CRO Site of the Week - LUSH

 

This week, we take a look at LUSH as our CRO Site of the Week. As this week’s winners, they’ll be notified of their award via twitter, and will be sent something from the HP CRO Drawer – talk about lucky!

If you’ve come across a fantastic user experience, you can tweet your nomination to @HighPositionSEO using #CRONomination

Lush Logo

WHAT DOES THE SITE DO?

This is an ecommerce site selling an extensive range of cosmetics; from bath salts, to make up to perfumes.

WHAT DOES THE SITE SAY THEY DO?

“Fresh Handmade Cosmetics”

 WHAT DOES THE SITE DO WELL?

  • When the page loads, that huge image of the featured collection is the first thing you see. It’s attractive, eye-catching and the CTA is enticing
  • The brand’s monochrome colour scheme is used through the top level navigation and serves to show how easy it is to move around the site and therefore find what you’re looking for
  • More attractive product images are revealed as a you scroll, and the star ratings, cute descriptions and reviews all encourage click-through
  • It’s not just products the homepage showcases, news, articles and interesting facts about their ingredients all have a mention here with an album/mood-board kind of appearance a la the ever-popular Pinterest

Lush Homepage

  • The category pages follow the same theme as the homepage with a large feature image followed by more high-quality images and snippets of information peppered through the products on offer
  • The product pages, although similar, use a video in place of the feature image. I’ve moaned about banners, slider and animation before, and my opinion on the matter hasn’t been changed in light of seeing LUSH’s offering, but as a “How To”, I think a video is a nice touch
  • The friendly-but-informative product descriptions are cute and helpful, the product image is clear and scrolling reveals detailed ingredients listings and reviews with star-ratings for persuasive Social Proof

 Lush Product Page Example

WHAT ELSE DOES THE SITE DO WELL?

  • Part of the lure of LUSH products is the fact that they are not tested on animals and are ethically sound (they use human volunteers and sell palm free soap to help protect the orangutan). They’re also deeply involved in a lot of charity work in the form of donations and raising awareness. Some of these important USPs are communicated through on-brand icons in the site’s footer:

Lush's USPs

  • The “Add to Basket” overlay at the top of the product pages is highlighted when you mouse-over, and in adding it, you’re taken to a new page with a clear “added to your basket” message, so you’re in no doubt you’ve done it
  • Although you’re not given the opportunity to checkout as a guest, moving through the order form is quick with large form-fields and a helpful graphic at the top of the page so you know where you’re at in the buying process. There are helpful notes throughout and the order summry spells out the purchase

Lush's Checkout - Stage 2

WHAT DOES THE SITE NOT DO WELL?

  • Would more visitors be inclined to purchase if they didn’t have to create an account? Adding a “Chekout as Guest” option could capture those who’d otherwise abandon their basket – TEST IT!
  • That £3.95 is pretty steep for a delivery charge if you’re only spending a tenner on one product. Could LUSH offer a “collect in store for free” option so customers can browse online at their leisure but nip in on their lunch break to pick up their order? - TEST IT!
  • As I mentioned before, LUSH are famed for their charity work and animal-friendly vegetarian recipes. There’s no “About Us” section to really push this information to new potential customers and you have to scroll aaallllll the way to the bottom of the homepage to find their “Charity Support” feature. Maybe those icons in the footer could be utilised further up the page to link through to more information – TEST IT!
  • I am all for a responsive site, and the design of Lush’s site screams “mobile optimised”… but is it right for desktop? The higgeldy-piggeldy nature of the products and features can, at times, look a bit disjointed, but works so well on a mobile screen. Can anything be done to neaten-up the desktop version of the site? – TEST IT!

Lush - Mobile v. Desktop 

Congratulations, Lush, there are some fantastic elements to the website, and so you win something from the CRO Drawer! The language used helps communicate brand message without being sales-y and pushy, just informative and helpful - and those reviews mean your customers are getting real-world feedback too!

CRO Testing would help further enhance the user experience, especially on desktop, and promote wholesome and guilt-free pampering.

If you Test it; they will come!

CRO Drawer Prizes

Just look at all this crap!

 

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