Centralizing the sites of 19 shopping centers for Ivanhoé Cambridge
Create a unique online shopping experience for shopping center gift cards
Ivanhoé Cambridge is dedicated to developing and investing in premier real estate properties, projects, and businesses, contributing to the evolution of urban landscapes in major cities worldwide. Its responsible approach ensures long-term sustainable performance.
Among other holdings, Ivanhoé Cambridge owns or co-owns numerous shopping centers across Canada. Its gift card program helps drive foot traffic to stores, boosting local economic growth and supporting merchant activities. By providing access to a variety of retailers, Ivanhoé Cambridge plays an active role in revitalizing the economic activity in the communities where its centers are located.
Ivanhoé Cambridge approached Axial to develop secure, multilingual e-commerce websites for selling gift cards from its Canadian shopping centers.
Challenges and objectives
01
Compliance with banking regulations added a layer of complexity to the project. We had to ensure that all financial transactions met the strict requirements of banking institutions.
02
Given the large number of stakeholders, close collaboration between internal teams, partners, and suppliers was crucial to ensure alignment with the project objectives.
03
We needed to balance robust security measures with a simple user experience, without compromising the fluidity of the customer journey.
04
Adapting the program to different regional markets across Canada required flexibility and a deep understanding of local habits, while optimizing operations at the national level.
05
Customer service plays a crucial role in gift card sales. It is essential to offer quick and efficient support to address transaction issues, user questions, and card usage. High-quality assistance helps strengthen customer satisfaction and loyalty.
06
In the B2B program, the main challenge was to attract and retain a qualified customer base. How could we implement targeted strategies to capture the attention of businesses while ensuring clear added value to encourage them to adopt the program.
OUR SOLUTIONS
In 2017, Axial collaborated with key stakeholders at Ivanhoé Cambridge to create an online platform enabling shopping centers to transition from selling physical gift cards to digital ones. It was essential that the websites be as secure as possible to minimize fraud. Axial also implemented various methods for collecting quantitative and qualitative data so the platform could evolve based on customer-related insights.
A few years later, while having a single product may seem simple, the technological complexity behind the platform remains, as does the importance of robust security and fraud management. That’s why we continue regular follow-ups in this area. Platform optimization was also an important challenge; the company needed to adapt to changes in markets across the country.
On the user side, we implemented A/B tests to:
- Improve the quality assurance process
- Optimize the promotion creation process
- Create stores in simplified Chinese
- E-commerce platforms for the centers under one Magento account
- Dashboards and BI
- Shopping.ca showcase site to present the program as a whole
”Axial has been a key strategic partner for Ivanhoé Cambridge since 2017 in achieving our gift card sales targets. The initial and ongoing analyses were crucial and very well conducted by Axial experts and in close collaboration with our marketing, finance, operations and other external partners in order to define and prioritize our business needs as well as the client experience. B2C and B2B transactional solution deployments are always carried out on a timely basis, in an agile, yet orderly manner, and always with an impressive level of quality. Axial is staffed with seasoned, committed, and empathetic experts who are never afraid to take on new challenges!”
Mikaël Calvez – DirectOr, Marketing SERVICES, SHOPPING CENTRES
“Since 2017, I’ve been analyzing the performance of the sites and discussing the platform with clients, challenging each other and exchanging ideas to push the site’s performance further. It’s so motivating to work as a team with a client, to feel that we’re rowing in the same direction towards the same common goal!”
Émilie Roy, Strategy Team Leader
Extent of work
Business and digital strategy
- Business strategy
- Web strategic planning
- UX/UI design
Development
- Technology analysis and selection
- E-commerce website development
Optimization and marketing
- Conversion rate optimization
Project management
- Project planning and management
- Stakeholder management
