Skip to main content
  • F.Hinds logo

    Leading high-street jeweller solve their Click & Reserve conundrum using tradeit


One of the UK's leading high-street jewellers solve their Click & Reserve conundrum with the tradeit ecommerce platform. Established in 1856, F.Hinds are an independent, family owned chain of UK jewellers with over 115 branches in England and Wales. Having traded online since 1996, they have always been at the forefront of UK retailing and understand the importance of continually improving their service, particularly online.

Project Highlights

  • Click & Reserve

    Advanced Click & Reserve service with movement of stock between stores and warehouse, controlled & calculated in tradeit

  • Seamless checkout

    New and improved checkout process specifically designed to increase conversions and reduce the bounce rate

  • Multiple sites

    Multiple brand sites running from a single back office for simple management

  • Store locator

    Built-in store locator with postcode lookup and individual store details like opening hours and range of services available at each

  • Promotions

    Sophisticated promotions capabilities including new offer types built exclusively for the new site

  • Stock checker

    Integrated store stock checker means the quantity of stock at each store can be checked based on nearest location

  • Rich imagery

    Products brought to life through enhanced imagery, zoom and 360 degree rotation to give customers a perfect look of things before they buy

  • Advanced filtering

    Highly sophisticated search tools and facetted navigation to help users find exactly what they are looking for, quickly and easily

  • Search

    Advanced on-site search configuration drives significant improvements to both the speed and accuracy of search results

Project Integrations


Cybertill logo Worldpay logo Klarna logo Apple Pay logo Elasticsearch logo Reviews logo Google Tag Manager logo Tangiblee logo

Project Overview


A customer of Red Technology's since 2006, F.Hinds have constantly evolved their ecommerce offering during the last 14 years, but wanted to now look at the wider picture of merging their online presence and physical stores through the implementation of omni-channel functionality, whilst also improving their online checkout process alongside it. Key to their requirements was significant improvements to their Click & Reserve service, both from their own perspective and more importantly, that of their customers.

The Click & Reserve conundrum

Despite the obvious advantages of having over 115 retail stores, the distribution and movement of their stock makes the fulfilment of online orders more tricky than for many other retailers. Not all products are held at a central warehouse due to the high value of many items, and the fact that sitting in a warehouse means they are not in front of customers, who usually prefer to see and touch them in store anyway. Many purchases are one-offs like engagement or wedding rings, or gift items, so holding vast stocks doesn't make business sense. This means that some online orders may well need to be pulled from one of the physical stores if they are not available for delivery from their central warehouse, but this brings complications.
If an item is only available in a few stores and not from the main warehouse, one of those items will need to be sent back to the warehouse and redistributed to the customer's nearest store for collection, or delivered by post. Due to the time and cost involved in doing this, that service is only offered on products over £50, so some products may only be available for collection from certain stores and may not be available for delivery at all. This also affects the availability of items for collection with those in stock being ready in 2 hours whilst others may take several days due to the movement of stock. Other items are held solely by the supplier so these can only be purchased online too.
F.Hinds ecommerce site on mobile phone
F.Hinds ecommerce case study
F.Hinds ecommerce site on mobile phone
F.Hinds store
F.Hinds ecommerce site on mobile phone
Due to the limitations of their EPoS system, this entire piece of complex functionality had to be built into the tradeit ecommerce platform meaning exact stock levels of every product, in every store, are kept in tradeit and updated through integration to their back end systems in almost real time, ensuring what is shown to the customer online is as accurate as possible. Stock buffer levels are also built into the system to cater for any sudden in-store purchases.

Checkout

In spite of all the complexity around fulfilment and their Click & Reserve service, the website has to still ensure the smoothest possible customer experience. The checkout pages are now closed, with minimal form fields to enter and Loqate for fast address auto-complete meaning the customer can get from adding the item to their basket to completing their order as quickly as possible. They've also introduced a number of additional payment options on top of debit and credit cards such as Klarna and Apple Pay to give customers more choice and flexibility.
There are many other new features across the site aimed at improving the UX, such as a new responsive design with four breakpoints optimised for all devices, infinite scrolling on category pages, improved promotions options and enhanced imagery on product pages giving users a perfect view of the products before they buy. They have also configured Elasticsearch as the search provider which has immediately driven an increase in incremental revenue from customers who use on-site search.


RECOGNISED BY THE INDUSTRY

Award-winning


Resources

CUSTOMER CASE STUDY
F.HINDS
SOLUTIONS DATASHEET
RETAIL ECOMMERCE
SOLUTIONS DATASHEET
OMNI-CHANNEL RETAIL
SOLUTIONS DATASHEET
MULTI-CHANNEL ECOMMERCE
WEBINAR
How F.Hinds reinvented Click & Reserve to deliver their fulfil from anywhere solution

F.Hinds News

news  
Red nominated for European Ecommerce Award
We're delighted to have been shortlisted for the European Ecommerce Innovation Award for our work with F.Hinds...
news  
Red shortlisted for two ecommerce awards 2022
We've been nominated for two separate ecommerce awards for our work with F.Hinds and as a leading ecommerce agency...
news  
Red shortlisted for Retail Systems Award 2022
Our work with F.Hinds in driving conversions through image-based recommendations has been nominated for the Online Innovation of the Year...
insights  
CRO Lab - Image-based product recommendations
We examine how image-based product recommendations can aid users and increase conversions for certain product types...
client news  
Chapelle Jewellery now accepting Apple Pay
Leading jeweller extends their payment options for both online and in-store customers by introducing the ability to purchase using Apple Pay...
client news  
F.Hinds launch Klarna payments online
Leading high-street and omni-channel jeweller, F.Hinds, launches interest and fee free payment options via Klarna…
insights  
How F.Hinds reinvented Click & Reserve to deliver their fulfil from anywhere solution
We showcase how one of the UK's leading jewellers delivers excellence in fulfilment through tradeit...
client news  
Red Technology & F.Hinds shortlisted for Retail Systems Awards 2018
We’re delighted to have been shortlisted for the prestigious Retail Systems Awards 2018 for our work alongside F.Hinds the jewellers...
news  
National Technology Award 2017 nomination
We've been shortlisted for the 2017 National Technology Awards in the category 'Retailing Technology of the Year' for our work with F.Hinds...
insights  
Ecommerce Webinar Registration
We talk through our award-wining project with F. Hinds in which we reinvented Click & Reserve to deliver their fulfil from anywhere solution