The Problem
In May of 2010, a potential client came to us with a rare opportunity (for us) and a problem (for them): they had created a website using Drupal as their content management framework, with the intention of selling contemporary office furniture online, and had taken it as far as they knew how before deciding that they needed help. They had been selling through their site as well as Amazon.com, and while Amazon had generated many sales already, they felt that their own site had yet to live up to its potential.
They contacted Web Geeks For Hire and outlined what they had and what they needed. While the site - an E-Commerce shop using Ubercart - was functional, it clearly needed a helping hand. Additionally, they intended to start running ads in less than a weeks time. Meanwhile, we were thrilled to have a project come to us that was already using Drupal - which meant we wouldn’t have to spend the time and effort proving to the client that it was the right solution. We proved that we were the right firm to handle their site, and soon began work.
With a quick look at their site, we realized that while a lot of the pieces were already in place, most had been poorly executed. We decided that there were many small things we could do easily that would make big impacts, and that the site could also use a full redesign for both theme and content. With that in mind, we built out proposals for two phases: The first would focus on “low-hanging fruit” and be timed to coincide with their ads launching; and the second would be a complete overhaul of the site to make it implement a basic branding strategy, a unique design, and content aimed at better SEO.
Phase I - It’s the Small Things
As phase one began, we focused heavily on improvements to the theme and images. The home page was just the word “Welcome” and a collage image that was a very large file that had been shrunk to fit on the page using the HTML width attribute. We created a simple slideshow and some text to let people know where they were.
The catalog and product pages had similar issues - the original designer had set up a pretty typical out-of-the-box setup. For catalog pages, this meant tiny product images with lots of space in between them. For the product pages, it was just a couple of pictures and a list of features with no SEO thought put into it. We wrote descriptions for each product and category and re-sized the images on both the catalog and product pages to better show of products with less unnecessary white space.
For navigation on the original site, there were only 3 links across the top that we later discovered were each blocks that had been placed side by side. We moved this basic menu into Drupal’s built-in navigation system, which naturally looked nicer. We also added a menu for the catalog to the sidebar to make it easy for customer to find what they were looking for without having to go to the products page each time.
For the header, we redid their logo to work with the background color and did everything in our power to reduce the height, to put products closer to the top of the page.
In addition to the above, OFC Express was looking for a hosting solution, so we migrated their site to our servers. This had the added benefit of making it a lot easier for us to work on the site from within.
During Phase I, as we learned more about how OFC Express was set up, we were building the proposal for Phase II. This would be a more grand re-envisioning of the site.
Phase II - A New OFCExpress.com
For phase 2, we wanted to rework the site from the ground up so that it better reflected the company and their products. It was decided early on that they we were going to use a somewhat minimalist design to put more emphasis on the product images and less on the page elements. We also wanted to apply best practices as could be observed by similar stores selling similar products.
We researched related businesses and their websites and combined that with our e-commerce knowledge to create the new design. Our graphics design team and themers began their work on the look and feel. We used the 960 grid system to create a clean but easily configurable site layout. We ultimately went with a warm color palette - partially derived from some of the colors of their products - and subtle lines and gradients.
Meanwhile, our web content and marketing team worked on consolidating products into logical categories. Each product was available in a variety of finishes - such as Columbian Walnut or Shaker Cherry - and the website was structured with each of these varieties as individual products. This was confusing for the user, who had to click to and back many times to see all varieties of a product. We pushed these into single products with attributes, and linked the images of the products to the attributes in order to allow visitors to preview what their product would look like.
We also integrated google analytics, added several SEO modules, wrote category-level descriptions of all product types, created and configured Google webmaster tools - along with Bing’s Webmaster Central and Yahoo’s Site Explorer - added sitemaps, and performed a whole host of other small but useful webmaster duties.
The end result can be found at http://www.ofcexpress.com - we are proud of our work and have done a lot to increase sales and establish a web presence for OFC Express.
Results - Where it Counts
OFC Express launched an Adwords campaign simultaneously with our work on the website, so it is hard to judge how much impact came from that and how much our work on their site had. But between our start and September of 2010, OFC Express website sales grew exponentially, and are now 62 times the monthly revenue they had in March (we began in April).
About OFC Express
OFC Express - located at http://www.ofcexpress.com - makes modern home and office furniture. Through their partner, OFC Panel Processing, they use lightweight honeycomb panels which creates a really strong product. They do all manufacturing in the U.S. and are located just a few hours from Web Geeks For Hire, which meant we could do face-to-face meetings (not always possible, but something we like to do). They create monitor stands, TV consoles, that sort of thing. We purchased a few of their products to try them out and were impressed.