For more than 185 years, David Jones has set the benchmark for premium retail experiences in Australia. Known for its heritage of quality, service, and trust, the brand built its reputation on personalized, high-touch interactions in-store.
Driven by a clear vision to make every online experience as seamless and refined as its physical stores, David Jones turned to AB Tasty to embed a culture of experimentation and personalization into its digital strategy.
CHALLENGE
As a traditional retailer with deep roots in brick-and-mortar success, David Jones needed to evolve rapidly to meet new expectations.
The sudden acceleration of online shopping revealed key friction points in the customer journey – from discovery and navigation to fulfillment options like Click & Collect.
Customers accustomed to premium, intuitive service in-store expected the same quality and ease online. Yet replicating that feeling digitally required more than a facelift; it called for real-time testing, validation, and the ability to make confident, data-informed decisions.
COVID brought a lot of users online, and as a traditional brick-and-mortar store we realised where our experience lacked. A/B testing allowed us to quickly evolve and create solutions where we didn’t even know we needed them.
Tom Shepherd, UX Lead, David Jones
EXPERIMENTING WITH AB TASTY
To address these challenges, David Jones implemented AB Tasty’s Web Experimentation and Personalization solutions at the heart of its digital experience strategy.
Through AB Tasty, the UX team gained the flexibility to design, launch, and measure experiments with speed and precision – transforming how decisions were made across the business. The platform’s intuitive interface and dynamic reporting enabled the team to uncover and validate friction points across the customer journey, turning insights into action without lengthy development cycles.
Experimentation became a natural extension of David Jones’ UX practice. Every idea – whether a new layout, message, or design element – could be tested and validated with real customer data before rollout. This approach not only reduced risk but empowered the team to move faster, continually improving experiences and responding to changing shopper behaviours.
AB Tasty’s tools really support us to test new ideas and experiences quickly. The ability to measure secondary metrics and filter out irrelevant sessions has changed how we evaluate experiments and make post-testing decisions.
Tom Shepherd, UX Lead, David Jones
David Jones believed that embedding continuous experimentation within its UX process would allow the brand to:
● Identify and remove friction from critical journeys like Click & Collect and checkout.
● Personalize content and interactions to make every digital experience feel more relevant.
● Accelerate innovation by validating ideas directly with customers, reducing guesswork.
THE CAMPAIGN
With a growing focus on loyalty and personalization, the David Jones digital team identified a key area of opportunity: encouraging more visitors to sign in or sign up.
Many users were browsing anonymously, missing out on personalized content, tailored recommendations, and exclusive benefits. The goal was simple – drive higher engagement with the account icon and sign-up flow, without disrupting the customer journey or adding unnecessary friction.
HYPOTHESIS
The team hypothesised that drawing subtle attention to the account icon could nudge more users to log in. By introducing a small animated red dot notification, they aimed to spark curiosity, create visual prominence, and encourage interaction – all while maintaining the brand’s elegant, minimalist aesthetic.
EXPERIMENTATION
Using AB Tasty’s Web Experimentation solution, David Jones targeted desktop, non-logged-in users across all pages featuring the main navigation bar.
The experiment compared the original version of the header with a variation featuring the pulsing red dot next to the account icon. This simple UX cue would act as a visual invitation – catching the user’s eye and prompting engagement with their account.
RESULTS & LEARNINGS
The results spoke for themselves. In the lead-up to launching their loyalty program, the test achieved outstanding results.
● +81% uplift in clicks on the account icon
● +31% uplift in clicks on the sign-up button
● 27% of users who clicked went on to sign in or create an account
By successfully increasing account engagement, the experiment opened the door for deeper personalization and ongoing loyalty initiatives across the site. This experiment demonstrates how data-driven UX testing and micro-interactions can have a major impact on key digital goals.
INTERNAL IMPACT
Integrating AB Tasty has revolutionised how David Jones approaches digital optimization. With a single platform for experimentation and personalization, the brand now delivers seamless, customer-first experiences backed by real data rather than assumption.
● Culture of experimentation: Every department now sees testing as a path to smarter, faster decisions.
● Agility at scale: Tests that once required long development cycles are now launched in days.
● Confidence through validation: Every change is backed by live customer behaviour and measurable impact.
● Customer-centred innovation: Data from AB Tasty drives personalization and ongoing refinement.
With AB Tasty, we can move fast, stay creative, and make decisions based on real data. It’s helped us bridge the gap between our in-store excellence and our online experience.
Tom Shepherd, UX Lead, David Jones
CONCLUSION
Founded in 1838, David Jones is Australia’s most prestigious department store, renowned for quality, service, and style. Today, the brand combines its rich heritage with cutting-edge digital innovation — using AB Tasty to deliver seamless, personalized experiences that keep customers returning again and again.
