Always Open Commerce

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the President of an astrophotography equipment reseller.

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Experts resellers in astrophotography and related equipment in Canada. Selling online since 2014.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Always Open Commerce to accomplish?

Website redesign on the Big Commerce Platform

SOLUTION

How did you find Always Open Commerce?

Referral

Why did you select Always Open Commerce over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

• Migration of data from existing site 
• Re-organize product information into new Big Commerce Format 
• Create new home page with new menu system 
• Deliver on time. This was the most important factor

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

The use of Hubstaff was crucial to see the work being completed. This allowed me to monitor the project to stay on target for launch. The launch date was crucial as it was a hard date. AOC presented a scope that allowed for the date to be hit. That was the biggest measure

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

Their project management was full of communication. The online platform HubStaff was used which allowed for effective communication. Meeting requests over zoom were never a problem. Keep in mind that the work is being done off shore, so there is a delay in responses because of time zones, or I just had to work at night. This might not be an issue for your project though. Delivery was always on schedule

What was your primary form of communication with Always Open Commerce?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

The initial proposal included a detailed example of what the site could look like. Any changes that needed approval always had an example.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Always Open Commerce could have done differently?

I feel the statement of work could have been a little more clear on the offshore work. I'm not apposed to this, but I missed it in the statement of work.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the CEO at a lighting solutions company

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

E-Commerce

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Always Open Commerce to accomplish?

• Web Developement
• Web Design
• Graphic Design

SOLUTION

How did you find Always Open Commerce?

Indeed

Why did you select Always Open Commerce over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Always Open Commerce were assigned to this project?

6-10 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

We used freelancers for years, and switched e-commerce platform multiple times over the years, which made it very hard to find & keep a consistent, reliable, and knowledgeable web developer. As a result of this, we ended up trying to hire an in-house web developer, which was much more costly, but also turned out to have very limited in skill set for high salary. 

After 2-3 in-house position that ended up not working, we circled back with AOC who had reached out few months prior with their value proposal of an all-in-one agency. At first, we wanted to stir away from such agency, but the ability to have a web developer, web designer, graphic designer, among other services offered, all packed in one hourly package fee started making more sense for our company. We've now been using AOC for 1.5+ years and we couldn't be more satisfied. 

We currently average 120+ work hours between graphic designer (landing pages, blast email, advertising material), marketplace management (new product upload, and catalog data management), blast email, website design/development, among other. tasks. We're able to accurately track time spent on each task, and by whom, which makes it very easy to understand where our budget is going. The project manager, and team are always very responsive, and go above and beyond to complete the tasks at hand. 

By using AOC for over 1.5+ years, it has become easier and easier to work with them, and complete our tasks, as the devs now know us, our products, what we like and dont like, as well as our expectations. So some tasks that would require many revisions in the past, are typically completed much faster, as we really know what to expect, and they know how to deliver. Overall, great company, great team, great value, I would highly recommend AOC!

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Still working with AOC on many ongoing projects

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

They deliver by dateline and are prompt to respond to our inquiries.

What was your primary form of communication with Always Open Commerce?

Email or Messaging App

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

All In One Pricing Plan is great as it allows you to use different skill set based on the needs. one project/task usually goes through 3-5 people from start to completion. which would make it much complicated if we had 5 different freelancer from different agencies.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Always Open Commerce could have done differently?

They're a very good, honest company, and have delivered on the projects as needed, so keep up the good work

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Ecommerce Manager of Catalyst

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Ecommerce retail and storefront retail.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Always Open Commerce to accomplish?

• Build ecommerce website
• Transfer us to that ecommerce website
• Manage that ecommerce website

SOLUTION

How did you find Always Open Commerce?

Referral

Why did you select Always Open Commerce over others?

• High ratings
• Great culture fit
• Good value for cost
• Referred to me
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Always Open Commerce were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

Always Open Commerce helped us design a Big Commerce Ecommerce store. They helped us transfer from Magento to our new Big Commerce store as well as help us optimize and manage it.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Our sales have grown by over 50% since we took their advise on switching to Big Commerce as well as their advise and help with site design and optimization.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

They met all deadlines and were very responsive. We had a personal project manager who was amazing!

What was your primary form of communication with Always Open Commerce?

Virtual Meeting

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

Their pricing structure provides a lot of visibility and makes their service more affordable then others.

Are there any areas for improvement or something Always Open Commerce could have done differently?

No, they did a great job!

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and position.

I am the Content Manager of Holistic Trader Ltd

Describe what your company does in a single sentence.

Ecommerce business that sells Holistic & Wellness online gifts.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What specific goals or objectives did you hire Always Open Commerce to accomplish?

Ongoing eCommerce Developments

SOLUTION

How did you find Always Open Commerce?

Online Search

Why did you select Always Open Commerce over others?

• Pricing fit our budget
• Good value for cost
• Company values aligned

How many teammates from Always Open Commerce were assigned to this project?

2-5 Employees

Describe the scope of work in detail. Please include a summary of key deliverables.

A variety of tasks such as bug fixes, graphic changes, work within Bigcommerce, Google and ongoing UX Reviews and General website reviews.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What were the measurable outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?

Quick turnaround, very efficient, communicative, excellent understanding of the basis of the tasks.

Describe their project management. Did they deliver items on time? How did they respond to your needs?

They deliver results incredibly quickly - in fact much quicker than expected! Communication was above and beyond, we would receive very timely replies to any queries.

What was your primary form of communication with Always Open Commerce?

• Virtual Meeting
• Email or Messaging App

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

AOC have been great to work with, we’ve been extremely impressed with their efficiency, attention to detail, and excellent communication. All of our tasks have been completed to perfection, it has been like a breath of fresh air for us. We would highly recommend them!

Are there any areas for improvement or something Always Open Commerce could have done differently?

None so far