Triumph Motorcycles needed a tune-up. For 118 years, the Hinckley, England-based company has been producing sleek, high-performance motorcycles with character and flair.

But the website didn't quite live up to the product.

So, Triumph Motorcycles turned to international digital agency Dept to create a roadmap to enhance the customer experience on triumphmotorcycles.com while gaining valuable data insights and revenue streams. The result is a digital solution that looks dynamic while putting data and responsive configuration at the heart of Triumph's business strategy.

Andy Jackson, Global Head of Digital at Triumph Motorcycles, said he turned to Dept four years ago because the agency could offer solutions to increase sales and market share across Triumph's global footprint. Triumph also has partnered with Sitecore the past seven years, scaling its global requirements across 11 languages and 30 locations.

Jackson joined Kyle Cassidy, Head of UX Design and Insights at Dept during a Sitecore Symposium 2020 featured breakout session – “How Triumph Motorcycles is using Sitecore to help bikers find the perfect ride.”

Sitecore DXP develops configurator, e-commerce features

Triumph was able to fashion an interactive bike configurator and new e-commerce store using the powerful personalization capabilities found in Sitecore’s digital experience platform. Triumph launched its fully responsive configurator in 26 markets in January 2020, and it has become its showcase application. Like other digital à la carte features, users can design and customize their bikes, selecting bike genres, engine size, price ranges, and surface types.

This configuration can be used to collect data and develop a customer profile.

“The configurator is one of our key interaction points on the website,” Jackson said. “It was one of the last areas of old code to be replaced. The old configurator wasn't available on mobile, and the goal was to invite a new configurator experience across all devices. Working with Dept, we created a configurator roadmap of phased releases.”

Since the launch, Triumph has seen over 3.5 million configurations, Jackson said. Fiscal year to date versus the same period the year before, Jackson said “we are up 90% and the number of accessories added per configuration started have also increased significantly.”

Dept, headquartered in Amsterdam, Netherlands, recognized the value of interactivity.

“When we initially started working with Triumph, they had a separate standalone mobile site, which provided users with a click-down experience versus the desktop,” Cassidy said. “Key features such as the bike configuration could not be accessed, leaving users accessing the site across multiple devices with fragmented experiences. And with 60% of users accessing the site via mobile devices, we knew this had to be improved.”

In May, Triumph launched its e-commerce section with a collection of biking clothing.

“This allows Triumph fans to purchase clothing items online directly from Triumph without the need to go into a dealership, allowing Triumph to grow and diversify its direct revenue streams,” Cassidy said.

Triumph’s focus on 3 digital strategies

Jackson said his digital team is focused on three key business strategies with Triumph Motorcycles.

  • First, his team operates in an area where there is constantly new technology opportunities, and they can be guilty of jumping onto the next new thing too quickly. “Our short-term focus needs to be on maximizing the comprehensive technology stack we already have while keeping an eye on the development of AI (artificial intelligence) and how this can make us more efficient in our marketing,” he said.
  • Two, the pandemic has changed customer behavior forever.  “The customers are looking for more opportunities to move their purchase decision forward online. As a team, we need to ensure we have the tools and services to enable this,” he said.
  • Finally, Jackson's team has been improving data collection and campaign tracking since he started in his role four years ago. “We have built a data model and have access to more actionable data. As a team, we need to focus on how we use this in the commercial benefit of the business,” he said.

More than having just a dynamic website, Triumph has seen its digital and data-centric strategy lead to better business decisions.

“We have a detailed view of our best converting content, website actions, and conversions,” Jackson said. “The data is allowing us to focus on activity, which we know drives sales, cutting out wastage, and increasing productivity. It allows us to put together stronger business cases with clearer return-on-investment measurement. The approach is also highlighting areas of opportunity to improve processes which will have a direct impact on sales.”

Jason Masini is the Director of Content Marketing at Sitecore. Connect with him on LinkedIn here.