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A Lemony Fresh Redesign to Match a Headless Ecommerce Solution

Drybar’s new headless solution unifies the brand experience across every customer touchpoint.

 

5 minute read

 

 

Who Should Read This?

This case study will be especially relevant for those interested in the following topics:

  • B2C Ecommerce
  • Online Booking
  • Franchise Management
  • iOS & Android Apps
  • Headless Commerce
  • Omnichannel Solution
  • PWA
  • GeoFencing
  • Customer Data Management

THE CHALLENGE

Drybar was looking for a full website redesign to unify their brand experience across all touchpoints, including an omnichannel blowout booking solution. While multiple levels of functionality existed, these pieces lacked a cohesiveness to unify the brand experience across every device. Furthermore, the customer experience design did not showcase the bright and lemony fresh sentiments experienced when entering a Drybar location.

THE BRAND

"No cuts. No color. Just blowouts.” It started as a unique hair blowout only concept and has expanded into a chain of over 150 locations (or “shops”) and more than 100 products. Founded in 2008, Drybar is a California-based chain of shops that offers a bar-like feel for hair blow drying services and a growing product line (created specifically for the perfect blowout) sold through Drybar franchise shops, Sephora, Nordstrom, Ulta and Macy’s and online. First launched in 2013, the Drybar collection of products, all named with a bar-themed reference, helps people recreate the blowout shop experience in the comfort of their home.

Unified Headless Experience with Contentful

Drybar customers crave the unique experience of walking into a blowout location. Drybar needed to ensure that their online booking experience matched that unrivaled in-person experience. With the launch of the Drybar Products store, Guidance helped establish a strong aesthetic template to follow for the website and app booking platform required for Drybar Shops. The new website had to easily allow customers to locate and book appointments with zero friction and convey the in-person experience of getting a blowout into a modern and enjoyable whole.

In order to ensure a unified experience across all the platforms, Guidance employed a headless CMS approach with Contentful. To avoid having to duplicate content across the website CMS and app CMS, Contentful’s headless content hub unifies data into a single source of truth for ease of access and uniformity across all platforms. Contentful enabled centralized content management across multiple delivery channels. Guidance developed custom field editors within Contentful allowing for the creation of complex content via a simplified interface. Now, the unified content eliminates copy/pasting work and enables the organization to make easy edits by changing the content in one location and having that change apply to all content across multiple platforms. This unification has improved brand consistency and compliance. It has given Drybar the flexibility to nimbly update across all channels and it has empowered the business to efficiently execute their marketing strategy.

Drybar Mobile and Desktop Homepage Images

Contentful's headless CMS offers a competitive edge for Drybar because it allows the company to rapidly spin up new content seamlessly across every platform.

From a development perspective, Guidance suggested Contentful for its ability to allow simultaneous collaboration by replacing the slower waterfall approach to development in favor of an agile framework where teams can work in parallel. A headless CMS like Contentful offers a competitive edge for Drybar because it has allowed the company to rapidly spin up new software across platforms and landing pages. The content infrastructure is also easily repurposed or reused which has helped the company move beyond resources spent on endless content recreation and instead on generating new business. All content that is accessible on any digital platform means brands can make the most of features critical to their business like personalization and customer experience.

Contentful Solution for Drybar

Contentful has given Drybar the flexibility to nimbly update content across all channels and it has empowered the business to efficiently execute their marketing strategy.

NEW CX DESIGN ACROSS EVERY DEVICE

The undisputed experience of a Drybar blowout has to be felt in-person at a Drybar Shop and the previous booking solution did not meet the expectations of customers looking to schedule their one-time or recurring blowouts. In user testing, customers reported differences in experience between the booking website and the in-person experience. First and foremost in the design solution was the goal of bringing the in-person shop experience to life in the digital space. Guidance worked through a discovery process with the Drybar team and assisted with customer surveys to ensure the booking flow matched the desired customer experience. Customers had to be able to not only book appointments with a few simple clicks but also had to have the ability to shop for their favorite products with ease and feel inspired exploring hair tutorial videos all on one platform.

Tabbed Solution for Drybar.com

The Book tab unveils an easy to use step-by-step booking process for new and returning Drybar customers.

This discovery led the UX team to devise the tabbed approach at the very top of the website. By constructing three separate submenus for each selection (Services, Book, Shop) the three choices exist independently but project the same brand aesthetics across the entire website experience. The Book tab unveils an easy to use step-by-step booking process for the new and returning Drybar customer. The booking flow now delivers on the customer’s expectations by making appointment booking and account management simple and streamlined with minimum barriers to entry and execution. A highly personalized experience can now be achieved: customers can request certain stylists while booking appointments, they are greeted by name as soon as they log in and a customer can see all booking history.

PERSONALIZING THE BLOWOUT WITH APPLE AND ANDROID APPS

For an even more personalized experience, Guidance created Apple and Android apps for Drybar. The apps are focused on giving each and every client the premier blowout experience while providing professional quality products and tools to better help clients achieve and maintain the perfect blowout at home. With the new apps, customers can easily book a blowout appointment (and then view, edit, or cancel upcoming appointments on their personal home screen) and seamlessly rebook favorite services & locations with just a few taps. Customers can find a Drybar location while on the go and become a Barfly with the Signature or Premium Memberships to ensure their hair is perfect throughout the month.

Drybar mobile app

Guidance created Apple and Android apps for Drybar to provide each and every client the premier blowout experience in the shop or in the comfort of their home.

A NEW BOOKING SOLUTION

Once the customer clicks into the Book tab, they are immediately able to locate Drybar Shops with the help of a “Know Your Location” functionality enabled by Google Maps. The local search capabilities allow Google Maps to pin and list Drybar locations around the user’s known zip code or IP. The user can easily view their options before deciding to visit or contact the specific Drybar location as each listing includes the shop’s direct phone number, the ability to “Love” (a heart icon) specific spots and easily get directions with a one-click mapping tool. Google Maps acts as both a search engine to find the location users are searching for and then as a map to direct users to that location.

Drybar uses Booker, an industry-leading booking solution, to manage all customer scheduling.

As soon as the user selects a specific Drybar location, the booking flow begins. Drybar uses Booker, an industry-leading booking solution, to manage all customer scheduling. Booker helps to manage all customer scheduling and appointments. Unique features beyond the standard book by date/time include “Book by Stylist” which requires synching the schedules of each stylist within the booking management system. In addition to the standard blowout, customers can select Add-Ons to their appointments and further engage with their stylist through a personalized Note/Comment system.

All customer data is housed and orchestrated through mParticle’s customer experience management platform. mParticle empowers Drybar’s teams with a single customer view available across tools and systems.To help create the seamless customer experience Drybar needs for its users, mParticle’s solution provides a comprehensive, 360-degree view of each customer, up-to-date in real time.

OMNICHANNEL EXPERIENCE FOR ALL CUSTOMERS

While a scheduled blowout might be the best way to ensure a favorite stylist is available for the appointment, sometimes a spur of the moment blowout experience can brighten a customer’s day. Drybar Shops are typically located in heavy foot-traffic areas like malls or outdoor entertainment areas. While a customer is walking around the area, within a certain mileage of the Drybar location, their Drybar app can send push notifications to the customer with incentives to walk-in for a blowout or schedule a day-of appointment using Radar’s location data infrastructure. Radar is the leading geofencing platform built to provide best-in-class app experience that drive incremental revenue and foster customer loyalty. Using Radar’s geofencing technology, Drybar can locate customers within a certain set radius and deliver incentives, offer same-day appointments or greet their customers with a personalized experience.

Radar Geofancing solution for Drybar

Radar is the leading geofencing platform built to provide best-in-class app experience that drive incremental revenue and foster customer loyalty.

Results

Guidance successfully transformed Drybar Shops’ online solution to match the blowout shop experience.

 

The brand now has a cohesive headless commerce experience that unifies customers across all digital and physical touchpoints.

Summary

Drybar was looking for a full website redesign coupled with a headless solution to unify their brand experience across all touchpoints. The multiple levels of functionality across the entire product buying and service booking solution is now a cohesive experience for the customer across every device and in-shop. A new headless solution has provided the brand a sleek new way of showcasing the bright and lemony fresh sentiments experienced when entering a Drybar location across all platforms.
 

ECOMMERCE SOLUTIONS

  • Progressive Web App (PWA)
  • Headless Commerce
  • Website Redesign
  • User Experience Design
  • Visual Design
  • Data Migration
  • Ecommerce Website Migration
  • Web Development
  • Ecommerce Web Integrations

TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

  • ReactJS PWA
  • Contentful CMS
  • ReactNative Mobile Application
  • Booker Appointment Management
  • mParticle Customer Data
  • Algolia Search
  • Okta Single Sign-on
  • Braze Cross Channel Marketing
  • Radar Geofencing
  • Spreedly Payment Capture
  • Wufoo Forms
  • FranConnect Franchise Management
  • Google Maps Location
Guidance W3 Awards Drybar

Gold Winner - General - Beauty + Cosmetics

Silver Winner - Best User Interface

Silver Winner - Best Visual Appeal – Aesthetics

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