Absolute Web

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of development for a family-owned retail company called Lebo’s. We sell different wears and shoes at our seven locations and online.

What challenge were you trying to address with Absolute Web?

Our online presence was behind the times, and we wanted to correct it. Our conversion rate and bounce rate were poor. A program showed that the website’s search, checkout, and overall layout were problems. We needed to address those issues with frontend development.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Absolute Web previously worked on the front- and backend of our Magento platform. In this instance, their team completely redesigned the frontend of our website to be more user-friendly and hit key bounce rate and conversion rate goals. The goal was to make our website more profitable and more efficient. Their team explained the project and helped show us areas where we could improve the website’s efficiency and revenue-generating abilities.

What is the team composition?

We directly dealt with Kyle (Principal Data Engineer) and Roman (CEO). However, several people worked on the project. Our main contact did a lot of the backend work that needed to be done.

How did you come to work with Absolute Web?

As Absolute Web knew our front- and backend, we felt confident using their services again. We had scoped it out with other companies but decided to use them.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested $60,000 in their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together between November 2019–March 2020.

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

The project was successful. Our revenue increased by about 400%, and our conversion rate increased by 200%. Our bounce rate also came down about 10%.

The checkout process that Absolute Web built is more mainstream. Before this project, there were too many steps between point A to point B. Their team cut a lot of those steps, making the checkout process quicker. Once a user decides to purchase an item, they can complete the purchase in two rather than five steps. We’ll probably do more projects with them in the future.

How did Absolute Web perform from a project management standpoint?

Absolute Web hit the March deadline that their team set at the beginning of the project. They gave us mockups of their progress. Based on experiences with past providers, it isn’t always the case that a vendor hits their deadline.  Absolute Web was the first vendor that actually completed a project on time.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Absolute Web truly cared about the success of our website. During and after the project, they constantly touched base with us. After the project was done, their team wanted to make sure it was successful for us. Not a lot of companies care as much as Absolute Web does. Their communication was great.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we were really happy with the project. I can’t think of any way that we could be happier.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They’re a great company. If you have a Magento website, it’s tough to deal with on the backend. They have people who can do both back- and frontend development. It makes it so much easier to find your solution all in one place.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the service manager at Scarano Marine. We do marine engine diesel repairs.

What challenge were you trying to address with Absolute Web Services?

When I first approached Absolute Web Services a few years ago, my site was pretty old and had no design at all. They completely overhauled the site from the ground up on WordPress before returning to develop our e-commerce store.

What was the scope of their involvement? 

We re-engaged Absolute Web Services to develop our online store using WooCommerce. Since they’d already designed our main site, it was easy for them to recreate the same colors and vibe. They set up the payments, established the UPS (United Postal Service) connection, and photographed and uploaded about 50 items into the platform.

What is the team composition? 

I worked with a project manager.

How did you come to work with Absolute Web Services?

We’d worked with them for the last project, so it was an obvious choice to use them again for this one. 

How much have you invested with them?

The original site cost around $6,000, and I paid roughly $7,500 for the second phase.

What is the status of this engagement?

They built the store in about two months, from the last week of April–July 2019.

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

We’ve just launched the store, so I don’t have any hard metrics at the moment. I do get a lot of customer feedback, though. People will call to tell me that I have a great site, which is proof that Absolute Web Services did a fine job with it.

How did Absolute Web Services perform from a project management standpoint?

They assigned an excellent project manager. We typically communicated over email or phone, but I also met them in person since they weren’t too far from me.

In terms of project management tools, they used InVision to send me interactive previews and layouts. I’d then tell them which ones I liked and make edits. Sometimes, they would send a YouTube tutorial going through all of the pages that they’d developed.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s really their customer service. Ever since the first time I met them, I always felt that they were a legitimate company. The team was great, too. They went out of their way to fix things that I hadn’t noticed before, even if I didn’t tell them to do it.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I have no complaints. I could be pretty picky about edits at times, but they were always more than happy to make changes for me. They really went the extra mile.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Just go with them. If I have another company and need a website, I’m sure to come back to Absolute Web Services again.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CTO of Amuse. We’re a cannabis delivery company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Absolute Web?

We needed help to complement our internal team and launch our website because we chose a tech stack that wasn’t straightforward.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Absolute Web helped us design a solution, creating specifications for building the website. Their team then executed the solution alongside our team. For the project, we used Magento 2 and Vue Storefront as a headless e-commerce system to give us a modern website.

In addition to typical e-commerce categories, they helped us build custom features specific to our industry. These features included ID verification, online payments like ACH, and location-based delivery scheduling.

What is the team composition?

On average, we work with three people from Absolute Web. However, we've increased the team to 5–6 at some points.

How did you come to work with Absolute Web?

I researched agencies in the space and gathered recommendations from our account managers at Magento. I interviewed 3–4 agencies and chose Absolute Web because they understood our vision. A lot of the other agencies wanted to put us into a box with their process. We needed a partner that would figure out the project with us.

How much have you invested with them?

At the moment, we’ve spent about $450,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began our partnership in April 2020, and it’s ongoing.

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

We couldn’t have launched the website in early August without Absolute Web. If we didn’t have them on our team, we would’ve faced a November launch.

They have a huge awareness of tools in the ecosystem that could help us build features without custom development. Their team also recommends fresh approaches to tasks.

How did Absolute Web perform from a project management standpoint?

Their project management was fairly strong. Their technical lead joins all of our standups, all hands, and backlog grooming meetings. We use Slack a lot but also have a check-in via Zoom every day.

What did you find most impressive about them?

What distinguishes them from their competition is their flexibility and willingness to experiment. We wanted to accomplish a project that no other agency wanted to do without all of the warnings that it might not succeed. Absolute Web acknowledged that the project would be difficult but that we would figure it out together. They’re experts in the space.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Although their technical lead played a project manager role, we could both benefit from having someone dedicated to that role. It would be interesting for them to have a dedicated project management resource on their side when the team reaches a certain number of resources.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Absolute Web is fully capable of working with a client that knows exactly what they want. We, however, appreciated their thought partnership. If you’re facing a gnarly problem, they’ll be a great asset to have on your side.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president and co-founder of BHFO, Inc. We’re an internet retailer of clothes, shoes, and accessories.

What challenge were you trying to address with Absolute Web?

When we found Absolute, our goal was to redesign and rebuild our Shopify Plus website within a short timeframe.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Their team transitioned us from a theme-designed, slow website with minimal functionality to a custom website on the Shopify platform. The Absolute team worked with about 4–5 members of our team to launch the website within a two-month timeframe, which allowed us to meet this year’s holiday shopping season. After our site was live, they started to help us with our social and email campaigns.

What is the team composition?

Sergio (COO & Ecommerce Specialist) was our main point of contact, and he directly worked with 4–5 members of our team. On the marketing side, we worked with Matthew (Digital Marketing Specialist).

How did you come to work with Absolute Web?

I found Absolute Web through online searches for website design companies and initially hired them for a website accessibility project about a year ago. During that project, I worked with Sergio who was able to take it from start to finish. For this project, we looked at three different companies but felt that Absolute was the needle in the haystack.

How much have you invested with them?

The web development project cost about $38,000. The social media and email marketing campaigns cost about $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

They started around the end of August, and we went live in November 2020.

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

We launched exactly on time and were able to hit Black Friday and Cyber Monday. We had record results this year. We’ve experienced a 200% lift since launching the website. We’ve also received great feedback. Our business partners and vendors saw the website once it was done, and we only heard grand reviews.

Their team was always a step ahead. We never had to wait on them for anything. We asked them to be available 24/7 to make sure that we hit the deadline, and Absolute did just that. In fact, I emailed them a couple of times to tell them to sleep.

How did Absolute Web perform from a project management standpoint?

We used Microsoft Teams during this project because we were familiar with the product. Their team conformed to our technologies. They feel like a member of our team.

Absolute owned the project for us. We’re amazed by their communication and responsiveness. Their team includes the best project manager that we’ve worked with throughout our 17 years in business.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re comfortable with them like they’re members of our own team. It feels like Absolute cares about our business as much as us. We never have to worry about any step of a project that involves them. When they take on a project, I know that they’ll get it done.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not to my knowledge.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Trust in their ability to understand and achieve your vision. Their team will be able to help you reach your goals without you having to lead them to it.

Please describe your company and your position there.

My name is Alice and I am the Business Development Manager at a pet food company based in Miami, Florida.

For what projects/services did your company hire Absolute Web, and what were your goals?

We hired Absolute Web to re-do our website. Our old website was on Magento and it was outdated and not user friendly. Our goal was to create a Shopify site that gave our brand a premium, natural, and scientific look and feel. We wanted our customers to easily learn about our brand and shop for products.

How did you select Absolute Web and what were the deciding factors?

We found out about Absolute Web by searching on Google for website agencies. The deciding factor was the experience the team conveyed and their professionalism. We liked that the agencies main focus was building websites/ecommerce stores and they had a large portfolio to showcase their experience.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and technologies used.

The objective was to make a brand new Shopify store. Absolute Web had to design the new website, transfer the content/users/orders, integrate a subscription service, and configure redirects to ensure SEO was maintained.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We had direct contact with Slava Fattakhov, which was the project manager.

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

We really liked how the new website came out. We believe it completely revamped our brand and helped position us for the growing ecommerce trend. We have received very positive feedback from customers about the usability and design. The first month we launched our new website will be the best sales we have accomplished so far, which is around 3x higher than our previous average.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timelines.

I truly enjoyed working with Slava. He was very professional, had a lot of patience, was very knowledgeable, and did everything possible to make sure we were happy with the outcome. Slava has great communication skills and met timelines as accorded. I recommend working with Slava and Absolute Web to my friends.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The most impressive aspect about the company is their knowledge about building ecommerce websites across a variety of platforms. They always demonstrated a sense of security and experience for all my inquiries. They were able to accomplish building a website that we envisioned.

Are there any areas for improvement?

The one area of improvement would be for them to recommend me what tools/apps I should use in Shopify to increase our sales. I do not have much experience working on ecommerce so it would have been great if they recommended a series of apps that I should install to be able to analyze insights and increase sales.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We’re a distributor of test measurement and safety gear. I’m the VP of the company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Absolute Web?

We had an older site that was running Magento 1, which is no longer being supported. We needed a vendor to help us migrate to Magento 2.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They migrated our website from Magento 1 to Magento 2. Once we decided to work with Absolute Web, they gave us a scope of work and a time frame. From there, we went back and forth about details for six months.

They sent us several wireframes and mockups, which we approved. We had access to a demo site where we could check the progress of the build as we went along.  

What is the team composition?

Kyle (Senior Project Manager) is our main point of contact.

How did you come to work with Absolute Web?

We reached out to the company that’s hosted our site for many years and they gave us a list of their premium providers. We browsed through the list and found Absolute. Absolute completed a site similar to ours and we really liked how it turned out. We checked their referrals and all of their clients had positive feedback to share.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $60,000 for the initial build. We’ve since spent an additional $10,000 in add-ons.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in July 2020, and we launched in January 2021. We’ve since done several updates to our initial site.

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

Our site appears to have a higher percentage of people going all the way through to an order. It’s really difficult to say for sure. Our revenue has stayed where it needed to be.

They did a good job of maintaining the theme of our old website while still making it look modern and user-friendly. The backend migration was challenging but the overall concept they delivered was great. We’re very happy with the end result.

We had a few glitches when we first launched but they worked through all those very quickly for us. It felt like they definitely had our back in those situations.

How did Absolute Web perform from a project management standpoint?

They were great. The team was very communicative and got any problems figured out. We used email to keep in touch.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Absolute Web did what they said they would do within the timeframe they said they were going to do it. We’re very happy that there weren’t any problems.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they did a great job.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice is to let them know exactly what you want. We were pretty loose with our expectations of the final result. Communicate with them if you want something specific.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the MGR at a car transporter called Coastal Auto Shipping.

What challenge were you trying to address with Absolute Web Services?

We hired Absolute Web Services to redevelop our previous website and still work with them to date.

What was the scope of their involvement? 

Absolute Web Services has been with us since the beginning. We came up with a plan to build our site, describing all of the features we wanted, and they built it on WordPress. Customers now use the site to requests transportation quotes. 

Over the years, they’ve continued to add on to the site as we’ve grown, from new pages and visual updates to various plug-ins and functionality improvements that make it easier for customers to use the site.

What is the team composition? 

We used to work with Sergio (Digital Solutions Manager, Absolute Web Services) but are now with Kyle (E-Commerce Project Manager, Absolute Web Services). Kyle typically takes care of any questions that I might have. I run everything by him, and he makes a plan before setting it up with the rest of the team to execute.

How did you come to work with Absolute Web Services?

We found them through a Google search.

How much have you invested with them?

They're very competitive in terms of rate. We’ve spent between $10,000–$20,000 so far. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them in the summer of 2015, and the engagement is ongoing.

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

Before we worked with Absolute Web Services, a different company had built our previous site, which was a completely different experience. Compared to that, Absolute Web Services’ new site has greatly increased our customer engagement and the number of incoming quotes. It’s because of the functionality—everything is just user-friendly, now.

How did Absolute Web Services perform from a project management standpoint?

They’re quick to respond and are definitely very attentive to every question asked.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their execution is what sets them apart. The way they get things done just works.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They might benefit from talking a bit more over the phone instead of going back and forth in emails.

Please describe your company and your position there.

We are an online culinary and hospital school.

For what projects/services did your company hire Absolute Web Services?

We needed a complete redesign of our WordPress WooCommerce website. This included development and implementation.

What were your goals for this project?

We wanted to eliminate an outdated version of the site and shopping cart so that we could start with a fresh installation that could receive ongoing frontend and backend updates.

How did you select this vendor?

We reviewed a few vendors based on recommendations we found on the WooCommerce website. Based on Absolute Web Services’ specialization in shopping carts, we believed they could not only provide us a great redesign but ongoing development and support as well. We ultimately chose them based on their ability to provide ongoing support.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They did custom UI/UX design and they set up and implemented our development server environment. They configured our online store, did content management and implementation, provided technical SEO, and optimized our website speed.

What was the team composition?

We worked with an account manager, project manager, and developers. The overall size did not change, but some of the members changed depending on what was being worked on.

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

Our business has more than doubled in size, and we wouldn't have been able to support this volume of business with our previous site. We’ve also seen our load time cut in half since the redesign and speed enhancements. And most importantly, we can make changes on an ongoing basis. Without the new design, supporting our business growth would have been impossible.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

We were assigned a project manager, who has been excellent from the start. The project manager proved extremely helpful during brainstorming and was quick to respond to any questions or concerns. We use a combination of Dropbox Paper for outlining projects and tasks and Slack for real-time questions and updates, along with email.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

Their communication style made a difference. We’ve dealt with vendors who were hard to get a hold of, especially after we’d paid them. Absolute Web Services is always responsive. We rarely even talk because our process with documenting tasks and communicating via Slack is so effective.

Are there any areas for improvement?

If I were to pick on something relatively minor, it would be naming conventions, but that's because I'm a nerd. It’s superficial and hasn't caused us any issues.

Please describe your company and your position there.

WPI is Laboratory equipment manufacturer and supplier for biomedical research equipment. Our customers are university research centers, biotech companies, pharmaceutical companies, life science researchers, veterinarians. We have 4K active products. The main product are differentiated animal physiology, electrophysiology and tissue and cell biology laboratory products.

For what projects/services did your company hire Absolute Web Services?

Website management, functional improvement and trouble shooting.

What were your goals for this project?

We moved website from closed platform to Magento and it wasn't stable at the beginning. We would like to make sure that the website is stable, have good basic structure and better function moving forward.

How did you select this vendor?

Interview their knowledgeable, year or experience, number of team member and reasonable cost.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

They maintain our current functions, fix what wrong in the past and we have plan to making the next website soon.

What was the team composition?

They have the main project manager with direct communicate with us, and so many role behind the scene. All jobs done right from many team supports and team knowledgeable.

Can you share any information that demonstrates the impact that this project has had on your business?

We have the ability to meet our goals and deadlines of each tasks with them. They understand the platform and delivery of alternative solutions for us to decide. So we have had to meet our business goal with the help.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Quick response every day, we don't have to wait for the reply email and no need to follow any task.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

They have a nice team, made of experts in the field. The project manager is very easy to work with. Make our task list seem smaller and not a big deal. they make it all easy for us. I love that they role the remaining hrs of the month to next month with very repressive. No other companies I know doing this.

Are there any areas for improvement?

I would suggest for them to offer to us about what we should be improved, what we should be done better and suggestions compare to our competitor, not only get task requests for us. They are more expert than us, it was nice if they tell us what it should be. But overall we are happy with Absolute Web Service.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of technology and applications for a management consulting company. However, I’m the interim CTO for an e-commerce company in this project.

What challenge were you trying to address with Absolute Web?

We were rebuilding our e-commerce storefront as well as converting it to a multi-store model in order to fuel international growth.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Absolute Web started by sharing what the project would look like based on the project parameters I gave them. After that, they took charge of the development and design work of our e-commerce platform. We have them on retainer now for the post-project deliverables. To be specific, they continue to make additions and expansions on our e-commerce storefront.

What is the team composition?

We’re working with a developer, designer, and project manager.

How did you come to work with Absolute Web?

I narrowed down the list of companies I found on the WordPress premier directory, and I ended up choosing Absolute Web because they already finished projects that were similar to the problem we were solving. On top of that, their pricing was competitive.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent around $50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in August 2021, and we continue to collaborate. They finished our initial e-commerce site in November 2021.

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

We’re extremely happy with the results of the project. In fact, we've been able to do an initial launch with the e-commerce site they've completed. We’re also impressed with the skills of their developer.

How did Absolute Web perform from a project management standpoint?

We’ve had an extremely aggressive timeline with the initial e-commerce site, but Absolute Web still finished the project on time and on budget. We have project managers on both sides, which allows us to move really fast. We communicate through email, and we have biweekly meetings to review the project's progress and to talk about the next deliverables they should accomplish.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Absolute Web is flexible, and they’re willing to adjust the timeline as needed. On top of that, they always figure out how to make things work. We also appreciate that they know when to say yes and when to push back.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they have no areas to improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Before coming into the engagement, I already created a project brief and I knew what I wanted them to prioritize. In connection with that, I’d suggest future clients to come to Absolute Web with a vision of their project and have a willingness to constantly reprioritize in order to achieve their objectives.