Introduction
Cyber Island is a new to market NZ owned gaming and technology retailer, Cyber Island aims to provide customers with curated, and high quality technology products from well known brands at competitive prices.
Platform & Build Decision
For Cyber Island there were three primary options to build with, Big Commerce, Shopify, or Next.js (Prismic, or Sanity) paired with Stripe. Note: Did you know this website (rpm.nz) is built with Next.js and Sanity?
Overall Shopify was the platform of choice, however there is a very good argument for why Big Commerce makes sense in the industry in which Cyber Island operates.
These days Shopify and Big Commerce are highly aligned, however they both have subtle differences that can have a big impact on your business.
One key aspect to consider when building or re-platforming in the technology space is transaction fees and payment methods.
For debit and credit card transactions, Shopify payments fees start at 2.7% + 0.30c (at the time of publication) and reduce depending on Shopify Plan and store order volume, while Big Commerce fees are a flat 2.59% + 0.49c across all plans.
Shopify charges an additional 2% for any third party payment providers (excluding Paypal), Compared to Big Commerce who charge no transaction fees to use leading third party payment gateways Learn more.
Overall, as the key payment providers for Cyber Island would be Shopify payments and Paypal, and as transaction fees scale alongside order volume and plan, it made sense to go with Shopify as the platform of choice.
There is also nothing stopping Shopify from removing third party payment fees in the future for all plans, and we hope that Shopify goes in this direction to provide merchants with greater flexibility.
Shopify Headless vs Monolithic
There is a lot of talk about headless eCommerce these days, and rightly so, it's extremely flexible, and allows for endless creative solutions. However it's not a one solution suits all.
For an MVP we knew that CyberIsland needed to have parity in features and functionality to other competitors, and so we wanted to leverage the OOTB functionality and integration Shopify offers with Liquid to move fast.
We also knew that Liquid when implemented properly will outperform most competitors in the market, who still utilise cluttered and old frameworks and solutions, and so from a strategic perspective we knew that Monolithic delivers.
- Shopify Liquid Cyber Island Speed Test: 97/100 Performance, 100/100 SEO, 100/100 Best Practice, 100/100 Accessibility
- Shopify Hydrogen (redacted store name) Speed Test: 67/100 Performance
The above metrics were gathered in Google Page Speed Index, view our scores here: https://pagespeed.web.dev/analysis/https-cyberisland-co-nz-collections-gaming-monitors-nz/pms28kzqxz?form_factor=desktop
This just goes to show that Nextjs and React can be great, but if it's not implemented properly you won't see those benefits.
It's worth noting a headless implementation is soon on the way for CyberIsland, to provide added flexibility and evolution into custom eCommerce experiences, apps, and more.
Optimisations
Loyalty & Reviews
As Cyber Island is new to market, rewarding loyal customers was a primary focus. We implemented discounts within a customised Member Dashboard, these discount codes reward users for creating an account, in turn reducing the total cost of the first order, and providing an optimised user experience.
We also implemented Stamped reviews, Stamped reviews was a good option at the time due to its ease of use, integration options, and functionality.
Subscription Member Pricing
We implemented Subscriber pricing to provide a higher level of benefits for power users who order frequently.
Email Re-marketing
Klaviyo is a great option for email re-marketing, it is highly customisable, has a good level of automation, and is easy to use. We implemented Klaviyo with custom email templates to communicate effectively with customers who have signed up for promotional emails.
Category Page
We customised the category page with a goal of making key content easy to find and use. These optimisations include a sidebar metadata filter, stock level indicator, "add to wishlist" button, and a clean product card design.
We usually don't recommend implementing an "add to cart" button on Category pages when products have a high amount of technical depth, while it may make sense for fashion products, we've found it to be ineffective in tech, not to mention it clutters product cards and can overwhelm users.
Product Page
- Product Metadata: By incorporating key product features into product metadata, this enabled us to present this data in a way that allows customers to view product details without having to read through product descriptions, providing for a better user experience.
- Reviews: We implemented a review snippet at the top of each product page, to provide users with an overall average score, without having to scroll down the page.
- Improved Gallery: We built an optimised image gallery, with vertical scrollable thumbnails for desktop and horizontal scrollable thumbnails for mobile. This ensures that on devices with a smaller vertical screen height, such as the MacBook Air, and Microsoft Surface, users can easily select and move through product imagery. As these devices are some of the most popular Laptop devices Apple and Microsoft sell, it's essential the shopping experience is optimised for these devices. Source: Apple Insider
- Delivery Estimates: We built a delivery estimates component for Auckland, North Island, and South Island. By surfacing important information as early as possible in the user journey it helps to ensure advertising platforms are optimised to reach users who are likely to proceed to checkout and purchase, reducing unknown variables in abandonments.
- Dynamic Shipping Date: "Ships on Monday" is displayed between Friday and Sunday, where as "Ships tomorrow" is displayed between Monday and Thursday, for the same reasons as above.
Search
We customised the search experience to focus on products, showing results in a category style grid and ensuring that users who search for a specific product can find it as easily as possible.
Shopping Cart
For this implementation, and to keep the user experience as streamlined as possible, it made sense to implement the shopping cart as a modal. Several studies and A/B tests have shown that modal carts can lead to higher conversion rates by reducing friction and clicks in the shopping process. Sources: Neilsen Norman Group, Baymard Institute.
SEO
- Optimised Category Meta Descriptions
- Optimised Dynamic Product Meta Titles: We implemented dynamic meta titles across the website to make it easier for Google to categorise product pages as "transactional" pages rather than "informational". This helps to ensure that products are served to users who are looking to purchase a product.
- Optimised Page Speed Index: Performance: 97/100, Accessibility: 100/100, Best Practice: 100/100, SEO: 100/100
- Optimised Imagery
- Google My Business
Growth Marketing
To learn more about how we market for success get in touch at contact@rpm.nz
