How we do it: Alabaster and Tara Anthun - elegant Magento e-store

In May 2014 we were recommended to Jan Anthun by one of our Norwegian clients. Together with his wife Tara they were planning to launch a brand selling high-quality bedlinen on an affordable price with focus on the Norwegian market. They wanted to open an online shop, but due to the lack of experience they needed a partner who could translate their vision into adequate technological solutions. That was the start of our cooperation.

Expectations and the aim of the project

The creation of the bedlinen online shop on the Norwegian market. The main assumptions covered simplicity of usage, readability and the elegant design giving the feel of exclusivity.

Secondary aims included

• grouping of simple and configurable products,
• access to the shop via mobile devices,
• creation of wish lists and the possibility of sharing it on social media,
• blog to support the e-store promotion,
• “buy as a gift” option,
• charity donations.

UX and design

We started our work with the analysis of client’s needs and taking a close look at the activities of their competition. Since the beginning, we knew that the best technological solution we can come up with is an open-source e-commerce platform – Magento Community Edition. After clarifying most important matters related to the client’s requirements we started designing wireframes. The iterative approach to this process allowed our client to become acquainted with the e-store architecture that we suggested early in the project. Thanks to that we could consult views and elements of the website every time it was necessary. This phase finished with the development of the technical specification and the creation of full website wireframe in Axure RP.
We created graphical design of the website basing on the wireframes, pre-implementation analysis, competition analysis and the brief we received from the Client. The design was intended to resemble Scandinavian character of the brand and, at the same time, give the impression of exclusivity of the offered products.

Implementation of the store on Magento

After creating the design for all the key views we moved to the implementation of the online store. We put huge emphasis on a proper RWD approach in case of the interface of the website, so the convenient usage of the e-store and making purchases on various mobile devices could be possible.

Features related to the functional aspect of the website

• sharing a wish list on the social media – every user can publish and share his wish list while creating it,
• grouped products and configurable grouped products - many products in the store are part of several sets (eg. sheet, pillow case and duvet cover), which can be completed arbitrarily or ordered separately. Therefore, it was necessary to use grouped products. In addition, we have extended this functionality with the ability to add configurable product to product groups in such a way, that from a single view you can add to your cart multiple items in different colors or sizes.
• blog and promotion of the most recent posts - as it is known, appropriately selected content may encourage consumers to buy something, because of what our Client decided to exploit the potential of well written blog posts. In addition to the functionality of blogging, we also created a widget that promotes the latest articles. Read how to take care of the content in your e- shop in the Basics of e-commerce" (part 1): How to take care of content marketing article on our website,
• ordering as a gift - thanks to the additional module users can order products in form of the gift. We provided additional options, such as selecting which products are to be wrapped, the choice of decorative paper/box and the type of the note that comes with the gifts,
• donations to charity - our Client wants to conduct his business with consideration of well being of others, which resulted with the possibility of transferring a certain sum to charity as part of purchasing. Each user can determine in the cart the amount they want to donate.

Modules that we used

Bespoke modules

• configurable grouped products,
• donations to the charity,
• sharing a wishlists.

Ready-made modules

• customized blog module - AheadWorks Blog,
• gift module - Magestore Gift Wrap,
• payments integration module – DIBS,
• delivery management module– Bring,
• Mailchimp and Mandrill integration module - Ebizmarts Magemonkey,
• custom pop-up creation module - TRM Promotional Pop-ups.

Project timeline

June – August 2014 - Preparation of the e-shop concept, creation of mockups and specifications,

August 2014 - September 2014 - Design,

September – October 2014 - implementation of Backend and Frontend development, Quality Assurance.

Cooperation with Alabaster resulted in the creation of interesting and modern online store with a unique Scandinavian character. Usage of Responsive Web Design allowed to reach a wide group of mobile users, which accounted for approximately 40% of all visitors of Alabasters shop. You can read the review that Alabaster wrote about our cooperation on Clutch.co.

Makeover time – layout redesign

Regarding the change of brand, and therefore the logo, the Client contacted to us five months after the end of the project to talk about redesigning the typography and color scheme of their page. Instead of a cool, Scandinavian Baja Blue color, we decided to use a warmer orange color with yellow undertones. As the main font we have chosen Lato (en. Summer), while in blog headlines we used Lucia, which imitates handwriting.

Layout, especially the home page, has been changed into a box grid. We’ve also given the blog a new, fresh look by changing the old grid into a more readable listing. Inside the blog posts themselves we’ve extended the title header to the whole width.

Why we needed to change the design of the page?

• changing the Alabaster brand (which still sells bed sheets) to TaraAnthun (reffering to the surname of the owner),
• changing the assortment – apart from the high quality bedding, that is still sold under the Alabaster brand, natural cosmetics, soaps and scented candles of various brands were added to the stock,
• rebranding the shop to boutique and focusing on creating awareness and trends based on experience of the owner.

New functionalities and implemented modifications

• changing the layout of homepage and matching other subpages to it,
• changing the color scheme and typography to match the new brand,
• adding new assortment,
• introducing content of external websites: YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram,
• increasing the usage of newsletter and adding sign-in form to the numerous places on the website,
• changing the layout of the blog and adding a categorization of the articles.

Implementation of changes

Among new functionalities were, among others, Instagram and Pinterest feed boxes, where newest photos and videos are displayed. Additionally, we added Youtube video box to the homepage.

Apart from that, on the blog we added categories and promoted articles. In various places was also shown an encouragement to sing-in to the newsletter.

Project timeline

March – May 2015 - creation of mockups and specification, design

May - September 2015 - implementation of Backend and Frontend development, Quality Assurance

Additional activities in social media, displaying it on e-shops website and putting the emphasis on increasing the database of newsletter subscribers, helped in gathering the community around TaraAnthum brand. Those activities effectively create an image and build trust among regular and potential customers, raising sales potential of the shop. The biggest challenge, and simultaneously the most interesting part of the project, was the fact, that we had to focus on the additional marketing goals of our Client. Redesign and implementation of new functionalities helped in achieving it.

Summary

After few month of work our Client received e-shop that was well-fitted to their needs. Because it filled the niche on the Norwegian market, the shop greatly helped in exploration of different sales models and variety of assortment, as well as researching, what encourages customers to purchase. Verifying the marketing strategy few month into their work, the Client contacted us with the request of making few adjustments, and the final effect of our cooperation helped them in achieving the successful sell.