Case Study

Brief

Craft Superstore are a supplier of arts and crafts equipment suitable for both children and the experienced craft maker. They offer craft making supplies from various well-known brands including Sizzix, Cuttlebug and Spellbinders.

Craft Superstore came to Advansys for an ecommerce solution in February 2011. Issues such as incorrect stock displaying and unsuccessful transfers to their shopping basket caused low conversion rates and a lack of trust in their customers. They asked Advansys to work with them to improve the look of their website in order to help instil trust in their customers. Furthermore, their previous solution did not allow them integration with other marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay so they were limited to selling on only one platform.

Strategy

Advansys worked closely with Craft Superstore to determine what would be the best solution for them. As a B2C solution, focus was placed on usability and customer engagement. Therefore we agreed to produce a light, innovative website that combined increased communication with customers with a high quality design that would encourage them to purchase.

After their previous experiences, it was important to focus on helping Craft Superstore to achieve a higher conversion rate through their website design. This was our main drive when executing the project.

Execution

Our clients’ wants were taken into account throughout the ecommerce project. They had a clear vision in their head of how they wanted everything to look and function and this was taken closely into consideration during the design phase.

Craft Superstore purchased a solution with a large number of optional modules added to make their ecommerce solution as appealing to the customer as possible. Various promotions were factored into the working of the site in order to make it so user friendly. Customer engagement was a large factor taken into consideration with the use of discounts, loyalty points and promotions. Such tactics increase customer loyalty and can help to promote the brand.

Because Advansys designed the site to have high conversion rates, Craft Superstore does not need to boast of being a “leading company” or “top sellers” as this is evident from their professionally designed site that will increase customer confidence and promote conversions. Google Shopping Feed has also been implemented on the B2C ecommerce site too, so that with a trusted company such as Google behind them it is hard not to buy from Craft Superstore.

The fact that the site is heavy on customer engagement also encourages customers to buy, as they have the backing of other, satisfied visitors to encourage them, through projects videos to product reviews and ratings. Live chat was also installed to ensure that great customer service can be provided in a fast and convenient way.

Results

As a result of their professionally designed website, Craft Superstore now have eBay and Amazon integration as part of their ecommerce solution, meaning that they can access all their selling platforms from one single CMS, maintain stock control, and save both time and money to concentrate on providing excellent customer service instead.

Within the first three months of their site being live, Craft Superstore saw a 30 per cent increase in sales through their ecommerce site alone thanks to their high conversion layout. They are now continuing with a SEO project to further boost their sales with the help of our sister company SEO Junkies.