LOS ANGELES - Online retail store SexToy.com, a division of Convergence Inc., announced website upgrades Tuesday.
The website was revamped to feature a softer design, improved graphics, easier navigation and updated content. The changes were made on thousands of affiliate stores in the SexToySex.com network.
"We did a thorough market analysis and comparisons on several shopping sites in order to come up with ideas for the upgrade," said Dave Levine, president of Convergence. "Further, we listened to our customers and affiliates for their ideas on how we could improve their experience."
The changes include a more user-friendly design made to appeal to a broader customer base. While the site's front page features products with softer styles, consumers still can find more hardcore items by using the streamlined navigation tools.
Additionally, every page of SexToy.com and its affiliated sites now offers links to customer-service policies; this is expected to encourage consumer confidence in the shopping site. The sites also have added several pages that help consumers with their purchasing decisions by offering input that is refined based on the consumer's needs.
"We always had thousands of items available in our database," Levine explained. "We also offer several ways to search for those items, but we never used to have an answer for the customer who told us, ‘Just tell me what to buy!' So now we have several pages that suggest items based on what the customer is looking for."
In addition to the website upgrades, Levine said, the company has lowered its prices.
"One of the most significant changes included lowering prices 10-15 percent across the board," he said. "This price cut comes as several competitors and manufacturers are raising prices. Our business model allows us to operate more efficiently than most of our competition. Our philosophy has always been to use that advantage to offer some of the best prices for adult products on the Internet."
Servers and back-end programming also have been improved to make the shopping experience faster. In beta testing, the company said, this resulted in increased traffic and conversions.
