31% more visitors
Christie's website reimagined
<p>Modern and accessible platform providing an outstanding experience for millions of visitors on their way to explore the world of art or bid in an auction.</p>
Services & Technologies Involved
Technologies:
Going digital
<p>In 2019, Christie’s, one of the leading auction houses, has decided to enrich their digital experience with the <strong>new version of Sitecore XP</strong> and a complete redesign of the client experience. The aim was to drive a significant <strong>switch of users</strong> from analogue channels<strong> to its</strong> <strong>website</strong>. By utilizing the digital channels, Christie’s has by 2021 reduced its impact on the environment by reducing the production of printed catalogues by 75 % while doubling the number of new buyers online. As a leader in UX, Christie’s is continuously improving and optimizing the experiences across all digital channels.</p>
Website redesigning
<p>Christie's has, in cooperation with ACTUM, completely redesigned the client experience on <a rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://christies.com/" target="_blank">Christies.com</a> website with a primary focus on increasing visitor engagement . The goal was to change how visitors interact with the website, direct clients to explore more lots, showcase Christie's capabilities of enhanced photography, video and immersive content, in order to increase bidding on auctions and lots, and amplify engagement on events organized by Christie’s. Moreover, the new user experience is accessible and compliant with <strong>WCAG</strong> and <strong>ADA</strong> <strong>standards</strong>.</p>
Facing challenges
<p>The implementation required our special attention since the architecture was scarcely documented, and legacy systems integrations required modernisation. Due to the time pressure and importance of each high-profile sale, Christie’s required a performant, scalable, reliant, and secure hosting platform for their digital presence. </p>
A global player
<p>There was a requirement for high availability infrastructure of the website due to Christie's global presence, and the business criticality of available and highly responsive infrastructure for a fixed auction date and time that is available for bidding in real time. Even more, the solution had to be available across multiple regions, including mainland China, as well as accessible and compliant with all accessibility standards providing an exceptional user experience.</p>
The process
<p>ACTUM found a way to leverage the complex environment of multiple service providers and software vendors. Apart from that, the synchronisation of ways of working and workflows across multiple product streams had to be managed. Teams of developers established new security and penetration-prevention standards while working on their modernisation.</p>
The new solution
<p>ACTUM provided improvement of support reaction times by leveraging the built-in monitoring and alerting features of Azure. Using Azure Blueprints and cloud best practices allows Christie’s to quickly spin up a new environment in a matter of minutes. Azure DevOps helps with the entire Software Development Lifecycle process by providing a simplified user experience that reduces the time to release. On top of that, continuous integration ensures that the development team can react in case of urgency very fast.</p>
What solution has Christie's applied
Using Sitecore XP 9.3 with SXA allows Content Editors to conveniently drag and drop components when creating new content for Christie's website. The solution leverages Sitecore XP scaled architecture such as xDB, xConnect, and User Tracking.
Following the Helix architecture as Sitecore’s best-practices guide enables contribution to the development process efficiently and ensures the software architecture has high standards at the same time. By migrating the website to AzurePlatform as a Service, Christie's has significantly reduced their maintenance costs.
Benefits for clients
<p>Christie's now possesses a reliant and performant web application with <strong>composable architecture.</strong> One of the solution's benefits is that the website's features include a user experience that can <strong>perform even during heavy visitor traffic</strong>.</p><p>By following standards set by the <strong>Web Content Accessibility Guidelines</strong>, the new website is compliant with the <strong>Americans with Disabilities Act. </strong>It enables users with varying abilities to interact with the website to navigate and explore <a href="http://christies.com/" target="_blank">Christies.com</a>. All users with limited hearing, motor, or vision can find new works of art, browse auctions, and bid on items within them.</p>
75% fewer catalogs
Thanks to the switch to digital channels, Christie's reduced the number of printed catalogs vastly.
2x more time on the website
Visitors now spend twice as much time on the new Auction and Lot pages compared to the legacy pages.
Services & Technologies
- Services
- Technologies
Ask us how can we help you now
Get in touchHaving explored how we enhanced the discovery experience on Christie's website, you can learn more about our work with Christie's clients in our consignment experience case study. Additionally, read about how mark cassidy joins actum digital to understand the leadership driving these digital transformations.