Ecommerce Consultant and Growth Strategist for small businesses
07592 629885 | Dominic Smith - Ecommerce Consultant
British American Tobacco (BAT) is one of the world’s largest multinational companies in the tobacco industry. Headquartered in London, UK, BAT produces and sells a range of tobacco products, including cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, and nicotine products such as e-cigarettes and vaping devices. The company operates in over 180 countries globally. They acquired a struggling vaping brand and tasked me with leading the transformation to reverse its performance decline. Over an 18-month period, I successfully rejuvenated the brand, driving a significant recovery in customer acquisition and engagement.
Bounce rate measures how many visitors leave your site without taking any action, such as clicking to another page. For e-commerce, a high bounce rate means lost potential sales. Reducing bounce rate boosts engagement, improves conversions, and can positively impact your Google rankings.
For example, if a user visits your homepage and leaves immediately, that’s a bounce. If they browse another page before exiting, it’s counted toward the exit rate instead. Both metrics are key signals Google uses to evaluate your site’s relevance and quality.
A recent e-commerce site overhaul resulted in dramatic improvements. The old website was outdated and poorly designed, failing to represent the brand’s vision and meet user expectations. It was also outdated, buggy, and lacked strong branding. Issues like poor mobile usability, conflicting cart rules, and weak navigation led to a 40% bounce rate. Key issues included:
A templated design with bugs, poor visuals, and an ineffective navigation system.
A non-responsive mobile experience, despite 52% of traffic coming from mobile devices.
Negative customer feedback regarding reorder visibility, frequent pop-ups, lack of compatibility information, and the inability to save payment details.
I led a complete website migration and redesign project to address these issues. The focus was on delivering a mobile-first, modern, and user-friendly platform:
Design Overhaul: Clean, refined visuals with better use of color, photography, and simplified layouts.
Enhanced Navigation: Improved user flow without relying on URL redirects, making the site easier to navigate.
User-Focused Features: Addressed customer pain points by improving reorder visibility, reducing pop-up frequency, adding compatibility information, and enabling saved payment details for a seamless checkout experience.
Post-launch, the bounce rate dropped from 40% to 27%—a 32% improvement. This equated to 2,000 more engaged sessions per month, significantly boosting traffic and sales opportunities.
Bounce Rate Reduction: A decrease from 40% to 27%, a 32% improvement, as measured by Google Analytics.
Increased Engagement: An additional 2,000 sessions per month, with users engaging rather than leaving.
Improved User Satisfaction: Enhanced mobile experience, intuitive navigation, and features tailored to customer needs helped align the website with the brand’s goals.
A well-executed website redesign doesn’t just look better; it performs better. By focusing on mobile usability, clear navigation, and user-centric content, e-commerce businesses can reduce bounce rates, improve customer retention, and drive more revenue.
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