Background
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is a world-renowned art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly, London. Today, the RA has a unique online retail offering. It sells original artwork editions, and exclusive gifts and products created by artists such as Royal Academicians Grayson Perry and Tracey Emin.
Recognising the vast potential for growth in the e-commerce sector, the RA sought to cement its online shop as a go-to destination for people wanting to expand their art collection and buy unique gifts.
Challenge
To achieve its ambitious revenue targets, the RA needed to enhance average order value (AOV), drive customer retention, and streamline marketing efforts.
The RA’s initial challenge was therefore to ensure the platform was well supported in time for the busy Christmas trading period. Business continuity during this peak season was paramount.
Following this, the RA wanted to stabilise its infrastructure so it would be easier for the RA to manage and could better support future growth plans.
Solution
With proven expertise in Adobe Commerce Cloud, objectsource provided the following support to the RA:
- Seamless transition – objectsource delivered a seamless onboarding process while ensuring uninterrupted business operations throughout the busy Christmas season.
- Stabilisation and support – to facilitate future growth plans, objectsource focused on implementing infrastructure improvements.
- Strategic guidance – objectsource collaborated with the RA to develop a roadmap for future growth, including AOV optimisation and customer retention strategies.
- Transparent and efficient support model – objectsource offered a straightforward retainer and support plan, allowing the RA to manage its budget effectively and access real-time project updates.
- Adobe Commerce Cloud expertise – objectsource utilised its deep understanding of the platform to navigate upgrades and optimise platform functionalities.
Looking ahead
Moving forward, the RA will continue to work closely with objectsource to further grow its audience and e-commerce revenue. This includes enhancing cross-selling capabilities and driving basket building. Regular strategic discussions with objectsource will ensure alignment and enable the RA to benefit from ongoing advice and expertise to achieve its long-term e-commerce goals.
Results
The partnership with objectsource delivered positive results within the first six months:
- Increased revenue – the RA experienced a 20% year-on-year revenue increase during the Christmas season.
- Improved AOV – average order value rose by 15% year-on-year.
- Seamless onboarding – the migration to Adobe Commerce Cloud was smooth and did not disrupt business continuity.
“The onboarding process with objectsource was pain free and meant we had no disruption to business continuity. Overall, we had a very successful Christmas season with revenue up 20% and AOV up 15% year on year. Benefiting from objectsource’s expert and dependable support so clearly even early in the partnership was invaluable and very reassuring.
“The straightforward retainer model maximises our budget and gives us easy access to high-quality expertise. By removing unnecessary management layers, objectsource makes communication and project oversight a breeze. We can talk directly to developers and track our retainer usage in real-time.
“Everyone in the team is very transparent, easy to talk to, helpful and happy to jump on call when we need to chat something through. This makes the day to day very easy to manage.
“All of this, together with their knowledge of Adobe Commerce and in our case – the Cloud infrastructure – makes us very confident both in the partnership and in our growth plans going forward.”
Lily Ackroyd-Willoughby
Digital Operations Manager
Royal Academy of Arts
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