New look website for Woolworths

"It features almost everything our customers would find in-store," says Nikki Cockcroft, head of online at Woolworths. "From groceries to clothing, home, beauty and financial services, we've integrated all our services into one easy-to-navigate destination.

"We've listened to thousands of customers who wanted a simpler, more seamless integration between online and in-store shopping, with the added convenience of being able to access all their favourites no matter the time, place or device. By using responsive design, their shopping experience remains exactly the same - whether it's a desktop computer, tablet or smartphone."

Research identifies design needs

More than 2000 respondents were interviewed during focus group sessions to establish what customers would most like to see from a new online shopping experience. The results, which came from both in-store and online shoppers, formed the foundation of the development planning for the revamped site.

It aimed to create a more enriching user journey through a stronger focus on unique content, more targeted product searches and a smarter shopping experience. "We have used integrated content to enrich the online user experience. This means that customers can now shop by recipe and even by trend, which allows for a more personal and rewarding experience.

"The type of content we will be sharing is practical information that our customers can use in their daily lives. It's like having a really savvy and on-trend personal shopping assistant sharing the best tips on everything from easy-to-follow food recipes, how to care for certain fabrics and dressing for your body shape, to the latest trends, décor make-overs, beauty tips and how-to guides for parents."

The content has strong social integration, and the site has been purposefully designed to be visually appealing with magazine-style photography and an array of beautifully shot how-to videos.

Although online sales have accounted for a relatively small percentage of business to date, the company believes that South Africans will become more enthusiastic online shoppers as bandwidth connections become cheaper and faster, and customers become more comfortable with online and mobile shopping.

Online shoppers doubled

It reports that its number of online shoppers have doubled year on year; traffic from smartphones increased by 38%, while 8% of traffic came from tablets. Now, the majority of online purchases are for food and household goods and nearly half of online shoppers shop more than once a month.

Although the majority of its online shoppers are women, the company is seeing more men joining the online shopping world, especially for special occasion gift buying. Most of the online shoppers are based in the major metropolitan areas, with Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban leading the charge.

In 2011, online retail sales figures in South Africa were recorded at R2,636-million and it is expected that the contribution of e-commerce to the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) would increase to 2.5% by 2016. E-commerce is growing with the advancements in technology and retail is catching up. South African consumers are steadily moving towards online and mobile shopping.

"Digital innovation and integration remains a strong focus and is an integral part of our strategy to meet customers' expectations for convenient shopping. With all the digital advances our online offering will be an ongoing process of looking at how we conduct business online and ensuring an enriched, seamless customer experience," concludes Cockcroft.

The company has also managed to empower a business through its growing online customer base. Niche Logistics do deliveries for its online shopping clients, a business benefitting from the Woolworths Enterprise Development programme.