The Dorchester Collection

A new ecommerce website delivering double-digit revenue growth for this luxury hotel group’s exclusive gifts & experiences range.

Focus area

Advisory
Creative
Tech

Industry

Property & Construction

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Overview

Blending modern chic with a rich traditional heritage, The Dorchester Collection has established its brand across ten iconic, luxury hotels in the UK, France, Italy, Dubai and the USA. With a reputation for high-end luxury, excellent service and unparalleled atmosphere, their unique premises stand out as architecturally distinctive while still enjoying a special alchemy across the group.

The Dorchester’s exclusive Gifts & Experiences store has become a popular addition to their brand, enabling users to purchase quality merchandise and memorabilia, and gift stays and services to friends and family.

57.3%

increase in revenue

29%

increase in transactions

55.7%

increase in mobile revenue

23.7%

increase in sessions

The hotels were facing several functionality issues with their existing Magento Enterprise platform and appointed StrategiQ to migrate their inventory onto a redesigned Magento Open Source solution.

Our proposal incorporated a strategy to resolve the Dorchester Collection’s key technical and usability issues and increase profitability while improving the website’s appearance in line with their 2017/18 group branding update. Their key challenges were:

Functionality: The group’s existing Magento Enterprise platform was subject to countless and persistent bugs, creating a poor experience for customers and the brand team alike.

Costs: In addition to being difficult to work with, the existing platform was also an expensive option, compromising the online store’s profitability.

Lack of versatility: While their hotels were located in four different countries, each hotel was unable to sell gifts and experiences in their own local currency, again inhibiting customer interaction.

Redundant features: The group was paying for an Enterprise version of the Magento platform, but its key features were not relevant to their or their customers’ needs.

SEO vulnerability: While migrating their inventory to a new platform and hosting, we had to ensure we did so with no loss of visibility in search engines.

“

“Since launching our new Dorchester Collection Gifts & Experiences store, we have seen strong double-digit YOY revenue growth. StrategiQ have always been extremely supportive; providing recommendations, guidance and best practices for a number of scenarios. The team are always very engaged and enthusiastic about working with us, which is appreciated, and regularly go above and beyond the call of duty.”

Claire Bell

Digital Manager

What we did

Our audit of their existing platform allowed us to fully establish the issues and opportunities within their ecommerce set-up. Working closely with their in-house marketing and development team, we were able to define a strategy and specification for a new platform to support growth and operational efficiency across the Dorchester Collection’s global estate.

Improved functionality: At an early stage, we isolated the key functionality to maintain, replace or introduce, and built a prototype website that informed the creative phase for the redesign of the platform.

Easier to use and better value: Migrating the inventory to the Magento Community (open source) platform gave the site more flexibility and simplicity at a lesser cost.

Easier to pay: We replaced the original clunky digital gift card and redemption system, and introduced new processing that allowed each hotel to list their inventory in their own local currency, removing a barrier to purchasers.

Protected online visibility: Our migration management ensured all SEO was maintained (and improved upon) for the launch of the new website. We continue to find new ways to enhance the Dorchester Collection’s online presence.

Timely launch: We got their new Gifts & Experiences platform online in time for the busy Christmas holiday period, capitalising on one of the most lucrative seasons of the year.

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