45% Conversion Lift with Headless CMS & E-commerce UX Redesign

Holt Renfrew

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The Client

Holt Renfrew is Canada's premier luxury retailer, known for its curated collection of high-end fashion and beauty. Their digital platform needed to evolve from a functional e-commerce site to a flagship digital experience that matched the luxury, service, and performance of their physical stores.

The Challenge: Legacy Systems vs. Premium Experience

Holt Renfrew faced critical limitations common to large-scale, high-traffic e-commerce operations built on monolithic architecture:

  1. Poor Performance: The legacy architecture constrained site speed, resulting in high Time to First Byte (TTFB) and sub-optimal Lighthouse scores, which negatively impacted both SEO and user experience.
  2. Conversion Friction: Key conversion pages (Product Listing Page - PLP, Product Detail Page - PDP, and Checkout) contained friction points that led to unnecessary cart abandonment.
  3. Fragmented Analytics: Data tracking was inconsistent across the site, making it impossible to accurately attribute sales, merchandising decisions, or customer behavior to specific campaigns.
  4. Content Bottleneck: Merchandising teams lacked the autonomy to deploy high-impact campaign pages or content without developer support.

The Smart Solution: Luxury E-commerce Transformation (Headless & UX)

Fibocolon executed a strategic, two-phase architectural and design overhaul focused entirely on speed, conversion, and data accuracy.

1. Headless Architecture & Performance

We implemented a Headless CMS and rebuilt the entire front-end using React. This decoupling achieved unparalleled performance by serving content via a global Edge CDN, while integrating seamlessly with the Headless Hybris e-commerce engine.

2. Conversion-Focused UX Redesign

We led a complete UX/UI overhaul of the PLP, PDP, and Checkout pages. The redesign focused on visual clarity, mobile-first design, reducing click-depth, and simplifying the path to purchase to reduce drop-off.

3. Analytics Precision & Unification

We audited, unified, and deployed an enhanced e-commerce analytics layer (e.g., Google Analytics 4 and custom event tracking). This provided merchandising and leadership teams with 99%+ accurate, reliable data on customer journeys for the first time.

Key Outcomes & Metrics

The platform transformation delivered immediate, measurable business impacts, validating the investment in Headless architecture and premium user experience:

Metric

Before Project

After Project (Q1)

Impact

E-commerce Conversion Rate
Baseline
Sustained Lift
45% Increase
Average Load Time (TTFB)
Legacy Architecture
Modern Edge Delivery
50% Reduction
Mobile Bounce Rate
High
Optimized UX
20% Reduction
Analytics Data Accuracy
Fragmented
Unified Data Layer
99% Accuracy
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Technology Stack

The solution was built for high-volume traffic, scalability, and deep integration with existing enterprise systems.

Layer

Technology Used

Rationale

Front-End Delivery
React
Utilized the React ecosystem for the highly dynamic UX/UI and optimize SEO and performance.
Content Management
Headless CMS
Decoupled content source for flexibility and faster editor experience, consuming content via REST.
E-commerce Integration
Headless Hybris API Layer
Securely connected the React front-end to the Hybris e-commerce engine for transactions, catalog, and inventory data.
Data & Analytics
GA4 Enhanced E-commerce Tracking
Unified, accurate data layer for reliable post-launch business intelligence.
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Ready to Find Your 45%?

Holt Renfrew proved that luxury and velocity can coexist. If your e-commerce platform is holding back your conversion goals and brand experience, we can design a Smart Solution focused on delivering measurable sales growth.

Schedule Your Free Platform Strategy Session