Command C

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

This collaboration occurred when I was with Doppler Labs as their director of marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Command C?

We needed to build and develop an e-commerce website to effectively market our products.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We were selling audio products and ear technology such as outset earplugs, High Fidelity earplugs, and wireless earbuds that can be adjusted through the company’s app. Our site needed to be a place customers could visit to learn about our company and products in addition to making purchases.

They are primarily a development agency, and their expertise is helping clients like ourselves by pinpointing what’s possible with design from a development standpoint. They essentially helped us build our site. They helped us choose Shopify as our e-commerce platform and helped through the development process once we had designed the site. Although they built the site using existing Shopify templates, they customized our check out functions and other site details to our specifications. They would share staging versions of the site before it went live, so that we could provide comments and bug fixes. They helped push the site live and fix any issues as well as develop further iterations of the site. We typically worked on a project by project basis with them. We would define a project, then set a budget for that project.

What is the team composition?

We worked with one primary developer and one project manager, but there may have been more people working behind the scenes.

How did you come to work with Command C?

We had decided to work with them before I joined the company. My understanding is that we knew we needed to build an online presence in order to sell our products, and we looked at a range of different agencies, but they actually came recommended to us by companies we worked with on marketing. Based on their experience and other clients that had worked with them, we decided to collaborate with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $50,000-$200,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them around August 2015, and we finished collaborating in November 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We found the site to be very effective for what we wanted it to do. They customized the site to our specifications, and we saw increased conversion rates throughout the various site iterations. The site conveyed the look and feel of our brand and was distinct from other Shopify sites in the market as a result of their work.

How did Command C perform from a project management standpoint?

They were diligent throughout our collaboration. We had a project manager act as our point person on a daily basis, and the owner of the firm would also step in as needed. They had a good project management system that enabled us to communicate effectively, and they stayed on top of their work extremely well. We primarily communicated using Basecamp.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their expertise in e-commerce makes them stand out from other agencies. This was the reason that drew us to work with them in the first place and made them a good fit for us. They also focused specifically on the development side of the project, which we appreciated. We wanted to handle design with our in-house design team to ensure that our design was consistent with our brand, and then hand it over to them for development. However, their team stayed in touch with our design team throughout development.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There are always challenges when you're working with an agency instead of an in-house team, but there wasn't anything that we would have changed or done differently.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure they’re the right fit for you. Command C works particularly well if you’re building an e-commerce site. It is also important to consider your in-house design capabilities because they don’t focus on design. They're a strong partner to work with, but you have to know what services you’re looking for.