Any website with over 15,000 products is a beast to manage.

And when your website visitors aren't chronically online like many of us, you layer in other issues that  require even more of a qualitative data touch than other sites to optimize.

Broken Tractor is  a family-owned business that sells new and used tractor parts online. With thousands of products, highly-technical part types and SKUs as far as the eye can see, the team faces an uphill battle to optimize the shopping experience for their customers.

With a deep understanding of their audience's specific needs and shopping behaviors, their team approached Lucky Orange wanting to deliver an even better experience—both in their brick-and-mortar and online presences.

Here's how Michael Alford, Website Administrator at Broken Tractor uses Lucky Orange's leading visual analytics tools to fix broken (pun intended) parts of their website experience.

Optimizing product findability

One pillar of website optimization is usability and with a larger store, usability begins with product findability. So Michael headed into the BigCommerce App Marketplace looking for options to help him optimize Broken Tractor’s product search experience. He landed on Lucky Orange because of its diverse feature set and easy installation directly through the integration.

Of course inventory management on the backend is vital, but the on-store search function is a great opportunity for refinement. And this experience is equal parts search buttons and functionality and the resulting images and words on the other end of the search click.

This approach is especially important for customers who might not grasp all the technical details involved in a purchase. Clear visuals play a crucial role in their decision-making process.

Michael understood this concept well.

To investigate the state of their product finding experience, Michael watched session recordings and analyzed heatmaps to determine how people were going through the store. What he found was high engagement with product images throughout. This indicated a need to continue focusing on high-quality photos that were also regularly verified for accuracy.

"Our customers rely on seeing the right part to make their decision," he explains. "They might not read all the technical specifications or descriptions, but they will closely examine the pictures to ensure they are making the right choice."

Practical applications for Dashboards and Heatmaps

One big discovery came from studying behavior on the Backhoe information page.

"We saw a pattern of frustration," Michael explains. "Customers were visiting the page but weren’t doing much else."

By watching session recordings, Michael found that missing links to related products caused confusion. This led to a redesign with helpful links, greatly improving the user experience. Missing links or elements that users think should be linked but aren't is an all too common discovery using Lucky Orange—but is a great usability fix due to typically low effort needed to fix.

In other areas, Lucky Orange’s Dynamic Heatmaps allow Michael to continuously monitor and enhance the website's performance.

"Seeing the heatmap data for our homepage was eye-opening," Michael recalls.

"It revealed user interaction in a way we hadn't fully grasped before. This data helped us strategically place our top brands, like John Deere, in areas that got more attention and clicks, ultimately driving more engagement and sales."

Michael was able to optimize the site layout, ensuring that high-demand, in-stock products were prioritized and easily accessible, leading to a more effective and profitable online presence.

Building a smoother shopping experience

For Broken Tractor, the journey with Lucky Orange has been game-changing. By focusing on user data and experience, they’ve served their unique customers better.

As Michael puts it, "Lucky Orange lets us see through our customers' eyes, helping us create a smoother shopping experience."

And with continuous optimization, Broken Tractor's website is now a well-oiled machine, delivering the best possible experience for every customer that visits.

Other BigCommerce Apps play a role in their success

Realizing the importance of social proof and creating repeat, loyal customers for Broken Tractor’s long term growth, MIchael headed back into the BigCommerce App Marketplace. He quickly found a great retention marketing platform, Yotpo. Now, he uses their reviews widget which helps him collect and display customer content throughout the onsite journey.

The team decided to take their review program one step further and launch a loyalty and rewards program. Once again in the BigCommerce App Marketplace, they found Smile.io to be their best option—making the first steps of their loyalty efforts even more powerful.

Conclusion

From improving product findability to optimizing layout and design, Lucky Orange helps Broken Tractor achieve their goal of providing an exceptional shopping experience for all customers. 

As technology and e-commerce continue to evolve, tools like Lucky Orange will play an increasingly important role in helping businesses stay ahead of the curve and deliver the best online experiences possible.