With ever-increasing competition in the online retail space, simply having a site live is no longer enough. Of course, the site needs to be found, so search visibility is vital. Then once there, it needs to be easy to use, simple to navigate and lead the visitor logically down the pathway to sale.
Who better, therefore, to design and develop the perfect eCommerce solution than a team of award-winning designers, developers, search marketing and conversion experts?
This unique eCommerce offering is the first of its kind created by a Top 25 UK search agency - bringing together all the facets you require to maximise your revenues.
"Further's CMS is simple to use and effective, saving many hours of valuable time. This leaves operators free to spend more time interfacing with customers."
Simon Newbery, Managing Director, Orchard Toys
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Case Studies
Site launched 12th April 2010
Orchard Toys are a long-established independent provider of British-made educational puzzles, games and books for children.
The company chose FurtherCommerce to replace their existing eCommerce platform with the following objectives;
- To design a website to improve user experience and increase overall site performance
- To develop website to allow measurable sales growth through strategic online promotion
- To enhance the user experience and engage with both new and existing customer
"Further's CMS is simple to use and effective, saving many hours of valuable time. This leaves operators free to spend more time interfacing with customers."
Simon Newbery
Managing Director
Orchard Toys
Initial results
First 4 weeks since launch; Bounce rate 25.6%*
* Google Analytics video series states 40% to be a typical average
Conversion rate - first month 4.23%*
* average conversion rate across all industries in the UK is 2.5% (EConsultancy 2010)
view website
Site launched 14th April 2010.
Timereel.co.uk sells local interest DVDs, all made using original archive film. The range includes documentaries on topics like wartime life, farming and steam railways, as well as some old television favourites.
The primary objectives of this niche interest site included;
- To improve site conversion rate
- To increase ability to collect meaningful customer data
- To enable the streamlining admin processes in-house
- To have a site which can grow and develop over time
- Increased sales and better conversion rates
- Opportunities to integrate website more easily with other marketing activities
e.g. integration with email campaigns, sales promotions, social media
- Increase visitor loyalty
Results
Site just launched, watch this space.
view website
Site in development
Winsor Bishop have been supplying customers with the finest jewellery since the 1830s, Nowadays it is renowned for its traditional service values, selling the world's most prestigious names such as Cartier, Links of London, Chanel, Chopard and Rolex.
The new Winsor Bishop site is the company's first foray into eCommerce providing an online shop to complement the bricks and mortar store.
The site needed to be elegant, romantic, chic and luxurious, building Winsor Bishop as a brand in its own right as well as a leading authority in jewellery. It was vital that Winsor Bishop's reputation of high quality and trust shine through in the design.
The main objectives of the site;
- To increase sales
- To increase the customer database
- To enable more cost-effective marketing
- To accurately portray client brand values
Results
Site launched soon. Watch this space.
Why choose FurtherCommerce?
As the online retail space becomes a struggle for survival in the face of ever more sophisticated competition, those left standing will be the eTailers who consistently attract, engage and convert visitors into customers with accessible, user-friendly and concise websites.
The trouble is, there are thousands of different eCommerce systems out there, so it's difficult to tell the good from the bad, and darn-right ugly.
FurtherCommerce, an important development in eTailing, has been launched specifically to satisfy the very fundamental yet oft-overlooked requirements of a successful eCommerce platform. FurtherCommerce is a hybrid solution that blends the best of both the Bespoke and Off-The-Shelf worlds into a cost effective and constantly evolving solution which will continue to deliver improvements long after your site goes live.
A high price doesn't necessarily guarantee you a good solution.
We have seen large clients who have had bespoke systems built for upwards of £50,000 which may be functionally complex, but are no better at converting than others you can rent for £29.99 a month.
Because a FurtherCommerce build is always a bespoke adaption of our existing eCommerce platform and not a from-scratch build, we are able to offer you the best of both worlds: a sane price, and a high level of flexibility.
We focus not only on the basic functionality of an online retailing system but also upon the nuances of search visibility, conversions, accessibility and usability.
Many off-the-shelf solutions can't deal with back-end integration.
What looks like a bargain from the outset suddenly turns out to be useless once the nitty-gritty questions are asked. 'How will it work with my current stock systems?'. 'Can it automatically feed my Amazon and eBay accounts?'
Our off-the-shelf platform is constantly evolving to integrate more and more common requirements. We will happily accommodate your needs and create a perfectly integrated bespoke bolt-on to satisfy them.
Search visibility is often overlooked
Search visibility is an absolutely key ingredient to success, potential customers need to be able to find your online store, yet so few eCommerce systems are designed and developed to take this into account.
We provide the ability to optimise page titles and keywords via the eCommerce back-end so, even if you don't adopt our SEO services, your in-house team or third party search engine optimisation agency will find it simple and intuitive to make changes.
Our front-end code is also clean and concise, achieving optimum readability for both search engines and additionally an accessible site for people with visual impairments. We also make use of "progressive enhancement" techniques which make sure the pomp and splendour of your site degrades into usable, searchable and accessible static content.
Ensuring the best conversion rates isn't easy
Conversion rates take over from search visibility once a customer arrives at your site. It's important to ensure that the experience is as fluid and concise as possible, so that they ultimately buy something and are not put off by complex forms or confusing design. Many systems either do not take this into account or provide complicated template-driven checkouts which are a nuisance to optimise and tweak, and often impossible to fundamentally change.
Our constant development of the underlying platform and research into techniques for achieving the best conversions means that your site will always benefit from the forefront of search visibility and conversion optimisation practices.
We are continually altering and streamlining the basket and checkout process as we work with each new client. Because our system is fundamentally based upon a common ground, you will be able to take advantage of improvements made after your site has gone live, test them against your existing pages and choose whichever works best.