Big Lots Inc. Case Study
Big Lots: New Look, New Functionality In 2001, Consolidated Stores changed their array of store names and company name to one national brand: Big Lots. This single national identity helps their customers associate one name with the great, dependable bargains they've come to expect from Big Lots stores. With the rebranding, they also made many improvements in the Big Lots shopping experiences. These include updated, attractive stores with wide aisles, improved lighting, quick checkout, and even better service.

As part of the rebranding, Big Lots wanted to re-design their site to reflect their new identity, add new content to emphasize the consumer experience, and lay the groundwork for future expansion.

Challenge

• Give retail customers a reason to visit the site on a regular basis.
• Shift from a corporate look to a more people-friendly, consumer-oriented look while still providing investor content.
• Use photos and graphics to emphasize Big Lots’ improved shopping experience, while keeping the site “light” enough to accommodate slow dial-up connections.
• Create new content areas for retail shoppers, media representatives and corporate audiences within an easy-to-use navigational scheme.
• Give Big Lots staff the ability to take over much of the day-to-day maintenance of the site.

• Big Lots’ re-designed site includes contests, customer testimonials, money-saving tips and other customer-oriented content that will change regularly, giving site visitors a reason to return on a regular basis for new information.
• The site’s new layout provides distinct content areas for each audience: retail customers, investors, media representatives, potential partners, etc., with easy navigation across segments.
• Use of Big Lots’ corporate colors gives the site a bright, fresh look without relying heavily on graphic images, keeping page download times to a minimum.
• Access to most-visited site areas (including the store locator and current ads) is available from every page.
• The site’s static pages were built on a content-management platform that allows flexibility in page layout but does not require Big Lots’ administrators to use any HTML to update content.
• Contest entry postings, customer testimonials and store locations can all be managed by Big Lots staff using simple, form-based, custom-built administrative interfaces. No HTML is required, making it quick and easy for Big Lots to change content in these areas as needed and keep their monthly site maintenance charges to a minimum.

• While the new site has only recently been unveiled to the public, response has been overwhelmingly positive. Big Lots’ executives love the look and feel of the new site and think it is much more customer-friendly. Also, Big Lots received approximately 120 entries to the Bragging Rights Contest in just under one month since the launch, and sign-ups for their promotional emails have increased by about 10.5%.