Increasing online sales by 38% for St Peter's Hospice

St Peter's Hospice is a much-loved charity in Bristol. It improves the quality of life for people with life-limiting illnesses, and supports their families and carers.

Its care is free of charge, so the charity relies on donations, fundraising and its shops to fund its work.

The hospice serves a wide range of people, from patients and families to healthcare professionals and supporters. Its website was dated and was not doing enough to inform these groups or show the charity's commitment to the community.

We were commissioned to create a multi-functional website that strengthened the hospice's online identity and improved its online funding streams.

We carried out in-depth research into the existing site and the organisation to understand exactly what a fit-for-purpose website needed to do.

Pre-workshop survey. Internal workshops with key department members helped us identify what the website needed to do and how we could streamline their processes.

Website survey. Interviews with key stakeholders showed how each group used the site and what they needed from it, so we could simplify journeys and give visitors what they came for.

Heat mapping. We analysed the most visited pages and where people dropped off. Even with a dated design, this showed which areas were most useful to users.

Persona workshops. We built eighteen personas, grouped the common themes and arrived at three core personas: Professionals, Patients and Family, and Supporters. These shaped our customer-centred approach to the whole site.

We built a working mobile prototype and tested it with real users to validate the research. From there we created an inclusive, flexible design that gives people better information and shows the social impact the hospice has on its local community.

We integrated an online shop and an eBay product feed to make buying easier, and embedded events and donation platforms so supporters can get involved in a few clicks. Upselling prompts across the site encourage extra giving, and personalisation features and account areas let people manage their own activity online.

We also introduced patient stories, videos and online support information, giving visitors valuable content and showing the great work the hospice does in its community.

The new site freed the marketing team to focus on driving visitors to the site, with a user experience that turns those visits into engagement and support. Enhanced e-commerce has opened up new income opportunities for the charity.