Online relaunch boosts Rohan’s UK performance

Fulfilment and ‘functionality’ advance sales for performance clothing firm

Rohan, the performance clothing brand, has reported an immediate increase in online sales and average order value following the relaunch of its online store, rohan.co.uk.

The online shop, which was developed by Snow Valley, was launched at the end of February. Since then, Rohan has seen a 60 per cent increase in the number of online orders and a 31 per cent increase in average online order value, based on year-on-year comparison.

Rohan is attributing the increase to the store’s advanced merchandising functionality, which includes cross-selling and a new product classification system to provide customers with a much more intuitive shopping experience.

Rohan online communications manager Phil Rothwell says: “Our customers rely on us to anticipate their needs with products that will perform in testing conditions. The advanced features of our store allows us to reinforce this aspect of our brand online, by interacting with customers, actively guiding them through our product range and identifying items to suit particular climates or activities.”

Rothwell adds: “A great deal of the functionality was suggested by Snow Valley. They have very specific expertise in developing sites for multi-channel retailers and I don’t think that we would have got the same level of specific, commercial, common-sense input from a more general design agency.”

The store has been deployed on Snow Valley’s commerce platform, SS2.NET, which is based on Microsoft .NET technology, including Microsoft Commerce Server 2002 and Web Services.

As well as advanced sales functionality, the platform claims to provide Rohan with improved marketing capability, a comprehensive reporting system and a manager interface that will control its product catalogue.

The store has also been integrated with Rohan’s fulfilment system, using Web Services, to increase the speed, accuracy and transparency of ordering. Integration allows data to be interchanged between the two systems, so that stock availability is updated automatically. Orders are fed directly through to fulfilment without any manual intervention.

Snow Valley business development manager Andrew Douglas says: “The immediate growth in Rohan’s online sales figures is a clear indication of the power of our SS2.NET platform and Commerce Server 2002.”

The new store replaces Rohan’s existing e-commerce site, which was launched in 1999. Rohan also has a mail order service and 22 stores around the UK.