Optimizing the Omni-Channel Shopping Experience for a Luxury Fashion House

Tell us about The Webster brand.

The Webster is a luxury multi-brand fashion house that operates eight physical U.S. boutiques in South Beach, Bal Harbour, Houston, Costa Mesa, New York City, Los Angeles, Montecito, an outlet at Sawgrass Mills and online store.  Each boutique has its own unique vibe and energy. Brands within our boutiques are merchandised as if customers have entered a dream closet. Our creative curation is what we are most proud of, positioning heritage brands with emerging brands together by color and emotion. It is the style of merchandising that sets us apart, as it is our unique interpretation of the season’s best pieces instead of the traditional mono-brand retail style.

Could you share more about the brand’s fascinating history?

Absolutely, Laure Heriard Dubreuil opened The Webster’s flagship location in 2009 on Collins Avenue in South Beach, Miami at what was the historical The Webster Hotel. The 20,000 square-foot Art Deco building was built in 1939 by architect Henry Hohauser. Dubreuil, who grew up in Paris and worked as a top merchandiser for Balenciaga and Yves Saint Laurent before founding The Webster, kept the name but reimagined the three-story interior as a women’s and men’s luxury retailer designed with intimacy to resemble a residential space.

Describe your role with The Webster.

As the Webster’s eCommerce Director, I manage all aspects of our online retail business including content strategy and development, promotional campaigns, online marketing, website design, web analytics and web technologies. My background is in engineering and IT services but curiously my career took a brief detour when I worked for a time as a fashion photographer. I feel that this experience positively informed my career trajectory, as I probably have a more sensitive eye aesthetically than a typical engineer.

What sort of work has DMI been doing with The Webster?

DMI is supporting us with enhancements to our User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) for the purpose of optimizing our conversion rate. DMI first conducted an audit of our current website, identified friction points and worked diligently to mitigate each friction point one-by-one. The team also reworked the navigation in the menu, particularly on our mobile site, and worked on the customer return experience as well as the mini-cart. Considering we just began collaborating with DMI last December, I feel a great deal has been accomplished in a short amount of time which I truly appreciate.

What is it like to collaborate with the DMI team?

It’s been fantastic. I really like the DMI spirit. The team is always very responsive and I receive excellent input and advice. Pablo Pazmino is excellent at his job. Since we embarked on this project, the whole world has changed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and shopping in our physical locations is limited. Fortunately, The Webster’s eCommerce is now is much better than it used to be. I like to think the work we did with DMI contributed to these positive changes.