How We Grew Conversion 79% Migrating From Magento To Shopify (Adreno Case Study).

I love jobs where we can meaningfully dive into performance analytics and optimisation. Adreno was a great little project that has a primary focus on platform change, but through a few targeted performance tweaks - we were able to make huge gains in their conversion performance. One of the most common eCommerce jobs we perform is to migrate a Magento website over to Shopify Plus. Magento as a platform has its strengths, but it would seem from our experience that for many merchants, it's not hitting the right notes. As a result, we have observed a significant net migration away from Magento: This trend can be clearly seen in Google trends where we see a long-term decline in Magento, contrasted with a rise in Shopify.  

The client

Adreno is a national outdoor sporting group consisting of three outdoor entertainment businesses in one. These include Adreno, Spearfishing and Wetsuit Warehouse. The group turns over $25 million a year and has stores in each of the 3 capital cities of Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. They have been online for over 15 years and have had 4 different website platforms at that time. 

The problem

Adreno originally had a small team of Magento developers that developed the original Magento(1.x) platform. This was a significant cost for the business but was manageable given the volume of sales moving through the system. On review, it was decided this was a prohibitive expense given the work required (not a task for multiple developers), so Adreno moved the website development support to an external contractor. There was a cost saving by moving to contractors, but any changes to the website required some degree of involvement due to the nature of Magento. Over time, unexpected and unexplained service outages resulted in lost sales and added significantly to the stress of managing a high-volume online store. The business needed an eCommerce platform that would be rock solid and better suit their increased focus on digital.

Adreno's situation:

1. Using an out-of-date Magento (1.x) platform

2. High cost of any extension and modification to the store

3. Repeated issues with website outage 

The challenge

While the website was experiencing platform issues it was driving revenue. A significant volume of traffic was being driven by organic SEO that had been in existence for 15 years. We were presented with a challenge to migrate the website with the following requirements:

1. Minimise disruption to the business during the change

2. Ensure that organic SEO was retained

3. Retain the brand essence, transfer across a number of custom brand elements that had been developed for the original website.

The SEO migration represented a significant risk factor that was external to the project. This was managed through a partnership with digital marketing agency Reload Media. The platform migration, however, would be the responsibility of Lamb Agency. 

The insight

On completing an audit of the website, we were confident that the current performance could be increased with some quick wins without having to complicate the project unnecessarily. Looking at their Google Analytics their mobile performance was terrible in comparison to their desktop experience, sitting at 0.6% of traffic converted, and desktop traffic at 1%. While desktop and mobile are rarely at parity, we normally expect performance to be similar. We believed that if we implemented some common sense solutions that we would be able to lift mobile performance. Our review of the interface identified the following problems:

• Difficult search and filtering

• Very poor mobile experience

• Difficult navigation

• Isolated product pages do not facilitate an organic browsing experience.

• Text-heavy content with lack of visuals

While none of these problems directly impeded the user's experiences, the volume of issues represented a number of hurdles that users needed to overcome to order. Bigger picture we saw this as an opportunity to focus on mobile conversion and improve the navigation and flow with the desktop experience. However, the client's focus was on the re-platform, so we kept reworking to a minimum and avoided many aesthetic changes we would normally make. 

The solution

We worked with Shopify to set the client up on the Shopify Plus platform. The process was simple to create the initial base template that would then be cloned for the three variations of the store. Beyond the problems of the platform change, we focused our performance improvement activities on the following areas:

1. Re-prioritised header menu

2. Simplified mobile experience

3. Well-designed infographics and iconography throughout, to illustrate key values and services in a visual and digestible format

4. Improved conversion tactics (CTA placement, sizing, offers)

5. Simple visual filtering

We worked with an integration specialist that managed the migration activity for the store. It was important that we worked with them to make sure the data was structured as a way to meet the requirements for the new site.

Lesson learned - Magento migrations It is critical in Shopify projects to meticulously itemise all functionality that the existing website is performing. This is especially the case with Magento, where functionality can be heavily customised. There were a couple of instances with Adreno where some under-the-water functionality was not discovered until after the scope had been signed off.

• Client recommendation: Make sure you have carefully reviewed any scope documents to make sure all important functionality has been covered.

• Agency recommendation: Perform a complete site audit of the existing website, share this with the client to see if there is anything you have missed. Make it clear to the customer it is important that the scope document is reviewed carefully.

The results

The results speak for themselves. We saw a dramatic lift not only in overall sales but the all-important conversion rate. Mobile traffic increased 111% when considered by itself.

Summary of results:

• Increase in conversion by 79%

• Return on investment in 21 days

• 15x return on investment in their first year

Want to know more? If you would like to talk to us about this article, performance improvement and the results we could achieve for you on Shopify Plus, get in touch at greg@lamb.com.au or check us out at http://www.lamb.com.au

About Lamb Agency

Lamb Agency is an Australian Shopify expert, based in Brisbane and Melbourne. We help local and national companies get the most out of their eCommerce.