Background
When the 2019 pandemic hit, many businesses were unprepared. While many had been embracing eCommerce and digital marketing there was still a number of businesses that hadn’t taken the leap to the new digital frontier. X Planet Games had previous launched a WordPress-based eCommerce website but found that the platform was cumbersome and unwieldy. WordPress may be a great choice for a more content-based website (and is what powers this website) but when it comes to eCommerce choosing a dedicated eCommerce platform comes with more robust features to solve the common issues most eCommerce businesses have. This was especially challenging as X Planet Game’s clientele expects a more hands-on approach with their buying experience as a hobby retail store that specialized in miniature gaming, collectibles, board games, & role-playing games needs to cater to customers that want to touch and feel and experience their product when making purchases in-store.
The previous older website they had been using was stagnating and seeing very low traffic levels & monthly purchases. Customers were demanding more options to engage and purchase from businesses before the pandemic and lock-downs were in effect, and now X Planet Games needed to play catch-up with a solution and needed it fast.
Challenge
I suggested that X Planet Games should look to make the move to Shopify. It was a known and proven eCommerce platform, and best of all it was located in Canada making it the ideal choice for a Canadian retailer. We needed to develop and launch quickly as customers were in lockdown, bored, and looking to make purchases as soon as there was a web presence. Even more pressing was the loss of business revenue. With the lockdown measures in effect, customers were only able to make purchases for curbside pick and we needed a solution in place ASAP to mitigate this loss in both revenue and consumer interest and engagement with the brand. Every day the site wasn’t launched was another window for loyal customers to try a competitor’s website and potentially become their next big customer.
Solution
We met with the owner of X Planet Games, and dove into their vision for the website and brand. We gathered information about the expected audience, what product lines the website would be focusing on, chose a theme that made the most sense, and got to work. We customized the theme to make a more cohesive branding presence between the brick & mortar store and the new website. The navigation and site architecture was in need of an update and one that made more sense for the product lines the business would be focusing on now and expanding to in the future. Customized collection categories were created to handle larger product lines and give a better user experience to hobbyists that catered to product knowledge, hobby knowledge, and why the user would want to purchase that product. Home page, category page, product page, informational page, blog page, & marketing material templates were customized to fit the brand and give the most exposure to relevant features from the theme as well as match customer expectations when it comes to product & purchasing information. Cart abandonment messaging was added as well as a home page banner used to advertise free shipping or seasonal promotions.
Results
Within one month we were able to finish and launch the new website and begin populating the products as needed. When the website launched in mid-April we saw a large surge in site visits and purchases. By the end of May, the website had captured a staggering number of orders.
With the previous WordPress site, X Planet Games saw perhaps a small handful of orders per month as the site wasn’t visited much and nearly all purchases were done in store. The older site was used more as an informational brochure for visitors to find the brick-and-mortar site. It wasn’t very functional and the product catalog was rarely updated. With the inability to find new products the older website had few purchases and low business revenue.
With the new Shopify store, there was a dramatic increase in both visitors and purchases. Within the first 90 days, the new website was seeing a similar level of DAILY purchases that the previous website would see MONTHLY. Even better, as the year went on there was persistent growth in both new customers and previous customers. Monthly sales were increasing and new products were being added every day. Monthly revenue was increasing and the 2021 year was shaping up to be a powerful year for this e-tailer.
Learnings
A new modern website that meets consumer expectations but also matches known branding was the perfect solution to allow this retailer to open up this new eCommerce channel. By leveraging the current customer base, the new website became an engine for purchases. Customers were happy as they were able to get the materials & supplies they needed to combat boredom during the lockdown, and X Planet Games was able to continue a somewhat similar level of business revenue.
One of the most important pieces we learned was the value of ongoing updates to the website. Both code level and theme updates as well as product and marketing updates. A new incompatible version of the website codebase was released and I needed to recreate the current website on this new theme. I was able to recreate it and found there were a number of additional features that smoothed over customization pain points as well as opened up additional performance gains to the website product pages. I also continued maintenance on the web front-end & visual look throughout the year by adding additional categories and updating the website navigation and hero images to better capture interest and engagement with new exciting product lines that were added to the website. These updates better-captured interest and engagement from users and lead to continued monthly revenue growth.
If you’re looking to upgrade your website and you need an expert in digital marketing to understand your business and build the right kind of online presence get in touch with me and let’s chat about how I can provide a solution for your business.