eCommerce, Web Development, Mobile & Social, Integration, and Hosting and Managed Services Provided to Create eCommerce Websites
MARINA DEL REY, Calif. (Dec. 2, 2013) – Guidance, a web, mobile and social eCommerce design and development agency trusted by Internet Retailer Top 500 companies, today announced the launch of oktoberfesthaus.com and christmasltd.com, eCommerce sites for ClickToShop, a specialty eTailer offering home furnishings, apparel and more. Guidance provided eCommerce, Web Development, Mobile & Social, Integration, and Hosting and Managed Services for the new sites built on the Magento Enterprise eCommerce platform.
ClickToShop engaged Guidance to update their eCommerce sites to a scalable, self-managed, and stable platform that would support their robust growth business goals.
"Although the National Retail Federation is forecasting a 3% increase in holiday sales this year, ” said Jason Meugniot, President & CEO of Guidance, “ClickToShop is targeting a much higher increase. And, their new Magento site has already helped them achieve that at OktoberfestHaus.com.” During it’s peak sales season from September 1-October 31, 2013, OktoberfestHaus.com achieved a 50% increase in revenue as compared to last year.
"We are very happy with our OktoberfestHaus.com performance. We couldn’t have achieved those numbers or launched on time without Guidance and their Magento expertise,” said Brendan McCarthy, President of ClickToShop. “We’re hoping for the same results with ChristmasLtd.com”.
OktoberfestHaus.com
OktoberfestHaus.com is one of the largest retailers of Oktoberfest goods in the world.
To encourage conversion and increase average order value, and time on site, Guidance delivered merchandising-rich product detail pages (PDP), which offer image zoom, product description, specs, shipping and return information. These PDP pages also include “You May Also Like” cross-sell products, “Recently Viewed” products, and sharing functionality with Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google +, and email to encourage viral marketing of the product.
To incite impulse buys, Guidance deployed a live countdown clock on some PDPs that notifies users of approaching shipping deadlines.
The site also includes the ability to save “Favorites” in a Wish List for purchase at a later date.
Customer Service functionality is also plentiful. The new site features live chat, “How to Order” information, and through “Account”, users are able to self-edit and update their profile at any time. There, they can also check the status of orders and returns, view past orders, request customer service support, store alternate addresses (for shipping to multiple family members and friends), add product reviews, access their “Favorites” list to share with friends and family, and subscribe to the OktoberfestHaus newsletter.
Currently, the site includes 1,800+ SKUs and continues to grow daily.
Guidance integrated the site with NetSuite (order management), Zopim (live chat), Bronto (email marketing), Ekomi (reviews), Hawk Search, Barilliance (product recommendations), Newgistics, ShipStation (fulfillment), PayPal (payments), Facebook Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, and many more.
ChristmasLTD.com
ChristmasLTD.com offers a vast selection of holiday home décor.
Shoppers are welcomed to the new site with the most popular products and multiple promotional banners displayed on the home page. These banners enable ClickToShop to merchandise products or support their brand with content marketing items such as a tree design template, holiday party guide, kid-friendly Christmas ideas and/or product videos.
With more than 4,300 SKUs, Guidance sought to make these products easy to find. The top navigation not only includes product categories, but also offers the ability to navigate by brand name. Filtered navigation and mega menus were similarly implemented for that purpose as well.
These mega-menus were also developed to provide additional promotion space for sales, special offers, new products, etc. More promotional opportunities were also implemented with banners on each category page, as well as the ability to compare up to four products.
To maximize SEO and improve the customer shopping experience, the mega menus additionally display user-generated “Top Searches” product. That is, the site is built to list the most popular search terms and phrases that users enter into the “Search” field on the site.
The new site utilizes OktoberfestHaus.com’s PDPs and “Account” functionality with the exception that users subscribe to the ChristmasLTD newsletter, and not the OktoberfestHaus.com newsletter.
Guidance integrated this site with NetSuite (order management system), Channel Advisor (marketplace channels), Zopim (live chat), Ekomi (reviews), Hawk Search, Barilliance (product recommendations), PayPal (payment processor), Newgistics (international shipping rates), ShipStation (fulfillment), Bronto (email marketing), Facebook Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, YouTube and many more.
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Press Release PDF: OktoberfestHaus_and_Christmasltd_FINAL_0.pdf
