Diff Agency

BACKGROUND

Could you briefly describe your company?

We are a conservation organization. We are the World Wildlife Foundation of Canada.

What is your position in the company?

I’m the head of digital.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What were the business challenges you were attempting to address when initiating the projects with Ben Crudo Consulting?

One of the things was improved usability on the site. For us that was extremely important. We had a site before, but we wanted this new site to have an improved interface. We wanted users to be able to complete their desired tasks more conveniently. That was one big objective of our redesign. Our other objective was to improve conversion rates on the site, and there was a target for that. We wanted to achieve a 40 percent improvement in conversion rates on the site. On the efficiency side, we wanted to manage the site and product more easily because the old system relied on the vendor to perform all of the updates. We wanted to have more control over that area in order to improve efficiencies.

SOLUTION

What eCommerce platform was this project initiated on?

Shopify.

Do you recall why you selected Shopify as your preferred solution rather than some of its competitors?

The original RFP did not specify the platform that we wanted to use. This was a recommendation that came back to us. Based on the details in the brief, they thought that Shopify would be the best solution. The other aspect was the cost of running an eCommerce site on Shopify, which would be modest compared to alternative solutions. It’s a decent solution. We’re very happy with it so far.

How did you select Ben Crudo Consulting as your solution partner?

He was brought on through another partner. The original respondent of this RFP was a company named T4G Limited and Ben Crudo works closely with T4G. T4G sometimes uses third-party vendors, because once they identified Shopify was the appropriate platform for us, they wanted to bring in an expert. That’s how our relationship began, and it was completely transparent to us from the beginning. T4G made sure we understood that they were bringing in a partner; it was even included in their formal response to our RFP.

Which parts of the project did you contribute to with your in-house expertise?

We contributed content, project management, oversight, and user-experience expertise. We guided that process very closely because we do have significant expertise in-house. We couldn’t contribute to the custom design and development because we don’t have those capabilities in-house.

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

I’d say it was approximately $65,000.

When was this project completed?

It was completed by the end of September.

How long did the process take from conception to launch?

The entire process spanned 14 weeks.

Was that the estimated timeframe?

We might have been a few days over, but it wasn’t a big deal because we wanted everything in proper order before the launch.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

In terms of results, could you any statistics or metrics that would demonstrate the effectiveness of the work that they delivered to you?

What I can tell you is that we’ve achieved the original goals that we had set out in terms of improved usability and conversion rates. We wanted like a 40 percent increase in conversion rates. We wanted to increase the efficiencies on our end as well to manage the products. I can’t divulge specific data with you, but I can tell you that we continue to make improvements beyond our initial goals.

How do you feel that Ben Crudo Consulting performed on this project?

It’s been a very positive experience. They’re very responsive and very knowledgeable. They were willing to make things work for us, and I can also say that they went above and beyond many times. The scope of the project was very clear, and they did additional work without ever complaining or saying, “Oh, this is beyond our defined scope.” They’ve been an extraordinary service provider to us.

In retrospect, are there any areas that you feel Ben Crudo Consulting could improve upon or that you might do differently as the client before approaching this kind of project?

We’ve been quite pleased overall. It’s always the crunch time of launching that makes everybody a little bit nervous. There’s always the challenge of working with two companies, and I certainly prefer to work with one company. It’s been challenging only because we have to manage two as opposed to one solution partner. However, I don’t think it impacted the outcome of the project at all.

BACKGROUND

Could you briefly describe your company?

We’re an Australian tailored, fashion brand for both men and women.

What is your position in the company?

I’m the Operations Manager.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What were your company’s business goals for initiating the project with Ben Crudo Consulting?

Really quite simple, it was just approved that our product and concept could work online. We have successful stores in Melbourne, Australia, but we hadn’t yet ventured into ecommerce. I wanted to first and foremost prove that our brand could work without the level of service that we’re able to provide on a face-to face-basis.

SOLUTION

How did end up selecting Ben Crudo Consulting as your solution partner?

I found them in the Shopify Experts directory along with four other candidates. I began from there and contacted each potential firm. Once I had spoken with the Ben Crudo team, I knew they were going to be the ones for the job. They came very highly qualified as developers and designers, but they seemed much more accessible than I might have suspected. We were able to negotiate and define requirements for the project in a straight forward manner, which is something I’m not generally accustomed to when I work with IT professionals.

Could you describe the scope of the project in terms of its components: did it involve custom design, development, training, support, etc.?

It was a full-scale implementation. They helped us select a handful of premade templates to begin building on. They then delivered custom mock-ups and designed the final interface. After that we worked on some add-ons and integrated the platform with our website. Ben Crudo also trained our staff as we progressed through the build stage, and there’s been some support involved for minor troubleshooting.

Could you give us a sense of the size of that initiative in either monetary terms or the number of personnel dedicated to the project?

The development and design work was priced at between $6,000-$7,000. The full implementation including launch was approximately $10,000.

When was this project completed?

The site launched end of April 2012.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

In terms of results, could you share any statistics or metrics that would demonstrate the effectiveness of their work?

That’s difficult between we didn’t have monitoring and reporting capabilities prepared until a few months after the launch. We also had very little expectations going into the project since it was our first foray into ecommerce. At present, we’re looking at slightly over 75,000 unique visitors per year, which isn’t fantastic, but it’s also more than we were initially expecting. The average purchase yield from the site is about $300.00, which is actually quite great. We’ll have a better understanding and grasp of the site’s effectiveness as time goes on, but for right now it’s difficult to really pinpoint.

When working with Ben Crudo Consulting, is there anything that you would consider unique or special as compared to other service providers you’ve collaborated with?

Their accessibility is the biggest thing in my mind. The time zone differential can make it more difficult to schedule convenient times to speak, but in general, they’re on call 24 hours a day for support issues. And I can also submit requests via their website and a developer usually responds within a few hours. That’s not the kind of service I’m very used to.

In retrospect, are there any areas that you feel Ben Crudo could have improved upon or that you might do differently as a client approaching this kind of project?

To be honest, I really can’t think of anything. I’ve been very pleased with my experience and with the site we’ve created together.