ANYDAy
In 2021 John Lewis launched a new range of competitively priced, own brand products called ANYDAY. Spanning over 2,400 products across Homeware, Technology, Baby Care and Baby Clothing, this range’s impactful brand identity was designed by Pentagram. Their branding system was designed from packaging to signage but was brought in-house for its digital translation.
Working closely with the internal digital teams, the challenge was to design, build, test and optimise the launch of ANYDAY through John Lewis’ digital channels. Not only did the new product launch need to look good and consistent but it also has to reduce user struggle and improve performance and revenue.
Client: John Lewis
Agency: In-house
Category: Digital brand integration, UX optimisation
Skills: Art direction, UX design, Monetate/KIBO testing, Salesforce email personalisation, Photoshop, Sketch, XD
Digital Integration
As a leading omnichannel retailer, the ANYDAY challenge was connecting all channels, combining the store experience and the digital channels to create a single unified experience. And as an own brand launch, it had to work even harder to drive loyalty and meet customers expectations. Working closely with internal strategists to understand the core audience and shopper behaviour, we translated the physical into a seamless digital language.
Homepage, Product Categories & Editorial
The new ANYDAY branding was added to all high traffic pages across the site including the Homepage, Product Category pages and throughout Editorial Content. With so many customers visiting these pages, we could easily react to consumer behaviour and adapt designs and communications. Working in a team with Product Managers, Developers, Monetate/Kibo testers, and Copywriters we debated commercial targets along with design possibilities and limitations to define our testing hypothesis. Finding a balance between commercial objectives and brand integrity was constant, but gave us more reason to quickly test and refine the designs.
The Homepage employed multiple variant tests combined with machine learning. This gave us clear quantitative results which we could then build upon to drive maximum cut-through and increase sales. For Product Category pages and Editorial content, we could drive customer interaction and increase page dwell time by personalising imagery and content to each specific user.
The John Lewis Customer Data and Insights team provided key customer learnings which were then coupled with user testing, making each design decision based on substantial quantitive data.
Below is an example of the Homepage testing creative variations.
Control: Homepage with ANYDAY key graphic header banner
Experiment A: ANYDAY Lifestyle Home imagery header with ANYDAY key graphic in a smaller banner
Experiment B: Alternate ANYDAY lifestyle banner with ANYDAY key graphic in a smaller banner in an alternative position
Product Category page
Editorial
Emails & Social Media
With hundreds of multivariant and personalised emails being deployed by Salesforce each week, the ANYDAY product line needed robust email components which could not only contain the vast variety of products but also tell a succinct category story. The introduction of a modular system allowed for flexibility while also maintaining a consistent look and feel. Impactful messages and a dynamic layout can be achieved with bold typography dispersed between images.
Personalisation was also important for the social media communications. Designing a graphic system that could send the right product, as a product shot, lifestyle image, a small item or an oversized product, to the right customer was a challenge that needed to be solved.
Instagram carousel
Instagram story
Enhancements & Recommendations
This new product launch was a chance to review, challenge, and develop new functionalities in the customer journey. With thousands of products across the site, a new ANYDAY orange font was updated in the CMS, category headers were added to specify ANYDAY areas, and cross sell opportunities were identified and enhanced. As well, shoppable tags were added to imagery where possible and appropriate.
Sketch Design
Using robust Sketch templates, multiple design variations could quickly be built, discussed and amended.
Prototyping
Before designs are tested, fully working prototypes help to realistically demonstrate the amended functionality, and makes it easier to catch any design issues before getting it into the lab.
User testing
John Lewis’ on-site lab and testing team made it easy to observe user journey’s and use SessoinCam insight to quickly test and validate each design iteration.