Case Study

Brief

Black Library and Forge World are divisions of Games Workshop Group PLC- the largest and the most successful tabletop fantasy and futuristic battle-games company in the world. Both Black Library and Forge World sell gaming products to a specialised sub-section of Games Workshop’s customers: Forge World specialises in the manufacture of highly detailed resin models, Black Library sells books and other publications designed to enhance gamers’ experiences and knowledge. Both divisions sell limited edition and collectable items that are always in high demand.

Whilst Black Library’s publications are also available via high street and on-line retail chains, direct sales via the division’s website are a major part of its business. Virtually all of Forge World’s business is conducted via its website.

Historically, both divisions had websites that dated back to the early days of the business. “Both websites were completely unsuited to our business,” explained Ragnar Karlsson, Black Library’s Direct Sales Manager. “Any orders that we received had to be rekeyed into our back office systems – a time consuming and expensive process that was open to errors.”

“Customer service is a critical part of our businesses,” added Stephen Green, Forge World’s Operations Manager. “Our customer service teams were spending all of their time processing orders and not interacting with the customers.”

Strategy

When Games Workshop announced its intention to update its corporate website, Black Library and Forge World realised that this would give them the opportunity to implement a completely new, flexible and powerful e-commerce solution that would deliver the levels of service that both divisions’ customers’ wanted. Ragnar Karlsson approached a number of e-commerce solution specialists and asked for proposals.

“We wanted a partner that would work with us to develop a solution that deliver the features and functionality that we needed, as well as helping us achieve economies of scale,” he explained. “REDtechnology.com hit all of the right buttons; they understood our business and proposed a solution that would allow both divisions to implement fully functioning and independent e-commerce websites.”

Execution

Working closely together, teams from REDtechnology.com, Black Library and Forge World designed, developed and implemented dual e-commerce websites based around tradeIT – a proven and highly successful e-commerce engine. Core to the success of the projects was tight integration with Games World’s back office systems to streamline and automate the entire order process from purchase to delivery.

Results

Both e-commerce websites recently went live. “Although it’s early days, the solution has been extremely successful,” said Stephen Green. “Tight integration with our back office systems has taken the backbreaking work out of fulfilling orders and allows our customer service teams to focus on the customer. The websites have been very well received and make online ordering a smooth, intuitive and secure process.”

“Since going live both Black Library and Forge World have seen a strong increase in traffic and orders, this coupled with the seamless integration with their backend systems has made it a very successful project for the Games Workshop divisions.” James Candy, Business Development Director, Red Technology