How Paul Smith elevated their online experience whilst driving online sales with Harper.

^{Project Background}

Paul Smith partnered with Harper to elevate the online experience whilst growing online sales.  

The Company

Paul Smith is an iconic British fashion brand known for its classic tailoring with playful, modern twists. Founded in 1970 by Sir Paul Smith, the brand combines traditional craftsmanship with contemporary design, earning global acclaim for its creativity and individuality.

Project Background

Paul Smith were looking to elevate their online experience and drive online growth by acquiring new customers, maximising transaction values and improving retention. To support these objectives, Paul Smith partnered with Harper to implement Harper’s full suite of evated Try Before You Buy services including the Try for 5 service, the Concierge service and the Inspire Me service. 

Results

The service has been a success with the partnership objectives and KPIs being met within 3 months of the project launch. The service has delivered a strong uplift in Average Transaction Value and additional services have been rolled out including Inspire Me. The average increase in ATV has been 52% with customers selecting Inspire Me spending an additional £96 on average. 

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^{Try for 5 Results}

The Try for 5 service increased customer spend by helping Paul Smith to sell higher value categories online (such as tailoring, dresses and footwear).

£45 – Increase in Average Selling Price

The Try for 5 service gives online shoppers the confidence to try higher priced pieces online. Once these items are in customers' hands and they’re able to experience the fit and quality of Paul Smith’s pieces, purchasing becomes much easier.

21% – Increase in Average Order Value (post-returns)

The fact that the service is driving higher value purchases is resulting in a 21% increase in Average Order Value for customers using the Try for 5 service versus customers placing standard orders (after returns).

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^{Concierge Results}

The Concierge Service has driven a significant increase in customer spend by increasing both Average Selling Price and Units per Transaction. 

37% – Increase in Units per Transaction (post-returns)

With the Concierge Service, customers are shopping more like they would in-store, building full outfits and trying on 4.7 items per appointment. This is resulting in a 37% increase in Units per Transaction (post-returns).

210% – Increase in Average Order Value (post-returns)

The increase in Units per Transaction combined with a significant increase in Average Selling Price is resulting in an Average Transaction Value that’s 3x higher than a standard order when customers use the Concierge Service.

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^{Returns & Stock} 

Stock is returned twice as fast with the Try at Home service’s and there has been no measured increase in overall returns rate. 

In The Business of Fashion’s report on the true cost of returns, the highest cost associated with returns was found to be the cost of discounting & liquidation due to returned stock being sold out of season. Harper’s Try at Home services have helped to ensure unwanted items are returned faster and in a good condition to resell quickly. 

• Average return time standard orders = 16.5 days (and up to 30 days) 
• Average return time for concierge appointments = 8.5 days

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The Return Rate for Try at Home orders is higher than standard orders, however, the presence of the service has reduced the return rate of standard orders, resulting in no measured increase sitewide return rate. This is due to the fact that try before you buy orders naturally attract higher return rate shoppers such as new customers and multi-size shoppers. 

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^{Harper Integration}

Paul Smith integrated Harper as part of a website redesign with the aim of elevating the online experience and delivering value-add services for customers. 

5 days – Development Time

This included the basic integration plus advanced customisations: 

• Mini bag CTA redirecting to Harper checkout 
• PDP messaging and logic to show/hide based on market
• Explainer overlay and logic to show/hide based on availability
• Reusing existing promo blocks on PLPs 
• Reusing components to promote Harper across the site

“Harper has been one of the best companies we’ve worked with in terms of onboarding. It was quick to get up and running and we really valued how helpful the team was during the process. I was able to be hands off for the Harper integration which is a rare occurrence for me.”
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– Hannah Bennett, Head of Digital, Paul Smith

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^{Customer Q&A}

Q&A with Hannah Bennett, Head of Digital

What were your main objectives of launching the service?

Offering a service to help online customers to see our products before committing to buy. We know that sizing is a challenge so we wanted to address that whilst helping customers to build outfits and shop higher priced items. We see much higher AOVs in our stores so we wanted to offer a service that helped to replicate that online.  

What has been the impact of implementing the service? 

Incredible and honestly better than expected – from amazing customer feedback to outperforming the targets set almost immediately. We’re seeing significant AOV growth across both services and it’s now just working on how can we promote the service more broadly. 

Would you recommend the service to other brands?

I would 100% recommend the service to other brands - the more customers that know about the ease and quality of the service, the better for the industry.

What was the service like to implement?  

Harper has been one of the best companies we’ve worked with in terms of onboarding. We really appreciated how quick it was to get up and running as well as how helpful the team was during the process. I was able to be hands off for the Harper integration which is rare.