Commerce Pundit

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the COO [chief operating officer] of CBStation. We’re a wholesale B2B company, providing designer-type canvas bags to small businesses.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Commerce?

We worked with another company on our promotional website but we needed someone to build our e-commerce website. We wanted a website on which customers can customize their purchases with monogramming, logos, and screen printing. We also wanted a drop ship solution.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We worked together 4–5 years ago when they built our first site on the Magento 1 platform. It worked perfectly. They recently upgraded us into a new Magento 2.0 platform and built the website from scratch.

Our new website can take orders for monogramming and customize each and every product we have. We now offer a drop ship solution, where a customer can place an order and we process the orders based on their customers. We ship directly to our customers’ customers. That way our customers don’t have to get involved.

Now, they support us anytime we need them. We have a monthly deal with them.

What is the team composition?

We have a team manager who we assign all the major tasks with. There’s a group of 20–25 people who work on our project. We’re very comfortable working with them.

How did you come to work with Commerce?

We were referred by other people who had worked with them.

How much have you invested with them?

$40,000–$50,000 to upgrade from the old platform to the new platform.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from November 2017 until January 2018 when the website launched. Our work is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We’re still young. We see a lot of the new things are helping our business. It’s still too early to give a more accurate answer about what is benefiting us.

We’ve gotten a lot of compliments from our customers about our switch to a new platform. The speed greatly improved.

How did Commerce perform from a project management standpoint?

They did very well. Out of 10, I’d rate them a 9. We used ActiveCollab. We assign all tasks into the software as a way of communicating with each other.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Anytime we have an urgent situation, they have somebody at the office 24/7. I can trust them. They’re always there to make sure it’s done.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could provide content writing. We do all the content writing, but if they had good content writers, I’d love to pass all our content writing work to them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I know my product the best. I give to them as much detail as possible about my product and my need to make them understand, then things go very nicely and smoothly.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We are a home décor outdoor website. We have around 50,000 products. We also have a warehouse. The majority of the products are drop shipped. Our website it on Magento.

What is your position?

I'm the CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What business challenge were you trying to address with Commerce Pundit?

We need a nice and flowing e-commerce website. We need to offer a nice, clean display that allows users to check out with the least number of clicks possible. We want a very clean display and a very clean interface. 

We had given Commerce Pundit a couple of references of websites we were looking at and tried to get the best from some other sites and incorporate everything to one.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their involvement in detail.

They gave us some examples of sites they had done. We saw that and then they told us best practices that they follow. We told them the number of products that we have and the number that will be added every month. They were aware of the volume that we're looking at. They appointed a project manager for us. I guess then it was a technical process, and they worked through it. They launched the site and then resolved all the issues that popped up.

How did you come to work with Commerce Pundit?

We went with them because they worked with Magento.

Could you provide a sense of the size of this initiative in financial terms?

It was from $10,000 to $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The site is functional and, if we get any errors, we get their help. Issues are resolved extremely fast. There are also modifications if there is something we want to incorporate in the site. They gave us a timeline and they take it into process and get it done. It was launched in 2007. We have completely modified it.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any statistics or metrics from this engagement?

We are very satisfied. It's a very nice site. There are not down times. We have not faced any issues like that.

How did Commerce Pundit perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed well and were successful in the end.

What distinguishes Commerce Pundit from other providers?

Commerce Pundit is very cost effective and decent people to work with. 

What advice would you give to a future client of theirs?

They're a very good company to work with. They are very technically sound. Start small, and you will see the results.

In hindsight, are there areas in which they could improve, or things you might do differently?

We want everything very fast, but there are technical aspects that take time. These technical projects always require some time to get right.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization.

We sell canvas prints, metal prints, and acrylic prints.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I'm the founder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with Commerce Pundit?

We wanted to build development marketing as well as the designing under one roof.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their work.

Web development, design, and marketing. Everything related to development is done or consulted through them.

What was your process for selecting Commerce Pundit?

I got a reference from a friend a couple of years ago.

Can you give a sense of the size of the initiative?

Average monthly billing is $12,000 to $13,000.

When was the work completed?

We've been working with them a couple of years. It's ongoing work.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Do you have any statistics or metrics on the project?

We're doing great. All of our metrics are trending upwards.

Are you satisfied with their performance?

I'm satisfied with the job they did. They helped me greatly in transforming my vision into something tangible.

Is there anything unique or special about Commerce Pundit that really makes them stand out?

They have fair pricing and a deep team of talented individuals that get projects done on time. I consider them to be honest and a trusted business partner.

What advice would you give to future clients of theirs?

I would tell them to stress communication in the beginning to get the best results.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently.

I have nothing major to mention.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company.

This is a Hampton Inn hotel, which is owned by Hilton. Our location is near the Denver airport in Aurora, Colo.

What is your role and responsibilities, please?

When we hired Commerce Pundit, I used to work for the management company for which they designed 30-plus websites for different hotels. Now, I am one of the owners of the Hampton Inn Denver Airport.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with Commerce Pundit?

We hired Commerce Pundit to help us list our information about the hotel, and generate some customers who are looking for lodging in the Denver Airport area.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their work.

They helped up build an independent, stand-alone website for our hotel. They helped us with other channels like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare, and other social media marketing. When we hired them, it was for a bigger project for developing websites for more than 30 hotels. Right now, I am speaking about the Hampton Inn Denver Airport website. Next is the search engine optimization phase of their work.

What was your process for selecting Commerce Pundit to work with?

We had received quotes from about four different companies and looked at their capabilities. I also know the CEO of the company. We went through the vetting process and felt comfortable with hiring them.

The initial work was completed in 2013. There is a second component to do the search engine optimization that is ongoing. That project is open-ended.

Can you provide a ballpark dollar figure for the size of the work that they’ve done for you?

It is between 40 to 80 hours per months. The main project took more than 400 hours.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Do you have any statistics or metrics to track improvement from the project?

Based on Google Analytics, our emails, and the toll-free number on the website, we are very happy with the results produced by Commerce Pundit. We are pleased with the new metrics.

Is there anything unique about them that really makes them stand out, compared to other companies?

They worked diligently and assigned a project manager for the website, so we had a single point of contact. That helped streamline the project significantly. Even today, they work with us to help manage the process with a single person.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

No.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company.

We are an online company that sells ready-to-assemble kitchen cabinets across the United States.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I am the general manager. My father started the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with Commerce Pundit?

Our goal was to improve our website and make our brand more prevalent across the U.S.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their work.

Commerce Pundit does a lot of work for us in e-commerce development and SEO.

What was your process for selecting Commerce Pundit to work with?

My father sat next to the owner on a plane in 2010. They started talking, and they have worked together since then. The work is ongoing.

Can you provide a ballpark dollar figure for the size of the work that they’ve done for you?

We spend between $4,000 and $7,000 a month. The average is $5,500 a month.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Are you satisfied with Commerce Pundit's performance?

Yes, we are satisfied. Sometimes, we give them a lot of work and change the direction a lot. They adapt to it very well, and they do things as quickly as possible. We communicate on a daily basis with the project manager. Their project manager was in our office recently for about a month, working with us side by side.

Is there anything unique about them that really makes them stand out, compared to other companies?

They have a presence here in the U.S. as well, which allows us to have a local contact who speaks fluent English. They are an hour's drive from one of our locations. That is better for communication.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or something that you might do differently?

When the project manager came here to the U.S., they can see what our product is and how it relates. That helped improve their work. The project manager just returned to India, and I think it will help considerably.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company.

Our company is an online signage company. We manufacture signs and sell them through our Web portals and to the market.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I am the CEO.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with Commerce Pundit?

We wanted Commerce Pundit to provide a full online solution, such as creating a website, the market and online payment processing, and create the user experience. They help us present ourselves online correctly.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their work.

Their work included Web design and development, e-commerce development, SEO [search engine optimization], and online marketing through other portals, such as eBay and Amazon. Everything that we present and sell online came through Commerce Pundit.

What was your process for selecting Commerce Pundit with which to work?

We interviewed about four vendors, and I conducted personal interviews with them. I looked at the resources they offered and the pricing, and we finalized the selection.

Can you provide a ballpark figure for the size of the work that they’ve done for you?

The personnel work hour total was close to 2,000 hours a month on an ongoing basis. The pricing changes based on who the resources are. We are adding more work with them. They started at about 200 hours a month, and now it's 2,000 or more hours a month.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Do you have any statistics or metrics to track improvement from the project?

We started with them three years ago and have a significant presence in the online market right now. We have more than $3 million in revenue through Commerce Pundit, so it's been a good success story so far, with good ROI [return on investment].

Are you satisfied with Commerce Pundit's performance?

I am more than satisfied with their performance. Along those lines, they have added to the projects that I’ve generated and come up with many innovative ideas based on my business model. It was not just my vision and implementation, but they actually participated in creating a vision and the goals for the company. I am definitely very satisfied.

Is there anything unique about them that really makes them stand out, compared to other companies?

They are not trying to sell their hours, their product, or their services to us. There are instances where I told them about initiatives that our competitors were taking, and they came back to tell me that for our size and market, we wouldn’t get the results that we want. They told me there was no point in spending money on that. That was a big plus for me. I am not worried that they'll do any project just to make money. They will analyze it and give me honest advice.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

Not really. There might be an instance to two where we learned something afterward, but I don’t think there was anything we did wrong. Just a few learning experiences.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company.

We sell books online. We sell other items as well. The main component of our business is e-commerce. That’s selling books online mostly through marketplaces like Amazon and also eBay or Play.com. We are based in the United Kingdom. We started in August [of] 2010.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I’m the founder and managing director for the company. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for the work with Commerce Pundit?

I used Commerce Pundit because I wanted people who are specialized in optimization and who are very good at listing items on eBay and Amazon. 

SOLUTION

Can you please describe their work in more detail?

I wouldn’t say consulting. It’s mostly listing items on eBay and Amazon. There were other types of work also. They helped me design and host my eBay store successfully. That was very helpful. Mostly, I use them for listings of items on eBay and Amazon.

What was your process for selecting Commerce Pundit with which to work?

I put an advertisement on Elance stating that I am looking for individuals or professionals for creating an eBay store and listing items on eBay. I got a few responses. From that, one of them was Yagnesh [Tank, project manager] at Commerce Pundit, and I was very impressed by his reply and responses. Then, I chose to contact him, and that’s how we started.

Could you provide a sense of the size of your work with Commerce Pundit with work-hour figure?

At the moment, the listing for eBay UK and eBay US, they are spending four hours a day. Then, they are listing as well for Amazon Spain and Amazon Italy for two hours a day. That’s six hours a day that they’re spending for me for a period of five days a week. Effectively, they’re working for 30 hours a week, listing on those two marketplaces. Before, they were also working on customer relationship and so on, but I prefer to bring customer relationship in-house.

Do you have any plans to end the project in the future or to keep it completely ongoing?

It’s ongoing at the moment. Periodically, it’s reviewed, depending on my business. As you know, the business is new, so it’s always evolving. I am always improving things. But, at the moment, I do not intend to terminate their services. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What are the results of their work? Do you have any statistics or metrics you could share about their success?

The way I measure their success is by the number of sales I get, especially on eBay. [For] Amazon Spain and Italy, they have recently started working on those marketplaces. I measured the success by the number of sales both in terms of profit and number of units of sales that I make on eBay. If I’m not happy with any issues, then I’ll let them know they need to improve for the next month to increase the goal and sell more items.

Have sales increased with the aid of Commerce Pundit?

Yes, my eBay sales are growing. It’s not growing as fast or as quickly as I would like, but you have to be patient. There are restrictions on eBay and other issues. Taking everything into consideration, my sales are growing.

When working with Commerce Pundit, what is special or unique about them compared to some other companies?

With Commerce Pundit, I’m very impressed. I enjoy working with Yagnesh. He’s been with me since I put the advertisement on Elance. He’s very helpful. He’s very understanding. He knows exactly the project requirements. He’s always available if I want a quick meeting at the last minute. I feel that Commerce Pundit does understand the market and my business.

He also understands what I want to achieve. So, based on this, it’s always a pleasure to work with him. I think he is in charge of a team of between six to nine people. He allocates the relevant personnel to my project. Although we are in U.K. and they are in India, and I have never met them personally, he does understand the job, and we do work effectively.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think Commerce Pundit could improve upon or something you might do differently?

No. I think they’re doing a good job overall.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company.

I own a bar lighting company. We manufacture acrylic LED liquor shelves and displays for home bars, commercial bars, and restaurants. We're based out of Chicago, Ill.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with Commerce Pundit?

Originally, it was for SEO [search engine optimization] work. It was to drive additional users to the website and to our shopping cart.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their work.

Commerce Pundit did some additional work on our Joomla WordPress site. They helped us with the shopping cart enhancements and some small website updates. They created a presence on YouTube on Tapiture. They helped with Facebook postings. They do blog posting write-ups on a weekly basis. They came back with an evaluation of the site with updates to the actual content of our site from an SEO perspective. We implemented some of those tactics, which helped quite a bit. They also help us with email marketing. They took a PDF that we designed here in Chicago, assembled it into an HTML format, and handled the broadcasting of that email out to mass prospective customers.

What was your process for selecting Commerce Pundit to work with?

I looked on Elance for the rating system, and I looked for those individuals with the top ratings. I scanned through to see what kind of projects they’ve done and look for similar projects. Then, I look for comments from other customers. The star ratings, similar projects, and some thoughtful comments from other customers are really what drove me to make a selection on Elance.

Can you provide a ballpark dollar figure for the size of the work that they’ve done for you?

We're a small organization, so it's a small number of hours per month and represents a major portion of our marketing budget. It's a substantial offering for us, but it's not a large engagement per month.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Do you have any stats or metrics to track improvement from the project?

Roughly, the organic Web traffic went up by about eight times. We were getting small amounts of traffic to begin with, but it was an eight times uptick based on the work that they did to update our site, our content, and our tags. They also started building some of our social aspects of the site. They have dramatically increased the traffic, albeit a small amount of traffic, but it's a big jump for us as an organization.

Are you satisfied in general? Was it a worthwhile investment?

Yes. When you look at the investment amount, we got what we paid for.

Is there anything unique about them that really makes them stand out, compared to other IT companies?

I’ve noticed that in the offshore model, they are the most responsive of any of the firms that I’ve worked with. Their turnaround times have been pretty good, compared with other overseas organizations that I’ve dealt with.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

One challenge is their English writing skills. When they write blogs or product descriptions, it can be a little rough sometimes and needs attention, which I don’t have time to do. You can tell that our content has been written by someone who isn’t a native speaker. You go in with your eyes open, knowing that's what you'll get out of it, and I have to keep an eye on it.

We don’t have a plan to stop it, and they do ongoing work for us. With SEO work, you have to keep it up and maintain it to push content out. They give me a plan at the end of each month and lay out what they think they will spend their time on. They have me approve it or tweak it, if needed, and we go from there.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your firm.

I sell lingerie, costumes, and shoes to customers aimed at an alternative lifestyle.

What is your role and responsibilities?

I’m the owner of the site. I’m responsible for the whole site, but I’m really handling over a majority of future marketing and SEO to Commerce Pundit because they’re doing such a wonderful job while rebuilding my website. My site is not done yet. That’s just being migrated today. We use a Magento site.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for the work with Commerce Pundit?

I want to be a site known as a being reasonably priced, offering good service while providing a nice income for myself. Magento allows us to sell online with coupons, promotions, and a shopping cart function.

Was Magento the right choice for your company?

I had a website built on Magento, but the previous Web developer fell short. I really haven’t used Magento on a full working site. I get the idea. I get into the dashboard, and it’s fairly easy for someone who may be a novice to fix things and add products. I think the shopping cart looks wonderful from what I’ve seen. I’ve played with it and put fake names in it, just to see how it works. It all looks great. There’s a lot of extensions from Magento that you can add that really make it very interesting and competitive. 

SOLUTION

What was your process for selecting Commerce Pundit?

It’s taken me a full year to find a Web developer after spending thousands and thousands of dollars on other developers who just didn’t come through. They didn’t get all of the e-commerce solutions that one needs. I just prayed that Commerce Pundit were the people because they seem to address all the issues that I needed. Even this morning, they emailed me something and asked for my feedback.

Can you give a sense of the size of the project with a general cost range?

It falls anywhere between $4,000 and $6,000 for a smooth website head to toe including approximately 3,000 to 5,000 products, which is a big bonus. That’s what they charged. They get it done really quickly. If there’s anyone who’s slowing the process up, it’s me, learning it as I go along.

When will the work be completed?

It’s migrating today. They’re pushing me to get it done. I’m the one that’s a little slow. We’ll just have to start adding more products. I think we’ll be live by the end of the week, not with all our products, but we’ll be live before April, 2014 starts.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Do you have any statistics or metrics you could share about the project?

I have no statistics, but as far as I’m concerned, they’ve been honest and everything I’d asked they’ve come through on. The great part about Commerce Pundit is that you have an account manager. Work is trickled down through the other professionals depending on client need. Everyone answers to everyone. You only have to go to one person to get your solutions. Commerce Pundit has activeCollab where you can go online and see what they’re doing on your site any time of day and who’s been working on it and that type of thing. That’s a great feature.

Is there anything else unique or special about them compared to some other companies?

All I can say is they get it. They get what you need like a code on your site to give a customer free shipping. They know that you need to put up social media icons, or an Authorize.net icon or a SSL Certificate. Other developers are just not as detailed as Commerce Pundit. They’re not as e-commerce savvy.

Commerce Pundit was a shot in the dark for me, but they have not let me down. They email me almost every day. They call me. I understand them. They’re patient with me, and they know I’m new, so I can’t talk with computer website language or code. They’re just good. I would highly recommend Commerce Pundit.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or something you might do differently?

I don’t know if I will do anything differently because they really started from scratch. I don’t have the website up and running, but I’ve been working on this for the last six or seven months, it’s my fault that it’s taken that long. Every time I look, I don’t see anything I would really want to change. So far, things are good. I really have no complaints. I’m really happy.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your organization and your role and responsibilities.

I’m the vice president of a small geophysical company called Southwest Geophysics. Since we're a small company, I do everything from marketing reports to geophysical fieldwork, typically smaller-scale projects, such as engineering, environmental, and geotechnical work. I handle marketing, which includes getting our website built originally, and then getting help from Commerce Pundit in creating a new website for our company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What was your goal for working with Commerce Pundit?

We had been working with a website that I created years ago, based on a model from a previous company that I worked for that I created as well. It's a very simple, information-based website. We thought we needed something a little bit more advanced and professional. Originally, I don’t think a lot of our work and contacts were generated through the Web. It was usually by word of mouth. As the Internet has become what it is today, I felt it was necessary to get something that was more professional.

What platform did you use for the website?

I’m not sure. I know we had some server issues, where we needed to construct a different type of server that was better equipped and more useful for a website. We had a Windows-based server, and I think we went to Unix to make it more efficient and worthwhile.

SOLUTION

Please describe the scope of their work.

We're still partway through the project, but any slowness has been on our part, being that our company is fairly small. My partner and I wear a lot of hats in trying to correspond with them. I’m usually working in the field about 85 to 95 percent of the time, and the time I have to communicate with them, make changes, and review has slowed the process down. It hasn’t been their fault at all. They will teach us how to make small updates, and we'll probably work with them if we need to do anything major to the site.

What was your process for selecting Commerce Pundit with which to work?

My contact was a college friend who introduced me to them. He looked at our website and said that we needed to change it. He recommended Commerce Pundit and introduced us. I talked with Commerce Pundit about what we wanted to do and the cost. We negotiated an agreeable price, and we went from there.

Can you provide a ballpark dollar figure for the size of the work that they’ve done for you?

I don’t know how many hours they’ve spent on it. They have professionals who really know what they’re doing. I think the changes and delays based on what we want to change that is taking time. They are very efficient at what they do. We are updating our site and submitting it into different search engines to get our site noticed. They’re going to do SEO as well. The work they’re doing isn’t time consuming. They have basically taken what we had and fit it into their format and design. They also do some artistic creation on their part. I’m not sure of the overall cost, perhaps a several thousand-dollar project.

The site is already up and running, but there are changes that need to be made. They need to teach us how to make simple text changes. I think we should be done by late April. There are some typos that are from our end, and there were a few small changes such as font size and scrolling banners. We're working with them to change those.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

How has Commerce Pundit performed so far?

We’ve had no problems, and I enjoy working with them. They are very nice guys and everything is going well from their side. Any delays have been from our end, and they have been very accommodating.

There may have been a little frustration when they couldn’t get hold of me. I talked to them on the phone and explained that if we're not out working in the field, we're not making money. Sometimes, I'm working in a noisy environment or off the grid. As soon as I described those conditions, they were very understanding. They were very flexible and worked on someone else's project at the same time while they were waiting for information from us. It all worked out.

Is there anything unique about them that really makes them stand out, compared to other companies?

I don’t have a lot of experience with other firms. I’ve enjoyed the international aspect of their company. It's good to work with different people since I don’t have a lot of experience overseas. It was a different experience for us.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

I can’t think of anything right now. Coming to a final process may have been a challenge, but so far, everything has been good. I can’t imagine that there will be any problems.