Home and Passion
Polish brand offering china from well-known designersOnline shop where even the most demanding Customer will find unique, high-quality china.
The issue
The main issue that Home and Passion had to face with before establishing cooperation with Smartbees was lack of own online shop. The company did not possess any informative website too. To conduct online sales, Home and Passion had to rely on publishing ads on paid, advertising platforms. Until now, the main source of the company’s sales was Allegro. Admittedly, published ads had generated sales, however taking into consideration costs connected with conducting such activities, the profits were not satisfying
Lack of own e-commerce platform bore much more problems:
- limitations in building brand identity,
- lack of a place where Customers may arrive and purchase additional products,
- high costs of products promotion,
- lack of access to multiple channels and forms of promotion,
- limitations forced by Allegro regarding products promotion,
- no possibilities to be ahead of your competitors in the long-term.
Taking into consideration above-mentioned factors Home and Passion owners knew that the solutions they apply were only temporary, and they restrain possibilities for further brand development in the online sales sphere.
Our solution
The direct answer to Home and Passion issues was the creation of an online shop. We decided that the whole project would be built on the Magento system. Such a choice was made including various factors:
- Magento is an open-source platform, that is why shop owners do not have to pay for the licence,
- the system is scalable, which gives lots of possibilities for its development in the future,
- Magento shops are SEO-friendly,
- Magento is one of the most secure shop systems in the world,
- istnieją setki rozszerzeń systemu, dzięki czemu sklep można rozbudować o wiele funkcjonalności w dowolnym czasie.
- there are hundreds of plugins available for Magento, that is why the shop can be expanded with additional functionalities at any time.
Then, we decided to make the online shop that can be extended along with the growing Home and Passion sales. The main assumption of the project was to create a user-friendly platform. That is why we implemented a fully responsive project. Moreover, we were responsible for graphic layout creation. Not only did we make the standard graphic layout, but also the occasional ones e.g. for Christmas.
Solutions in details
1. Products search and presentation options
To fulfil the expectations of even the most demanding customers, we had to add many extra functionalities. Primarily, we implemented an expanded search engine with various filtration options, among others: brand, material, colour or price. What is more, we created products serial numbers service system. It identifies the products and constitutes a vital part of the guarantee system. In its offer, Home and Passion possess the entire collections of a particular designer, that is why we implemented the product presentation system to display similar products or those from the same collection.
2. Integrations
The vital element of the project was an implementation of integrations that enable choosing methods of payment and delivery. In the case of payments, we carried out 3 possibilities:
- PayU,
- bank transfer,
- cash on delivery.
Furthermore, we created the possibility to deliver products by 3 operators: InPost, DPD and Poczta Polska. To implement them, we prepared dedicated modules for each method of delivery. Additionally, we integrated the shop with Baselinker system, which gave us the possibility to link the platform with ifirma and Allegro.
Integration with social media channels- Facebook and Pinterest- was another important implementation. Thanks to that, users can share on their profiles blog posts or products.
3. Customer service
Our assumption regarding Home and Passion shop was to create as simple and functional purchase process as possible. For this reason, besides implementing the shopping cart, we created products storage, where customers can make lists of desired products, before deciding for final purchase. Moreover, we implemented a simple contact form that enables quick and easy contact with shop customer service personnel.
Another important solution from the perspective of customer service was the implementation of the newsletter. We decided to make integration with MailChimp. First Magento accumulates email addresses, then they are synchronized with MailChimp and finally send with the usage of the app.
To be sure that all the messages are delivered to the Customers, we integrated the shop with SparkPost. What is more, in the area of consulting and presentation of products, we set up a blog with division into 6 main categories.
It is worth to remember that in case of any shop errors causing problems with platform availability may occur. That is why our Support Team conduct service availability monitoring 24/7.
4. Discount system
During shop designing process, a lot of attention was paid to implement the rebate system. The solutions that we decided to implement were:
- discount codes,
- codes for free delivery,
- discounts on particular products or given category.
Moreover, we created ,,Offer of the week’’ section where special offers that are valid only temporarily are displayed such as: ,,For cold days’’ or ,,Christmas’’.
Realisation in numbers
dedicated modules responsible for website functionality
management of more than 1000 products divided into 20 categories
hours spent on website development
specialists working for the project’s success: Project Manager, Tester, UX/UI Designer, Magento Back-end Developer, Magento Front-end Developer
The results
- Centralized administration panel for product management
- Transparent administration panel divided into modules
- Expanded but easy-to-use administration panel for graphics management
- Graphic layout adjusted to shop’s specifics
- Faster orders realisation thanks to process automation
- Easy purchase without obligation to set up an account
- End of commission model for online sales
- Unlimited possibilities to stand out from the competition
- Intuitive management interface
- Unlimited possibilities to develop the website