focused heavily around desktop performance with minimal to no consideration for mobile responsiveness and ease of use.
The site will integrate seamlessly with Netsuite, with key goals including improved speed, performance, usability, and navigation.
The Challenge
Customer feedback highlighted that search functionality is the most-used feature, but results were poor or non-existent, necessitating significant enhancements.
Additionally, the previous integration failed to update stock levels promptly, leading to fulfilment issues. The new system will ensure stock updates across all stores within 5 to 15 minutes, enhancing the overall shopping and checkout experience.
Additional goals included;
- Update stock levels in near real-time for online accuracy
- Enable default store selection for Click and Collect
- Customise checkout to allow Click and Collect only from stores with all items in stock
- Initial data upload for all items across stores delayed by Shopify API limitations
- Increase the performance and layout of the product page
- Improve the shopping cart and checkout process experience
- Implement current payment gateway options
The Results
Cheap as Chips recently surveyed their customers, results showing greater customer satisfaction accurate product and search results. The new website received an 8 out of 10 ranking for usability with a dramatic increase in the conversion rate which improved by more than 50%.