Viyella launch ecommerce shop

Viyella has broken new ground. Gone are the days of its rather Mumsie image. Today’s Viyella label is more likely to be found on slick city shirts, sport/luxe handbags and home wares, than on A-line skirts in the Home Counties.

The brand is aiming itself at a self-assured tier of high achievers. Or, as Viyella puts it, it’s “the brand of choice for women wanting classic, versatile clothing of excellent quality and a personal service to match.”

The website is equally self-assured; presenting a collection of women’s wear on-line that complements, rather than dispenses with, Viyella’s in-store shopping experience. But it wasn’t so long ago that Viyella had lost touch with its 30/40-somethings. A major re-think of the brand saved Viyella from obsolescence. And the website has its part to play…

Appealing to loyal customers

With a portfolio of deluxe fashion brands already under its belt, Chapter Eight was ideally poised to remodel the Viyella website. A consumer-facing website with a niche catalogue, the brief was to develop a website that appealed to a community of loyal Viyella customers and that eschewed all overtones of “buy it now” with a quick click.

Concession was made to Flash Navigation to showcase the seasonal collections, but joint emphasis was on building local loyalty to Viyella stores. Thus regional customers, as well as London shoppers, were to be afforded equal consideration.

When Less is More

To do this, Chapter Eight’s design team styled a content managed map which identifies Viyella stores by region.

The website benefits from the Content Management System designed by Chapter Eight with retailers in mind. Product descriptions and images are quick and easy to load via a “WYSIWYG” Word-based interface. This dispenses with any need to understand HTML commands – enabling Viyella’s in-house team to update the website without the frustration of breaking off to seek agency help.

The site has a flash history slideshow: more slides are added as collections are photographed. Indeed, the design of the website encourages the photographic images to take centre stage. As with much in the design world – less is more.