Seamless Commerce

Shop Direct exists to make good things easily accessible to more people. Very.co.uk, one of their fastest growing brands, wanted to launch a new mobile app ahead of the holiday season to provide an easier, more engaging user experience. 

Shopping for a new outfit for a birthday party, but on a budget? Not a problem. Being known for their unique financial services products offering and giving customers flexible ways to pay, they wanted to create an end-to-end customer journey, from product discovery to having the ability to purchase any item.  

With only 6 months left to bring this vision to life, they chose ThoughtWorks to be their technology and experience design partner.

Very.co.uk new iPhone app was launched according to plan, just in time for the busy holiday season. 

Tired of typing in the search box and never finding the desired look? One of the new features in this app, Snap Style, highlights Shop Directs' focus on being one of the first to experiment with new technologies that have the potential to revolutionise the retail industry. Snap Style is based on visual search technology. It allows customers snap a style from Instagram or on the street, and the app intelligently matches it against similar items that are available on Shop Direct's catalogue.

Found the perfect look? ThoughtWorks integrated a secure customer account access into the platform so style hunters can easily check their balance and available funds and pay their statement in just a couple of clicks, without leaving the app. It's one of the only apps in the world that gives the customer the ability to switch seamlessly and securely between a shopping experience and a financial service.

In 2015 Very.co.uk delivered sales growth of 21.1% to more than £850m, driven by a 51% increase in traffic from mobile devices. Mobile sales are now 59% of total online sales which is 17 points ahead of the market, and the Shop Direct Group announced that web traffic has now broken the 1 million per day mark.

Shop Direct was awarded Online Retailer of the Year for its Very.co.uk app at the Retail Systems Awards in London, for excellence in design and delivery