From a site redesign to Anthony Burrill prints: reflections on exploring eCommerce within the innovation hub at the British Red Cross
By: Holly Fielder
Tags: British Red Cross, Digital, Innovation, Charity, Ecommerce

We started by redesigning the gift-shop site that had been built 11 years earlier and was in major need of some TLC. First taking to a whiteboard back when we had Elliot with us, we mapped out all the various product areas and the necessary functionalities of the site. Then we got stuck in with our UX designer (thanks Joungmin!) who really helped us to bring the ideas to life, test them and crucially, communicate them clearly to our web developers.

The first step was to really focus on what the purpose of the gift-shop was — a place for people to explore and shop for products they love, whilst knowing their purchases would have a powerful impact by supporting the work of the BRC. To maintain that focus on our purpose as well as create a clearer user experience, we decided to simplify our offering. Separating our cause led products (assisted daily living and first aid) from our ‘want’ based products (tote bags, gift cards etc…). We also redesigned the cause-led shop, but that’s for another blog!

The giftshop.redcross.org.uk site in its current form

We moved over to Shopify, for a number of reasons, but mainly because:

It’s fairly cheap to build a modern, simple and intuitive website, especially when using Shopify’s own templates

It offered us a really easy to use, simple back end with basic analytics features

It provided us with a base with which we could add more functionality — testing concepts such as virtual gifts and subscriptions for the first time, we could utilise plug-ins easily where necessary

Testing product areas cheaply and quickly

So now we had a jazzy new website, we needed to work on our product offering. This would allow us to really understand who our current audience was and what they wanted to buy, but also crucially what other audiences we could attract and how we could grow.

Keeping our organisational values in mind, we knew we wanted to test ethically made gifts, but we also knew that investing in expensive stock without any idea whether it would sell would be risky. So we partnered with the amazing Urban Makers, who are a collection of designers and individual makers based across the UK. We listed their products on our site, taking a percentage of sales, meaning we could test product areas quickly and cheaply whilst also supporting small businesses and knowing the provenance of our products.

Initially we have focused on gaining insight and understanding into who our supporters are, rather than attempting to make quick profits. Along the way, we’ve gathered more than just insight though; we are slowly building a community of supporters that want to help our mission through buying our products.

One learning that come out of this test was that home and living was one of our top performing product areas and our supporters loved tea towels, tote bags and cushions. We also learnt that our supporters were willing to pay a premium for products if they knew they were made in an ethical and environmentally friendly way. The British Red Cross’ 2030 strategy highlights the importance of working in climate conscious ways. So when the ‘I’m with Greta’ tote (made from 40% salvaged pre-consumer polyester and 60% post-consumer cotton which would otherwise have gone to landfill) became our Q4 2019 bestseller from their range — it felt exciting to know we could offer products that not only aligned with our values, but advocated for the issues we were tackling as an organisation.

I’m with greta tote bag — made from SALVAGED 40% pre-consumer polyester and 60% post-consumer cotton, which would otherwise have gone to landfill.

Another test was cause-led products — products which acted as an advocacy tool, but also directly benefited one of our services. With our Refugee Art Therapy workshops losing some key funding, we were keen to see if we could create a social enterprise model. Running art workshops where designs produced during the sessions could be turned into products to sell via the gift-shop and returning all income back to the service. So in November 2019, we held our first print workshop with the lovely Jenna and had some really great results — check out our pomegranate and duck tote bags, prints and tea towels.

At the same time, our friends over in Innovation Fundraising launched their beautiful baubles — also designed by refugees. They were a huge hit on the gift-shop, selling out within 5 days last year!