Euro Car Parts

Challenge

In 2018, ECP embarked on a partnership with Biglight, kicking off a programme of
experience optimisation as it sought to build on huge growth in online sales over the
previous four years.

The aim was simple. To streamline the customer experience and remove purchase barriers
to drive incremental improvements in online revenue. Crucially, the longevity of the
partnership would be determined by its success, with annual revenue uplifts informing
budgets for subsequent years.

Approach

An early CX Assessment revealed opportunities to improve both the mobile and desktop
customer journeys, but experiments to do so quickly demonstrated that building a
successful optimisation programme for ECP would represent a unique challenge, as
usability improvements had little impact on conversion.

The fundamental challenge was the unique strength of the ECP proposition, with an
unparalleled range, great prices and click and collect available, customers showed a higher than average resilience to any usability issues they encountered on the websites used to access this market-beating proposition.

It became clear that success would depend not simply on improving usability, but on arriving at a much better understanding of the motivations, needs and barriers that shape purchase decisions, then responding to these to provide additional help and support to customers.

Further research revealed a number of solid opportunities to do just this; among them a
need for reassurance that items are suitable for a specific vehicle (where customers lack
technical knowledge) and a need for ways to assess product quality, in circumstances where price is not the most important consideration.

These insights and others like them provided a clear focus for our partnership to drive
incremental revenue moving forward.

Results

As a result, an evolving understanding of customer motivations, needs and barriers became
central to the optimisation programme that followed over the next three years.

• Unmet customer needs were used to guide improvements in design and interactions, as well as the development of new tools, content and services to guide and support customers through their journeys, from product selection to fitting.
• The power of social proof was harnessed to help customers navigate what can be an overwhelming choice of products, to build confidence and help them assess product suitability and quality - lifting conversion and delivering higher AOV.
• Applying sitewide urgency messaging to maximise the perceived benefit of live promotions and improve uptake - delivering increased promotions revenue and conversion intent for traffic in general.
• Enabling customers to automatically apply discount codes exposed in exit messaging, to reduce exit rates on checkout, increase discount code uptake and drive sales - resulting in higher conversion rates and increased revenue.

The result has been a hugely successful optimisation programme that has clearly
demonstrated the benefit of focused experience innovation, validated by a strong
understanding of customers and their needs.

In the first year, every £1 invested in the programme generated an additional £30 in revenue, a 30-fold return on investment and exceeded the business’ uplift targets by 16%.
What’s more, a shared commitment to close collaboration and a long-term working
relationship has seen those returns grow year on year – delivering a 32-fold return in 2019 and a 33-fold return in 2020.

As a result the partnership has expanded to include designing and supporting the launch of ECP’s ground-breaking Fit It For Me proposition, as well as its first ever apps which launched late in 2020. In 2021, the collaboration continues with a focus on further optimisation and personalisation and an evolution of ECP’s digital channels shaped by customer needs and business objectives.

Working closely with Biglight has delivered significant, and growing value to our business over the last three years. At the heart of that value Biglight’s focus on ensuring every project is shaped by detailed customer insight and with an overarching goal in mind - to deliver an experience that enables our customers to buy the products they need easily and with confidence.

The beauty of that approach is that every innovation is backed by evidence, and each contributes to an ever more complete picture of our customers’ needs. That’s why returns on our investment in optimisation grow year on year and why Biglight has become such a valuable strategic partner for Euro Car Parts.
Rishi Chhaniara - Group Head Of Digital, LKQ Euro Car Parts