One Website, Two Users
Wind River, a manufacturer and retailer of handcrafted wind chimes, had two distinct audiences—retail and wholesale customers. They hosted separate websites to cater to each group. But managing two sites was cumbersome and duplicated efforts. Plus, the user experience wasn’t great for either side.
Discover
Big’s research found Wind River’s existing sites were very complicated—for them and their customers. Potential buyers were looking for a much simpler format, while at the same time expecting the features of a modern e-commerce platform. Once we dug into Wind River’s day-to-day business side of things, we realized we would need to integrate their legacy ERP software with the new site—while also planning for an ERP upgrade they had in the works.
Develop
To streamline their e-commerce presence, we moved it to Shopify Plus. But along with that, we integrated a lot of custom development. One major task Big took on was programming one site to serve both audiences. That involved displaying different design, products and price structures based on the customer’s log in. We also gave Wind River the ability to manage their inventory with “critical stock thresholds.” This feature held inventory in reserve for wholesale clients while showing it as “out of stock” for retail customers when inventory hit the threshold quantity.
Deliver
Not only did we put together a robust website that had a greatly improved customer experience—things that we incorporate into all of our digital projects—but we also really considered what Wind River does and how their customers could be affected by browsing the site. So, we created the ability to play multiple audio samples of chimes at the same time. That way, buyers could hear what they would sound like together before purchasing.
