Built with

Taking a new look Metrocentre to new heights

Utilising the DC One platform to bring the client's brand proposition to life

The Problem

As one of the UK's top shopping and leisure destinations, Metrocentre, Gateshead was taken over by Sovereign Centros in October 2020 and since then, they've been through a period of transformation.

They underwent a complete rebrand to cement the Metrocentre as a best in class go-to destination for all the family, a place to meet and enjoy engaging and innovative experiences, and ultimately become a place to make new family memories but a new website was needed to accurately reflect their new positioning.

The Solution

The key UX objectives of the new site were to:

- Ensure users can get to the information that they want as quickly as possible

- Surface the opportunity for users to discover other related content whilst on the site, thus improving time on site / pages per session

- Ensure users can easily access opening and closing times

- Allow users to define their experience on the website based on the type of shopper they are – e.g., visiting for a day out or popping in quickly

- Surface the breadth of the offer at the centre

All of which meant the DC Pro was the perfect fit for this shopping centre.

Metrocentre’s target audiences include families (who stay longer in general), local workers (using the centre for convenience), affluent shoppers (due to the designer brands at the centre) and destination visitors (coming for a day trip to use the leisure facilities) and so the new site had to work incredibly hard to offer the right information to the right audience.

This was achieved by the utilisation of our core modules such as the brand carousel and global categories within the business directory (to serve content grouped into interest types to encourage users to discover and do more) and also the in centre interactive map to join up the customer experience. Content from the map is now shared onto the website and events, offers and news stories from the new site are being shared onto the “on location” digital wayfinding screens for visitors to experience.

Visit Website

Modules installed include

DC Global Categories Module
DC Notification Banners
DC Cookie Consent Management

The Results

Number of Page Views each month in 2022 consistently exceeded the previous year, with some months seeing 50% more traffic compared to the previous year

Over 82.5% of users view the website on a mobile device, demonstrating a high percentage of users on the website while on location

The opening hours page is the second most viewed page on the site, demonstrating the importance of keeping centre and store opening hours up to date.

"DestinationCore have become a valued technology partner. The customer service we have received has been excellent. Nothing is to too much trouble. We’re able to tap into their technical knowledge and skills at any time, and because of this we’ve learnt how to improve user experience and increase engagement across all our digital channels.Ultimately where we are now is so much better than where we were before we started working with DestinationCore."

Helen Atkinson, Marketing Manager