Each time I interview an SLI customer for a case study, it’s a privilege to hear firsthand how our solutions make a significant impact on retailers’ growth. One of my most recent interviews was with Everlast E-commerce Director Mike Ebert, who told me that site search was one of the first things he looked at when he joined Everlast in mid-2014, and that implementing SLI was one of the biggest “wins” he’s had in the changes made since.
“I’ve known about SLI forever and wanted to work with you guys since I was on the agency side,” Ebert said.
“At Everlast, one of the first things I looked at was how easy it was for people to find things on the site. I typed in red boxing gloves and didn’t get any boxing gloves, which was a problem! Only 1% of traffic was engaging with search and only 0.15% of that traffic was converting. It was a blip in what it contributed to Everlast’s revenue,” he said.
Everlast, whose brand is older than the zipper (the company was founded in 1910), controls about 85% of the boxing products market, according to SportsOneSource LLC. Mike knew it was time Everlast.com became a larger revenue-contributing part of the global business, and he set out on a number of new projects to make that happen.
Search First
First, Mike worked with SLI to implement SLI Learning Search®, SLI Rich Auto Complete™ and SLI Learning Navigation®. Moving from Yahoo site search to SLI, Everlast immediately resolved the problem of customers not being able to find the products they were looking for. The results were clear: with SLI, conversions for site search increased 6x.
“I knew I could get SLI up and running quickly and deliver benefits right away,” Ebert said. “It didn’t take much and it produces results.”
Everlast’s success is showcased in an SLI case study.
Replatforming Second
After solving the problem of product findability, Ebert next tackled the job of looking for a new platform and a design agency to create a modern, mobile-friendly site.
Ebert chose the Magento platform, then worked with e-commerce site development specialists Blue Acorn to create a sleek new fitness-inspired site, based on Magento Edition 1.14’s native responsive functionality. The new design makes use of Everlast’s stunning product photography, creates a better user experience and makes administrative management much easier. Read more about this process in Blue Acorn’s case study with Everlast.
Merchandising Third
Everlast also solved its need to showcase products in unique ways with the SLI Merchandising Console. With the ability to create banners on results pages and promote specific products, Everlast is now able to merchandize to two separate customer groups – its longtime customer base of boxing enthusiasts, and a new group of customers looking to add boxing to an overall fitness routine.
For additional promotional efforts, Everlast began working with Bronto to improve its email communication. Now when new customers come to the Everlast site and sign up for emails, they receive a “Welcome” series of emails – these drive 38% of total email revenue, while accounting for only 2.3% of email sends.
“SLI is our big win,” Ebert said, “Now revenue from search represents 10% of Everlast’s revenue.”
He added: “You guys and Bronto are the best tech implementations we have.”
We’re glad to hear it, Mike. Keep fighting for better e-commerce!
