Century Novelty Uses SLI Systems’ SLI Mobile to Develop New Mobile Commerce Website
Online Retailer of Party Goods Launches Cost-Effective Mobile Version of E-Commerce Site that Integrates with Checkout by Amazon
MOBILE SHOPPING SUMMIT, NEW YORK CITY, NY – October 26, 2010 - Century Novelty, a leading online retailer of party supplies, decorations and costumes, has readied itself for the mobile e-commerce revolution by launching a new mobile website created by SLI Systems through its new solution, SLI Mobile.
In just a few days and with only a few hours of effort by Century Novelty, the mobile site went live in early October and now delivers relevant product and company information to mobile device users, helping Century Novelty capture more sales on the mobile platform.
With SLI Mobile, online retailers like Century Novelty can quickly get up and running with mobile sites, including essential search and navigation capabilities and all necessary product pages. The SLI Mobile offering easily integrates with third-party check-out providers, such as Checkout by Amazon, which is being used by Century Novelty.
For Century Novelty, the incentive to launch a mobile commerce site came when the company realized that mobile sales accounted for a growing percentage of overall revenues.
“By looking at our site analytics, we could see that customers were starting to buy products using their smart phones and other mobile devices. It was a small part of our business, but one that we expect to grow over the next year,” said Ian MacDonald, vice president and general manager of Century Novelty. “At the same time, we didn’t want to spend a lot of time or money launching a mobile version of our site given our limited resources. SLI Systems did all of the heavy lifting to create the site, and at one-third of the cost estimates we received from other mobile vendors—and the entire process took just a few hours of my time. If we knew how successful our mobile site would be, and how painless it would be to set up, we would have started this project much sooner.”
For any existing retail site, SLI can use product data already in use and deliver a mobile site in just a few days. SLI also pays special attention to search and navigation features for mobile sites – such as expandable refinements – since variable data connections and limited screen size can affect the shopping experience on mobile devices.
MacDonald says he expects average order size, time on site and page views per visit will increase on Century Novelty’s mobile optimized website, compared with the results from mobile visitors to the company’s regular website, which should lead to a conversion rate increase. “With our new mobile site and the power of SLI Mobile, we know we are giving mobile shoppers a better experience now than we were before,” he said.
“Online retailers like Century Novelty need to act quickly to meet the demands of mobile shoppers – and their numbers are growing fast,” said Shaun Ryan, CEO of SLI Systems. “SLI Mobile brings ecommerce companies into the mobile market quickly, and also ensures that their websites make it easy for mobile shoppers to find and buy what they need.”
Ian MacDonald will speak about SLI Mobile and Checkout by Amazon in the development of its new mobile site at the Mobile Shopping Summit on at 1:20pm EDT on Tuesday, October 26.
About SLI Systems
SLI Systems is the leading developer of Software-as-a-Service learning-based search and navigation solutions for corporate Internet sites, content publishers, e-commerce destinations and consumer Internet portals that Searches, Learns and Improves the user experience. SLI Systems’ SaaS-based site search and user-generated SEO solutions empower businesses to enhance customer satisfaction while increasing sales, reducing costs and yielding valuable customer information. Unlike traditional search software, SLI Systems’ patented technology continuously “learns” from the behavior of visitors over time to deliver more relevant results. SLI Systems is a privately held company, with offices in Silicon Valley, London, and Christchurch, New Zealand. For more information, visit www.sli-systems.com, or see the company’s blog at blog.sli-systems.com.
