eHouse Studio

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the executive director of the commerce group at a large media organization. One of the teams in our organization is an e-commerce retail operation.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Pointer?

We had two objectives. First, we wanted to switch our e-commerce platform to Shopify, which we had selected as our preferred platform. Second, we needed to rebrand and relaunch our retail operation.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They led everything, including initial creative designs and user experience architecture. The core features they worked on were: site navigation, category pages, product pages, and custom theme.  We have strict branding guidelines for logos, typeface, color palettes, etc and as a result, our design team was highly involved with their design and rebranding execution in our to comply with our requirements.

Furthermore, our status as a public company necessitated extra implementation steps for taxes and reporting. While the project was largely turnkey, these added features required them to build custom applications that were integrated into Shopify Plus.

What is the team composition? 

We worked with the founder, the head of business development, and a lead designer.

How did you come to work with Pointer? 

My product manager found them and had them do a demo, which they knocked out of the park. Their previous experience with the Shopify platform – and their close relationship with that company –  gave us a lot of confidence. We also found the pricing to be very reasonable.

What is the status of this engagement?

The primary engagement lasted approximately five months, but it is an ongoing relationship.  

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We got rave reviews across the board – both in online survey data and internal feedback.

How did Pointer perform from a project management standpoint?

They did a good job, but there is always room for improvement. Their performance for design quality and implementation was very high. We communicated mostly via Slack but also by phone and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They understand Shopify on a very deep level and are outstanding at implementation for that platform; the team excels at coding in Liquid, the underlying language of Shopify. They know it better than any other Shopify developer we’ve used.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They could have done better at building the custom apps; those required deeper development skill sets. They were out of their depth with JavaScript and were not as strong as we expected. Also, communication on both ends could have been better.  

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the CEO of Body Brew. Our company produces a cold brew coffee maker.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Pointer?

We’d needed to improve our e-commerce website to reach a higher standard of quality in both design and user interface. We hoped to make changes that would create easier navigation for the customers that visit our site, and ultimately improve our conversion rates to increase sales.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Pointer conducted a full redesign. We’d had some hard-coded issues with our existing site in Shopify, and had just switched over to Shopify Plus. Having experienced success with our brand messaging, they didn’t force a certain design layout on us. An even interchange helped us innovatively re-structure our existing assets. They sought honest inquiry about what we wanted, and offered useful opinions that drew on their extensive e-commerce experience.

Collaboratively using our graphics and logos, they improved the aesthetics of our page. A lot of bad coding in the original version needed to be rectified. The original site was somewhat dark; cleaning up the color scheme with lighter tones gave it clarity. Previously, we’d had information scattered across several pages. Consolidating this material and developing improved menus streamlined the navigation. Now, potential customers who visit our site will have a simplified buying process.

What is the team composition?

I was in contact with five or six developers from Pointer who worked on the design and extra features. I'd been used to working with only one or two staff, and this dynamic proved better. Work was very efficient, and I could always get ahold of someone.

How did you come to work with Pointer?

We're Shopify Plus members, and have access to a website that lists a lot of developers with expertise in this platform. Pointer was included in the top five recommendations, and we chose them after narrowing our search to three or four providers.

How much have you invested with them?

We've spent about $30,000-$35,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We initiated a conversation in July 2017, and started our three-month project mid-September. We're still adding details and copy to a few minor fill-in areas of the website, but our website is about 95% completed.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

The actual results were 10/10 in terms of what we wanted. We went from a 3% conversion rate to upwards of about 6%, and several of the other tools they've built haven’t even been plugged in yet. We've doubled our conversion rate just through the website redesign, and will hopefully improve that metric when all their work is live.

How did Pointer perform from a project management standpoint?

Our communication was 90% through e-mail, with occasional phone calls. We'd send over links to graphics and they did a great job, considering the lack of a centralized mode of teamwork collaboration. Occasionally, we’d talk infrequently (they might have been finishing up a project for a different client), but work was always being done.

We had a dedicated project manager, but I appreciated how others would step in when needed to get the job done. I could work directly with the developers if needed, who were all extremely helpful and responsive. They skillfully handled minute details, and efficiently completed all the finished pieces. I'm really happy with our overall communication and the way their team functioned.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Having developed several websites, I don't think it gets any better than Pointer from a communication and deliverables standpoint. Their response times were great, and communication was strong and consistent. I’ve had to start projects over with different vendors. Despite clearly articulating my needs, they just wouldn’t get it, and I’d walk away frustrated. I never had any of those types of problems with this team. Usually, they'd nail the important details of work on their first attempt — and fast.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It can be challenging to relinquish control and let someone else conduct an entire redesign. We had a lot of our own graphics, and the website was where we thought we wanted it. I felt comfortable with them, and their experience with e-commerce sites makes it worth letting them direct the project. If you don't have your own materials completed, this dynamic might vary. I can't speak to their experience with designing graphics from the ground up.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of marketing for Christophe Harbour, a resort development and residential community on the island of St. Kitts in the Eastern Caribbean.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with eHouse Studio?

We had been a primarily print-forward company for a long time before we contracted with eHouse. I think we launched our first website with them in 2010, and we looked to them to teach us how to evolve into the digital world.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I’d say that eHouse helped us with more than 50 different projects. Our first website with eHouse really pushed the edge on use of technology and full screen videos. Over the course of 6 or 7 years, eHouse designed, built, and launched three websites for us from scratch. We moved away from trying to make cool websites that caught people’s attention to delivering content in a way that was relevant to our audience and that tried to capture them on the backend and put them into the funnel. We also had eHouse work on all of our backend automations to process the leads that came in. We did a lot of welcome stream emails and workflow automation from the backend with our sales team and CRM system. eHouse also helped us get eyeballs on the website through SEO and SEM. We did a number of digital development projects, including email campaigns, design tickets, new real estate clients, digital advertising, and banner ads. eHouse also set us up with a new email system that was easy to deploy on our side.

We had an agency that we used for most of the banner ad design and digital ad placements, and eHouse helped us with the coding, placement, tracking, and analytics. But they also did plenty of design work for us over the years, and they did all of the design on the website. We based all of the content management system on ExpressionEngine, but as to how eHouse actually built the site, that’s out of my knowledge base.

How did you come to work with eHouse Studio?

They were familiar with our type of clientele and the strategy and in-depth thinking involved with our business challenges. What we ended up doing was splitting the business so that eHouse retained the bulk of the digital work, and the agency of record did all of the creative ad campaigns and branding. We kept the bulk of the digital work with them for a long time.

How much have you invested with eHouse Studio?

I’d like to keep this confidential.

What is the status of this engagement?

I think we launched our first website with eHouse in 2010, and we ended our relationship with eHouse at the end of March. Not because of their performance, more because we were going in a different direction. We hired another agency of record who brought to the table, as part of the suite of services, a strong, robust, lead-generation and nurturing division. This company generates the content, places the content, and tracks the content for us. They do it all for us, from soup to nuts. The only reason we ended our relationship with eHouse is because of the breadth and ease of working with this one firm. I would give eHouse rave reviews.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

eHouse and I spent a lot of time working on ways to show ROI for the work we’re doing. I know that after our last website launch, we noticed that a lot of our metrics were up, including traffic, time on website, engagement, and conversions, though I can't speak to any specific numbers off the top of my head.

What we used eHouse for and what they really helped us do was put in the platforms and help us set up the building blocks to be able to start tracking figures. For a really long time, we couldn't tell what was successful and what wasn’t. I’d say the biggest success for us was getting those building blocks in place so that we could start reporting on traffic and numbers. All of that really came into place around 2015. When we launched our current site, we had the opportunity to measure what was and was not working. 

How did eHouse Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

Our account manager has changed a couple of times over the years. The basic resources and the positions themselves haven't changed. We were a pretty small fish in their pond in terms of work, which was good for us, because we got a little more attention from the strategist and creative minds in the shop as opposed to all of the work being outsourced to another firm or to somebody low on the totem pole. For us, one of the real benefits was being able to work with them on that high-level strategy, and they were really good about bringing new ideas to us to help us meet challenges. For instance, for something as simple as lead generation, I'd call them and say, “We just really dropped off. I don't know what we’re doing wrong or what we could be doing better,” and a couple of days later I would get a lengthy email with ideas on what we could do. Some of the ideas weren’t even digital based. eHouse was really helpful at trying to move the needle on the digital side. They were really holistic in the way they approached problems.

Their project management is really good. They are excellent at using tools to track time, costs, projects, and status. I always felt plugged in. We had weekly status calls, and sometimes twice-weekly status calls. Then when they adopted the Agile agency system, that really helped too, because we were clear on milestones and who was going to be involved and at what point. That made it easier to plan on my side, because it’s like herding cats over here when trying to get people together. We knew that every two weeks we were going to have a meeting. We knew how things were progressing, and I felt comfortable with the progress, because I knew what was coming.

What did you find most impressive about eHouse Studio?

I think eHouse lets the data drive their decisions. There was more than one occasion where we came in and said, “No, we don't like it that way. We want it to be like this,” and they would make us think differently. They’d use data to support their case, and in the end, we would go with what they did, and it was always the right decision. eHouse’s strategy of being deeply rooted in data and letting it drive the decisions helped organize the chaos of what we do every day. It helped move our company forward instead of just making things pretty. They made a website that is functional, and they brought new ideas to the table that were based in strategy and data. Also, I know that eHouse was super busy with a lot of other clients and projects in the hopper, and we were very small fish in their pond compared to some of the other clients they had, but I always felt like we got our fair share of attention and time.

Are there any areas eHouse Studio could improve?

I can't think of any ways eHouse could improve, and I can’t say anything negative about them.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

My company makes laptop bags and leather goods such as wallets and clutches for women. I'm the founder.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with eHouse Studio?

My online store is a flagship, so I needed somebody who understood the fundamentals of websites and their importance, the technology behind them, and e-commerce and the strategy involved with having an online store.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

There were several deliverables. They did the hosting of my website and the technical backend of it, as well as the strategy. When I came to them, I already had a website, and the work mainly revolved around changing where the videos went, defining the kind of videos I should be doing, and changing the look of the product pages so people buy more. They also handled more straightforward, necessary stuff like keeping the hosting going and rolling over a security change. I had three primary people working on my account: a project manager, her assistant, and a business consultant. I also know there was a principal above them.

I'm a relatively small client for them, but they work with large e-commerce clients as well. They use the knowledge they have as a broad base to tell clients how their user interface can work best, what they’ve seen that sells a product, how it can work, etc. They’re able to say, “You don't have millions of dollars, but here's how we can help you in this phase with this kind of technology,” or “This strategic change in the website will increase sales.”

How did you come to work with eHouse Studio?

I selected them for a few reasons. One, I wanted someone local here in Charleston. Two, I wanted someone with a lot of e-commerce background. Three, I really needed someone who understood technology and could do design if I needed it. Previously, I'd worked with another great local design firm, but they're a design firm that did websites. I wanted the opposite.

How much have you invested with eHouse Studio?

This information is confidential.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in 2015. The website is stagnant right now, but they're still keeping it running. If there is another big project that needs to be done, they'll be the ones to do it. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or impact of the engagement?

They are always on time and under budget, and I find that very rare, especially here in the South. They were also calm and cool under any deadline I gave them. That's a huge deal to me. Once we implemented their changes, we never had any issues with taking or processing payments or with clients not getting any confirmation emails. It was always 100% perfect. I can also tell you that ever since eHouse Studio took over the last line of products I had, they completely sold out.

How did eHouse Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

They performed perfectly. They are very personable, and their communication is very detailed. Sometimes, you don't know what’s exactly included, but everything is very clear with them. They were also willing to work with me; if I said that it seemed like a lot for right now, they would split it up or make suggestions about what needed to be done first and then second.

What did you find most impressive about eHouse Studio?

They’re extremely easy to work with. They are not pretentious either. They have a great depth of strategic knowledge about selling online. There are millions of people who can put up an e-commerce store for you and make it work, but there are very few people who have the knowledge that they have about how e-commerce works and how the mindset of the client works, as well as the ability to put that technical knowledge together.

Are there any areas eHouse Studio could improve?

Because I'm local, they worked very well with me. It would be harder for me to judge how they would work remotely. It's not really a criticism. I just couldn't really speak to it.

What tips or recommendations could you share that might increase the likelihood of success with eHouse Studio?

Soak up all the knowledge you can from them because they're leaders in the South and in the industry. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of GoodUnited, a startup that helps nonprofits create more personal and meaningful relationships with their donors. We do that by pinpointing and tracking what donors really care about and we create content that keeps them engaged.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with eHouse Studio?

We’ve done a lot of work with eHouse Studio. Most recently, one of the problems we were thinking through with eHouse was how to provide value to the supporters that use GoodUnited. I really appreciate working with eHouse because I believe they’re the best at using design as a problem-solving toolkit and not just as a way to make pretty pictures on a page. eHouse used a Design Thinking approach to better understand the problem. eHouse conducted interviews with supporters who are using our software. They then helped us develop rapid prototypes as a way to test some of our hypotheses. We were then able to take those prototypes and put them in front of users to see if they addressed the supporter needs. eHouse has been instrumental in coaching us through that process and saving us time/money on building the wrong product.

Once we started product development, they’ve been incredible at doing some of the UX/UI work to help facilitate that ideal supporter experience.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

For this latest project, their role was to teach us how to conduct these user research tests. What was cool was that instead of just doing all the work themselves, they coached us, monitored the project and gave us feedback along the way. For me, that was really powerful because it helped increase my team members’ skill sets so that they could apply what they learned to future projects. It felt much more like a partnership as opposed to them getting it done and sending us the bill.

At the end of last year, we were working to quickly get our initial product to market under some incredibly tight deadlines. We had told clients who had already paid for this product that it was going to be delivered in the first week of January, but by the middle of December, we still didn’t have the design figured out for some of the core pages of the product. Even though it was around the holidays, the executive members of eHouse’s team asked their staff if they could make it happen. They rallied together and worked overtime at a really busy time of year to help us get the designs in place so we could meet our deadlines and get the product to market for our customers.

In terms of deliverables, eHouse gave us the strategic guidance that we needed. Aaron Quinn, their founder and creative director, was a critical part in helping us shape the way we think about our product.

Additionally, eHouse has provided us wireframes and low-fidelity mockups in Sketch and InVision for a number of core pages on our website, as well as some of the email templates that we use to engage our users. They created the style guide that we use to ensure design continuity across our website. They designed our logo and color scheme, and now they’re beginning to help with the iconography that ties into the overall branding of our company.

How did you come to work with eHouse Studio?

I’ve had a relationship with eHouse much longer than this partnership. From my involvement in the startup community, I met several members of their team.

Last September, we identified the need to bring on a full-time design resource, and I had a very specific skillset in mind. That skill set was more about using design as a problem-solving toolkit instead of just making pretty pictures. I probably interviewed 20 people, but nobody fulfilled my expectations. eHouse has a unique design skill set and I thought it made sense for us to engage with them on the design challenges we were experiencing.

What is the status of this engagement?

In 2016 we did some one-off projects and then engaged in a long-term contract in the beginning of 2017.

eHouse is now one of our strategic partners that’s helping us address our product challenges. They’ll also be providing UI/UX support for the specific deliverables that come out of these our strategic sessions.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

The results of what they delivered were really impressive, even on an accelerated deadline. From an aesthetics and usability standpoint, our product has been well received both internally and from users. Since we just launched, most of our feedback is still qualitative. The feedback has been that everything is well designed and easy to use in terms of the UX of the product.

Our users have praised our color scheme and the clean design that eHouse designed. We’ve also heard that our web presence looks much more professional than our competitors’, which has given us credibility in the sales process.

How did eHouse Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

They perform well. The project manage is pretty transparent. They have one or two dedicated project managers that I can go to whenever I have questions, and their responses have been really personal and rapid.

The trust we have in eHouse is strong, so we don’t really feel the need ask for time usage in 15-minute increments or anything. It’s more that we agree on the broad strokes of what we want to accomplish and the allotted budget for that work. heir project managers do a good job of making sure we’re tracking against the budget.

What did you find most impressive about eHouse Studio?

We had worked with several agencies in the past, and one of our biggest issues was that none of them took the time to understand our specific business problems. One of the main reasons that I pushed forward with eHouse is that they have a few people who are incredibly business-savvy. They took the time to understand our business goals for the year and the challenges we need to overcome, and then they used that information to help shape their creative and design work. That’s been incredibly valuable because it means the work that they do is immediately actionable. Their ability to understand our business and apply it to what they do sets them apart from any of the other agencies we’ve worked with in the past.

Are there any areas eHouse Studio could improve?

One thing we’re trying to work towards is having a dedicated team of people who are invested in our business so we don’t have to get every new team member up to speed on what’s going on. But that’s not necessarily critical feedback, just an opportunity to strengthen our relationship.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Stage Store is a national omnichannel retailer with 800 stores nationally, primarily on the Southwest and East Coast. We also have a transactional website. I’m senior vice president of our OmniCommerce business.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with eHouse Studio?

I engaged them to help us redesign our site so we can improve our customer experience and deliver an updated and visually appealing experience for our customers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We needed to update our site in advance of working on a responsive web design, and asked them to research our top 20 competitors. We wanted to document what they’re doing well and not doing well and to perform a comparative study. eHouse completed a detailed study and evaluation that took about 90 days and provided us with specific areas of opportunity where we can improve our website for our users and store associates. That project took 150 days after which they provided us with the designs, including all of the key pages on our site. Our in-house IT team and Oracle integrator partner then implemented the recommendations that eHouse made.

How did you come to work with eHouse Studio?

I had worked with them before at Signet, my previous employer, and included them as part of a review we conducted of potential vendors.

How much have you invested with eHouse Studio?

While the cost is confidential, I can tell you they are competitively priced.

What is the status of this engagement?

We engaged them in February/March of 2016 with the goal to get the project completed by mid-year. We continue to work with them now on doing audits of our mobile app, desktop, and mobile sites. They also audit any ADA [Americans with Disabilities Act] compliance issues we have so we’re current with that. We are beginning to work on a redesign for our future responsive web design.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

We saw an improvement in performance, reduction in latency, and an increase in revenue online. We have had a measurable improvement in our online sales as a result of this. We made the site more intuitive for the customer and they're responding by converting.

How did eHouse Studio perform from a project management standpoint?

I have a senior director who was on the phone with them on weekly project management calls. As we got closer to the end of the project, they were in contact daily. There were detailed follow-up meetings. Our choice for a project management tool is Basecamp, which they used with us on this project and we had no communication gap and no confusion because anyone working on the project could track every conversation. They completed the project earlier than we expected.

What did you find most impressive about eHouse Studio?

I selected eHouse at Signet after I met Rick Quinn, who is the principal, I learned that he had been in the retail industry. He understands the pressures involved in a project of this size and what we needed to run the project effectively.

Are there any areas eHouse Studio could improve?

I don’t have any criticism. They are remarkably current in terms of design, ADA compliance, user experience, and the relevance of rapidly changing technology. The way consumers are shopping today is very different than the way they were shopping 2 years ago. eHouse is very savvy in knowing how to design websites in such a way to leverage that.