Craftsman is the most trusted brand in the tool landscape. Launching their e-commerce platform put their authority in the spotlight, using community and conversation to guide customers to make the right purchase. Beyond the sale, this site became the ultimate resource on using and maintaining your tools.
Strategy
Looking at the DIY audience, our early research uncovered the insight that many people approach tool purchases for home improvement projects without knowing the exact tools they need to get the job done. Working closely with strategists, our team identified a core set of personas and motivations around tool shopping that helped guide the actions we wanted consumers to take on Craftsman.com. While building an e-commerce platform was our primary goal, this was nearly matched by the intention to create a robust community whose members would share their knowledge around their projects, tool recommendations and tips for extending the life of your tools. I facilitated brainstorm sessions to identify features for each stage of the consumer journey, prioritizing these features and road mapping a phased plan for integrating them into the site experience.
Interface Design
The Craftsman site experience gave customers a variety of pathways into product exploration — from showcasing seasonally relevant tools to searching by home project or directly navigating through site menus. Comparison tools helped make sure the customer made the right purchase, either by allowing them to look at multiple snowblowers side-by-side or suggesting a circular saw that was slightly more or less expensive than the one being viewed. The launch of the new Craftsman site also coincided with embracing social media channels, with video and photo content embedded throughout the research and purchase funnels.
