Fitch London to gift-wrap Fortnum & Mason website

Fortnum & Mason is collaborating with Fitch London to carry out a major redesign of its website, as part of a long-term strategy to reinvigorate the 300-year-old brand.

It is the first project of its kind to be carried out in three years and will seek to improve usability and overhaul the look of the site, to make it more evocative of the retailer’s flagship store on London’s Piccadilly, and tap into the brand’s heritage.

The site will translate the visual language of the Fortnum & Mason catalogue, developed by creative advertising agency Cogen Elliot, into on-line graphics to create more consistency across the brand. It will also include more photography on the domain and focus on promoting the product and food items, separating this from informational content.

The consultancy is also radically redesigning the navigation of the site so that it will be more ‘intuitive’ to use, according to Lucy Unger, managing partner at Fitch London.

It is making a number of functional changes to improve customer services, simplifying registration and check-out procedures, as well as product viewing and selection. It is boosting interactivity and will also include a new gift advisor service, consisting of a series of questions to help consumers purchase the most appropriate item.

The overall aim is to create added value to on-line purchases and match the in-store customer services more accurately.

The redesigned website is expected to launch by June. Fitch London was appointed to the project in September last year.

Non-executive marketing and strategy director Edward Mason says, ‘We want to make the site easier for customers to use and more reflective in general of our business.’