TravisMathew logo

CX is Prioritized for New Channels and Increased Conversion

Data-driven design is the key to a multi-brand solution with easy returns and a powerful loyalty program.

5 minute read

Who Should Read This?

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

  • Branding
  • Multi-brand
  • Loyalty & Rewards
  • Creative Audit
  • Automated Returns
  • BOPIS
  • Clothing and Apparel
  • Customer Interviews
  • Visual Design Strategy

THE CHALLENGE

The TravisMathew team was searching for a complete website redesign focused on elevating the brand experience. The redesign needed to focus on key elements like BOPIS and RMA workflow improvements. Ultimately, the redesign would increase loyalty membership, enhance the mobile experience and improve conversion rate.

THE BRAND

Founded in 2007 in Huntington Beach, CA, TravisMathew draws its inspiration from the culture and lifestyle of Southern California’s golf, sand and sun. As a premier men’s lifestyle brand, TravisMathew has created versatile, everyday apparel that seamlessly transitions from work to play. Named after one of its co-founders, Travis Matthew Johnson, the line of clothing and accessories was originally designed for golfers by a pro golfer. Now, the men’s sports apparel brand is sold in resorts and country clubs, golf retailers, standalone retail shops and online.

A Creative Design Hole in One

TravisMathew is an upscale male sporting apparel brand focused on delivering a unique feeling: casual and sporty style while maintaining a sophisticated and polished look for the wearer. Unfortunately, their website was not up to par with the aesthetic inspired by their clothing range. Guidance won the opportunity to reimagine the TravisMathew website from a design-only perspective and work alongside another agency for development. The first step was understanding the brand, its vision and its customers.

Since a large proportion of the user base is men, it is important to be mindful of how men in this age category typically shop for clothes. Guidance performed a deep-dive analysis of the user’s shopping behavior through a mix of customer interviews and reviewing analytics data. TravisMathew customers are looking to discover old favorites fast and discover new items that can solve a fashion need for a particular occasion. Working closely with the executive team, Guidance prepared a detailed and data-backed creative design to heighten the brand aesthetic and boost conversions throughout every portion of the user experience. .

Before

TravisMathew Before

After

TravisMathew After

Guidance prepared a detailed and data-backed creative design to heighten the brand aesthetic and boost conversions throughout every portion of the experience.

Men browsing the TravisMathew website are looking for aspirational golf-inspired looks and Guidance tapped into that desire by creating beautiful Look Books designed to upsell the user into purchasing entire outfits instead of one-off pieces. Included in the “Shop the Look” complete outfits, promotional modules with discounts for bundles helped to boost AOV and provided shoppers with the ideal outfits in a quick and easy one-click add to cart.

Guidance created special PDPs that allowed for both bundle and individual purchasing depending on the user’s preference. For those shoppers looking for clothing for a specific occasion, shopping promotions and interactive images with hovering hotspots help the user purchase items worn by the models in lifestyle imagery.

TravisMathew wanted a golf and Southern California vibe throughout the site paired with a clean and modern interface on the PDP. Taking inspiration from the crispness of websites like Apple and Nike, the style always leaned towards a fashionable but masculine aesthetic throughout. The PDP features a main image section that shows all product images in a grid rather than hidden behind thumbnails, saving clicks and providing an immersive experience of the product at a glance. Sizing is an issue across most apparel brands and TravisMathew addressed this head on with multiple size guides to aid the customer in his sizing decisions. All apparel PDP pages include Fit Finders, size guides and model measurements to ensure the customer can accurately predict his size, even on standard S-XL sizes.

pdp-wireframe[1]
pdp-comp[1]

The PDP features a main image section that shows all product images in a grid rather than hidden behind thumbnails to save clicks and provide an immersive experience of the product.

Website color choice is very deliberate to complement the garments sold on the site while still providing a stark contrast for specific call to action buttons. As most of the product offering is navy blue, gray, white and black, the site itself had to align with this sophisticated color aesthetic and feel like an extension of the product offering. Guidance specifically chose to design a website that is clean and modern while being easy to navigate because of the cohesive color palette used throughout the website.

TravisMathew had made the creative decision to crop all their lifestyle imagery to show only the product on the model without showing the model’s face. Using data and research suggesting that people are more likely to buy an item when they have a subconscious emotional connection with a photo of another human being, Guidance recommended featuring the models on the website from their hips/waist up while retaining the faces/heads in the images. By excluding the model’s head--and face--the emotional connection between the static and truncated model is eroded and thus limits the desire to purchase.

Opening New Channels

Buy Online Pickup in Store is a pandemic staple but TravisMathew was at the cutting edge of this innovation long before BOPIS was an ecommerce requirement. Streamlining multiple channels for customer touchpoints is essential to any business and TravisMathew recognized this early on. The company adopted a BOPIS channel to ensure customers could interact with the brand at every stage of the purchase cycle. By facilitating a BOPIS channel, the customer enters the brick and mortar retail store for further opportunities to upsell on the transaction. Guidance worked to ensure the UX and UI for the BOPIS functionality is streamlined and initiative for the customer.

bopis[1]

TravisMathew adopted a BOPIS channel to ensure customers could interact with the brand at every stage of the purchase cycle.

Multi-Brand Solution

TravisMathew’s sister brand, Cuater, sells shoes and accessories that match the TravisMathew aesthetic but the two brands remain distinct. Guidance was faced with the challenge of distinguishing the two brands in a way that still made it easy for the customer to find the products while maintaining the uniqueness of each. Working through user flows and creating several iterations, Guidance integrated the two sites into an organic whole by relying on best practice and user data directly from the website. The solution was bisected tabs at the very top of the site and including Cuater in the TravisMathew navigation under Footwear. This solved for both the group of users who wanted to go directly to Cuater as a known brand and it helped familiarize the brand for the group unfamiliar with Cuater.

multi-brand[1]

TravisMathew’s sister brand, Cuater, sells shoes and accessories that match the TravisMathew aesthetic but the two brands remain distinct with bisected tabs at the very top of the site.

EASY RETURNS FOR HAPPY CUSTOMERS

Given the complexities around shoe and apparel sizing, automating the return process was crucial for TravisMathew. Back and forth emails and calls are costly--both in terms of personnel time and energy but also in terms of the customer frustration costs. Guidance created a robust multi-flow return process that took into consideration every possibility: Did the customer keep the return slip shipped upon delivery? Does the customer need to print a shipping label? Will he return in-store? If so, which store? Automating the returns process has saved TravisMathew tremendous amounts of valuable customer service time and it has served to impress the customer with easy returns.

The return process can now be fully completed by the customer without any manual intervention. It has invited many one-time shoppers to fearlessly shop again as the returns process is so seamless. Furthermore, the automated returns process allows shoppers to exchange products for variants or upsell them with a different product at a higher price point, all with a few easy clicks. Customers are delighted by the ease of refunds to the original payment method and the multiple return methods available during the return process.

returns[1]

Guidance created a robust multi-flow return process that took into consideration every possibility to create an automated the return process.

A REWARDING LOYALTY PROGRAM

 The TravisMathew Rewards Program was established to reward their most loyal customers. For every dollar spent on qualifying purchases at TravisMathew.com or a TravisMathew Company Store, customers receive loyalty points which act like currency for discounts on merchandise. Guidance explored iconography solutions for the Rewards program to ensure the program is a branded and sophisticated part of the TravisMathew company. The TravisMathew Rewards is free to join and customers can also receive points by participating in various activities in-store and online. Loyal participants receive free standard ground shipping and free returns just for joining. As an added benefit TravisMathew Rewards customers have the opportunity to unlock new rewards as they achieve new tier statuses, such as free annual gifts, free 2-day shipping and free tailoring in retail stores.

Guidance explored iconography solutions for the Rewards program to ensure the program is a branded and sophisticated part of the TravisMathew company.

Results

The redesign achieved much more than revenue growth. TravisMathew has effectively boosted brand experience while reducing the friction associated with online orders/in store pick-ups (BOPIS) and returns.

 

With a focus on mobile experience, the new design has helped increase AOV with proven best practices on upsell and cross-sell opportunities.

Find out how top brands are breaking boundaries and exceeding sales projections with Guidance.

Let's Begin