12k

300-year-old luxury retailer Fortnum & Mason gets 20% more customers with Spree Commerce site

300 years and counting

SPREE SUCCESS STORY

The story of its legacy began in 1705, when Hugh Mason, a livery stables keeper, rented a spare room to William Fortnum, a footman in Queen Anne’s household. The Royal Family called for having new candles every night, so every evening, when royal courtiers were retiring, Fortnum emptied the candlesticks of the half-used candles and took them home to his lodgings, where he melted them down, replaced the wicks and created new candles.

So successful was his enterprise that he convinced his landlord, Mason, to set up shop with him in St. James’s Market, and two years later, in 1707, the two opened their doors on Duke Street.

Fortnum’s ingenious idea for selling Queen Anne’s half used candle wax, at a profit, paved the way for the beginning of a respectable business. The rest, as they say, is grocery.

Today, Fortnum & Mason—or Fortnum’s, as it is often called for short—is a food destination famous for not only its exquisite custom-blended teas, but also its delicious accompaniments, like marmalades and biscuits, and its gift sets, presented in the original Fortnum’s hamper.

A site that can handle complex orders and deliveries across more than 130 countries worldwide

The Challenge

Throughout its long history, Fortnum & Mason has been at the forefront of retail innovation, and in 1998 it was one of the first retailers in the UK to launch a transactional website. However, in 2015 the company needed to move away from what was becoming end-of-life technology, drastically improve user experience and speed of use and team with platform that could be continuously improved as digital channels evolve.

“Our aim was to create the best digital representation of Fortnum & Mason, representing the brand in the best way possible and ensuring we have a range customers enjoy and buy into,” – Zia Zareem-Slade, head of customer experience at Fortnum and Mason

The renowned store in London’s Piccadilly completely replaced its existing ecommerce platform, opting for an open-source solution. Deploying such a platform might seem quite daring for one of the oldest luxury shops in the world, however, it has proved nothing but a big success ever since.

“It will pay back in less than two years’ time – and you do not hear of many ecommerce projects doing that” Zia Zareem-Slade

Fortnum and Mason and Spree Commerce Success Story

Fortnum & Mason and Spree Commerce

Designed and developed in just eight months, the new, responsive website was built with tools for continuous deployment like Circle CI and Ansible integrated into Slack. This means any member of the project team, technical or non-technical, could turn on regular new features and updates.

The outcome is an elegant online storefront worthy matching the luxury that F&M represents. On fortnumandmason.com you can find some really cool features like:

Since its rollout, mobile visits improved 77% YOY, and mobile conversion increased 57% YOY. During its first week alone, conversion improved +14% YOY and the average order value increased by 5% YOY. One year after the implementation of the new Spree based website, total sales went up +30% YOY and calls to the customer service centre dropped by 28%.

Tech Stack:

Conclusions:

SPREE SUCCESS STORY

Fortnum & Mason chose Spree for its fully responsive eCommerce site, to ensure that online customers enjoy the same high quality experience that the brand has been providing in store for over 300 years.

“As well as being beautifully designed, the new site is fast, slick and easy to navigate – and is truly responsive, providing the same experience across multiple devices. The site reinforces the brand experience that our customer’s expect and since the site went fully live we have seen incredible results in increased revenues, increased conversion rates, but most importantly, amazingly positive customer feedback.” said Zareem-Slade.

3form B2B product sample ordering enabled with a Spree Commerce cart and checkout with an ERP integration

3form website was a B2B product catalog with a contact form. Then 3form decided to use Spree to embedded a cart and checkout experience to streamline product sample ordering. Spree Commerce was integrated with an ERP to sync the product catalog and allow all 3form customers to use their existing user accounts. The project was delivered within 12 weeks by team augmentation of the 3form in-house dev team.

Read story

Name of Love uses Spree for its website that allows brides and bridesmaids to create and participate in online showrooms

Name of Love is an online retailer specializing in dresses for weddings and special occasions. It aims to create a more curated experience for fashion-forward bridesmaids who don’t want to spend a ton. And they do it extremely well with a beautiful website built with Spree Commerce that allows brides and bridesmaids to create and participate in online showrooms.

Read story

Gasido uses Spree for its online B2B marketplace for industrial gases

Gas providers can list their offers at the website and Gasido takes over the marketing and makes the offers of the offerers on the Internet findable. Customers can find offers that are relevant to them through different filters and can process the purchase simply and quickly. The suppliers receive the orders via the Gasido B2B marketplace and take over the delivery or the transfer process.

Read story

DieHard – America’s most innovative automotive battery brand uses Spree Commerce for its online store

DieHard’s website is built with Spree Commerce, a flexible and scalable open-source e-commerce software. Spree enables you to build beautiful online stores that are fast loading, user friendly and what’s most important – you have total control over them. On diehard.com you will find some really cool features like a sticky photo gallery on the product page, DieHard battery selector that helps determine which battery will best fit your car as well as a “Find locally” option that enables you to find the specific item in the local hardware store.

Read story

Spree Commerce powers Violet Grey’s Hollywood-chic marketplace with a highly curated selection of beauty products

Violet Grey is known as the go-to source for everything beauty. The brand’s Hollywood-chic ecommerce platform combines perusing through a magazine and online shopping with an amazing user experience. The company’s online marketplace, built with Spree Commerce, offers a highly curated selection of the best luxury beauty products including makeup, skin care, hair care and nails. 

Read story

Packhelp uses Spree for its B2B web-to-print Ecommerce platform

Packhelp chose Spree for its web-to-print Ecommerce platform because they new that in order to build a successful startup they shouldn’t try to reinvent the wheel but use the existing technology and go to market as fast as possible. It turned out very well even though their business is far from a simple online store as it features a 3d package customizing tool.

Read story

Farmdrop launches a peer to peer grocery marketplace with Spree Commerce

Ben Pugh founded Farmdrop in 2014 when he spotted an opportunity to simplify the food supply chain using technology. The company, which provides a peer to peer grocery marketplace uses Spree as the E-commerce solution to connect farmers, growers and producers directly with local customers. By cutting out the middleman, Farmdrop pays producers 75 per cent of the final retail price.

Read story

Maisonette has revolutionized the children’s wear industry by creating a one-stop shopping solution for busy parents

Maisonette aims to be an authority in the children’s market as a shopping destination and an editorial destination with interviews and photo shoots. It is also a stylish solution to one-stop-shopping that stocks hundreds of brands, from cult and international houses to little-known labels. Maisonette uses Spree Commerce for its children’s wear multi-vendor marketplace that integrates with inventory management systems of over 170 vendors. 

Read story

FCP Euro experienced 50% traffic growth after migrating to Spree

FCP Euro chose Spree when they needed to take their online store to the next level. They were looking for a flexible solution that would enable customization and further integrations. Their choice proved to be a good one since in the first year after redesigning their website they experienced a 50% traffic growth and managed to convert to 95% online sales.

Read story

Swiss performance shoes brand On Running uses Spree for its DTC online store

On delivers industry-disrupting innovation in premium footwear, apparel, and accessories for high-performance running, outdoor, and all-day activities. For this purpose, it also needs an exquisite online presence and eCommerce performance. On Running chose Spree Commerce as the solution behind its DTC online store that offers premium products as well as premium user experience. 

Read story

ChefSteps uses Spree Commerce for its content-rich ecommerce platform dedicated to smart cooking

ChefSteps is a smart kitchen product company building tools to help people cook more, have more fun cooking, and get incredible results, every time. ChefSteps’s website is not only beautifully designed and rich in content but also boasts some amazing features like a digital scaling tool or egg cooking calculator. It was built with Spree Commerce, a fully-featured and market-proven open-source ecommerce platform that allows for complex customizations.

Read story

Blue Bottle Coffee used Spree to turn one coffee shop into a $700 million e-commerce business

Blue Bottle has developed a cult following for their beautiful cafes and exquisite coffee. But their website didn’t represent the brand well, and web sales made up only 10% of their revenue. After evaluating several options, they decided to go with Spree Commerce open source solution that together with introducing a coffee subscription service gave them a way to scale their business more effectively and translate their chic coffee shop ideas into a wildly successful online brand.

Read story

Urban Ladder chose Spree to introduce world class tech innovations that massively simplify furniture shopping

Urban Ladder is a design-led, omnichannel brand that offers furniture and home decor. With over 5000 designs across 35 categories such as living, dining, bedroom, study, etc. After securing $77 million funding, a decision was made to invest heavily in technology, as it was believed to be a key driver in Urban Ladder’s growth. Spree proved to be the right choice thanks to its flexibility, scalability, and reliability.

Read story

Alabama Chanin – an artisan and sustainable fashion brand uses open source e-commerce solution

Alabama Chanin is a lifestyle brand of well-designed and thoughtfully made goods for the person and the home. It celebrates and preserves unique traditions and crafting techniques, with a strong commitment to community through Made in the USA, local production. The company is rooted in the tenets of the Slow Design movement: good, clean, fair—which encourages designers, artists, and consumers to create and utilize thoughtful products in a socially and environmentally responsible way.

Read story

Everlane builds an honest $100M+ fashion manufacturing business with Spree powered eCommerce platform

Everlane re-defines the fashion supply chain, sharing the true costs and factory details behind their products. The brand is engaging and memorable. It stands out in the fashion industry thanks to its ethic and transparent attitude. Its online store reflects perfectly those qualities with the simple but elegant design and user friendly navigation. Spree Commerce with its flexibility and scalability proved to be a perfect match for yet another successful eCommerce startup!

Read story

Away uses Spree Commerce for its $1.4B smart luggage brand

Away is an e-commerce luggage startup founded by two former Warby Parker executives that aims to be the ultimate carry-on for travelers. The premium travel brand introduced its streamlined, tech-infused, carry-on luggage, selling directly to consumers to keep prices down. The vast majority (90%) of its sales takes place on Away’s sleek and user friendly website built with Spree Commerce, a flexible and scalable market proven e-commerce solution.

Read story

Hundred, a subscription service for personalized vitamin mixes powered by Spree Commerce raised $8M to expand to the US market

Hundred’s mission is to “shine a light and bring clarity to the murky vitamin space” by taking a holistic approach to analyzing your supplement requirements. From the unique subscription-based model, to the ongoing support from a Nutrition Expert to the affordable cost, the company is working to deliver customers the best possible user experience in as many ways as possible. This includes the brand’s beautiful and user friendly e-commerce platform, built with Spree Commerce.

Read story

Let's use Spree to build exactly what your business needs

facebook