Involving Customers in Website Design Proves Successful for Pegasus Lighting

Beaver Falls, PA, January 12, 2011 --(PR.com)-- When Pegasus Lighting launched its new website expectations were high. The redesign involved months of planning, coding and testing with the ultimate goal of creating an intuitive online shopping experience combined with the company’s stated goal of providing a learning experience in lighting to its many website visitors. It might have been a typical project for any company undergoing a website upgrade. However, a large group of people guiding the entire design process was not affiliated with the company at all. In fact, they were the customers.

Pegasus Lighting’s customers saw sneak peaks of design templates, weighed in on features they’d like to see, provided feedback on layout and navigation and helped evaluate the finished product.

A number of new functionalities on the site contribute to a streamlined shopping experience. A My Account section saves shipping and billing information as well as “favorite” items and order history, so the company’s many commercial and trade professional customers can reorder in a matter of seconds. Product Reviews on each page enable customers to rate products directly on the site. Product images have also improved drastically, so customers can zoom in on details of lighting fixtures while shopping.

Pegasus Lighting’s marketing team used Facebook, Twitter and its blog to receive instant feedback on templates and mockups. They hosted a contest for blog readers who commented on the new design during the early phases of the project and then tweeted about the progress of design changes. They even visited local coffee shops once the beta version of the site was developed to get feedback from potential website visitors.

Taking such an interactive approach to website design is telling of a new era unfolding for e-commerce, one in which customers are more involved than ever. Product reviews have become paramount to success, a single tweet can communicate something to thousands of followers, and apparently, customers can help redesign entire websites.

It is clear that getting feedback from the people that matter most has paid off for Pegasus Lighting. Since the new website launch, the site’s conversion rate is up 30%. Perhaps most telling of the new site’s success is the fact that customers are more engaged than ever. The time an average visitor spends on the site is up as well, over 25%.

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