The Scout Association Choose PRWD For In-house E-commerce Usability Training

The Scout Association E-commerce & Project Background

Scout Shops Limited (SSL) is the trading subsidiary of The Scout Association (TSA). Scouting’s aim is to give it’s 500,000 Members a taste of everyday adventure. To support this aim Scouting supplies a wide range of outdoor activity products to both retail and wholesale customers via online and telesales/mail-order channels.

www.scoutshops.com is the leading website for Scouting merchandise in the UK, and www.outdoors.co.uk is a more recent venture, targeting the outdoor activity and camping markets.

Both sites, although functional, have been limited by the underlying technology upon which the websites have been developed, and this has constrained the business in a number of areas. Additionally, a significant amount of effort is involved on an ongoing basis in keeping both the content and the data current and correct.

Having made a decision to replace a ten year old retail ERP system, it made sense for Scout Shops to also seek a replacement for their websites, and incorporate the currently unfulfilled and planned functional requirements into the new systems.

After looking at a number of potential suppliers, Scout Shops chose a Multi Channel Retail solution from Omnica, comprising a web store integrated with a back end ERP based on Microsoft Dynamics AX. These new systems are planned to go live towards the end of 2009.

Training Objectives

Having a strong in-house design capability, along with a relatively new corporate branding for The Scout Association, the decision was taken to bring the design of the new web stores in house, and a small cross-functional group was formed to own the design.

E-commerce and ERP Project Manager, Mark Selwyn, recognised that this group had a variety of skills, ranging from retail to marketing to design, but that each person had differing levels of knowledge of best practice in E-commerce and web store design, and he asked Paul Rouke at PRWD to deliver a tailored version of his “E-commerce Best Practice” training onsite. In order to deliver the system within budget, Mark’s objective was to build “usability” into the design of the new web stores, using industry best practices, rather than have to rework at a later stage as a result of usability testing.

Having set some challenging deadlines, and having to work around staff holidays, there were a limited number of dates that the training could take place on. Despite busy schedules, the whole group committed to the training date as an essential part of the development process.

Using some recommendations from his network, Mark contacted a few suppliers of similar training courses and consultancy, but PRWD were the only consultancy able to deliver the training course on Mark’s timescales. Paul’s ability to tailor the course to meet the specific requirements of TSA re-inforced the decision to go with PRWD.

What did PRWD and Paul Rouke do

Paul developed a bespoke 1 day training course and training manual to fit with The Scout Associations objectives for the training.

Usability and best practice recommendations where provided in the following areas:

• Homepage
• Search
• Navigation
• Category page
• Product page
• Persuasion architecture
• Cross-selling and up-selling
• Shopping basket
• Checkout process
• Web forms

Paul provided a full day of in-house training and consultancy, where all 7 attendees where encouraged to ask questions throughout the day in order to maximise the amount of learning and insights they gained.

At the end of the training day each attendee took with them the comprehensive 100 page training manual for on-going reference and support.

Benefits and Impact for The Scout Association

The effectiveness of the session can be judged so far by the limited number of changes being suggested to the designs being produced, and the speed that any proposed changes are being resolved – both the designer and the team refer back to Paul Rouke’s “Best Practice” training manual and a consensus is quickly reached.

The primary benefit of the course is that it has created a “level playing field” across departments in terms of E-commerce design. Requirements are now based on “best practice” rather than “gut feel” or “I know what works best”. The interesting discussions now revolve around where we recognise what the “best practice” is, but some compromise is needed, for example for reasons of technology or cost.

Testimonials

"The course content was excellent, and the delivery showed that he “knew his stuff”, and I would have no hesitation in using Paul again in the future."

Mark Selwyn, E-commerce and ERP Project Manager

What aspects of the course did you find most beneficial and why?

"Clear examples of good and bad approaches. Made impact of decisions very apparent."

Scott Phillips, Head of IT

"Re-enforcement of opinions previously held in respect of product and customer focus. Pointers as to best practice and pitfalls to avoid."

David Markwell, Managing Director

"Best and worst practice print outs. Thought this was great having them at hand to point out the best/worst practices. Thought it was neatly structured and was good for all levels of knowledge.

I thought the course was very good, and I thought it was presented excellently as I think Paul had quite a tough audience."

Richard Chambers, Senior Graphic Designer