Future Holidays

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the e-commerce marketing growth manager at Intelligent Blends, and we sell direct-to-consumer coffee, tea, K-cups, and related products through our e-commerce website.

What challenge were you trying to address with Future Holidays?

Towards the end of 2020, we decided to revamp our website and make it more usable for our customers. We wanted to ease a customer’s journey on our website and have them converted faster. We needed help in e-commerce development.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Future Holidays was our agency of choice for e-commerce development, but they were so much more than that. They helped us rebuild our website, revamp our brand, improve our customer retention strategies, and work on our customer acquisition channels. 

For this project, we started by discussing our goals, design preferences, and other relevant data for our Shopify website with Future Holiday’s team. They then built the design, and they used different tools to share their work. We reviewed their output, added features, and finalized details. 

However, our CEO changed our business strategy about 3–4 weeks before we were supposed to launch. We transitioned from focusing on one-time purchases to a subscription model. 

Despite the sudden change, Future Holidays successfully pivoted — they delivered the website, and everything was exactly as our CEO wanted. After the site was launched, we implemented adjustments and optimizations to our website. 

Future Holidays also gave us insight and advice on how we could approach social media marketing. They helped us tailor some of the messages that we might have on paid search. 

We didn’t do much for SEO other than ensuring our website’s pages were optimized. Nonetheless, Future Holidays did as best as possible with the given parameters to ensure that SEO best practices were implemented on our site.  

Lastly, Future Holidays helped us determine our brand presentation and messaging. They interviewed our CEO and my team to get insights. They also assisted us with color schemes, typography, and tone.

What is the team composition?

I regularly worked with Ryan (Founder), David (Email Marketing Manager), a project manager, and a lead developer. We also worked with numerous backend resources for various tasks, including a designer, a copywriter, and some developers.

How did you come to work with Future Holidays?

My company was already working with Future Holidays before I came in.

How much have you invested with them?

We had a basic retainer with them for 30 hours per month, which we were paying close to $10,000 monthly. We used more hours for the e-commerce development project, and we spent upwards of $25,000 that month. After the site was launched and we were only doing tests and tweaks, we paid them $10,000–$20,000 per month. 

What is the status of this engagement?

For this project, our engagement lasted from September 2020–April 2021. 

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

Thanks to Future Holidays, our conversion rate was performing excellently. 

How did Future Holidays perform from a project management standpoint?

When we first started, I handled the project management to ensure things were getting done. However, Future Holidays brought their project manager sometime later, and they had been a lifesaver. Their project manager handled everything on Future Holidays’ side — they identified priorities and monitored task completion.  

We used Trello to collaborate, and I texted their team if needed. Additionally, our teams had weekly calls, monthly reviews, and quarterly assessments.

Future Holidays’ team was very personable, and they had lots of ideas. We always had a great time during our calls with their team. Although their team was relatively small, they had a broad skill set.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Ryan had a balance of creativity and technical expertise. We could talk about marketing all day long, and I could always bounce ideas off of him. He gave us various insights about the industry, and he also had his ideas.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Future Holidays could have improved their transparency into how hours were used. Not that they ever overcharged us — I knew they worked for more hours than the hours they billed us. However, our leadership wanted to understand how specific hours were spent. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be ready for a team that goes all-in into the work they’ll be doing. Give them access and the freedom to review your whole website. 

One of the reasons Future Holidays worked well for us was because I fully trusted them and gave them complete access to our Shopify Plus store. They had my confidence in everything. If you give them that, they can do their work, and they can also see areas for opportunities and optimization.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of a company called Robin Golf, a direct-to-consumer golf equipment business.

What challenge were you trying to address with Future Holidays?

Our website was launched in March 2020 and it was built by our creative agency. It was developed using a headless architecture, which at the time sounded cool. However, we learned that it was a pretty difficult tech stack to develop with. 

It was also hard to make changes to the site and labor-intensive compared to when an entire site would be hosted on Shopify. As a result, we brought on Future Holidays because they had a background and expertise in web development, specifically on headless architecture. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Our site was built on Shopify and it hosted our products and our checkout experience. Prismic was our frontend CMS. Meanwhile, Google Cloud and HostGator served as our backend hosting sites. 

Essentially, we brought the team to do incremental website optimizations and larger conversion rate optimizations. That includes optimizing the placement and display of our reviews. They also helped in creating the welcome banner on our site, which also features our deals or holiday sales from time to time. 

The team also did a bit of email marketing for us. Valentina (Account Manager) put together several automated flows for us. They had organized a campaign when we restocked some of our items. They also implemented an email capture lightbox onto our homepage, so when prospective customers show up on our site, they could put in their email and they could get a discount. 

What is the team composition?

We worked directly with three people, including Ryan (Founder), Valentina, and their lead developer. We had regular access to them.  

How did you come to work with Future Holidays?

I am part of a Slack channel community and I posted if anybody had recommendations for website development teams. In the end, Future Holidays was highly recommended and we interviewed several other companies. However, Future Holidays was the only company that could develop and code within a headless environment. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent approximately $27,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement ran from July 2020–January 2021.

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

Unfortunately, I don’t have any hard data on the impact of the Shopify site. However, one of the great things about them was how they were just extremely organized. They helped us indicate the best course of action and even shared their experience with third-party clients. Furthermore, their email marketing efforts contributed to about $10,000 in direct revenue which was made possible within 1–2 days. They certainly had expertise in email marketing. 

How did Future Holidays perform from a project management standpoint?

They had good project management skills. Everything was documented, and they showed strong communication skills. The team was also very collaborative. 

They performed very well despite being assigned to implement changes in a difficult tech environment. Moreover, even though it was pretty challenging to code within our site, they did things quickly and on budget.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We were impressed with Valentina, who did all of our email marketing because we saw the direct impact from that. They were also transparent; I was confident with what was going on and aware of when things were being done. 

They were also the only ones who could code within our headless environment, so I think that was pretty amazing. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

I don’t think they have areas they could improve. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Look at the work they have done for past clients and check how it has directly resulted in a measurable impact on the businesses of their stakeholders. For example, in our case, the direct result we have was the $10,000 revenue we got from our email marketing campaigns.

When we interviewed them, they made a couple of optimization changes to the website flow of a former client which resulted in an increased conversion rate of half a percent, which was fairly significant. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder of an e-commerce company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Future Holidays?

We needed help with web page design. We also wanted help with on-page SEO.

What was the scope of their involvement?

First, we had a consultation with them. Then, I met with their team to explain what I wanted. Next, they put together a mockup of what the website would look like. Finally, they developed the site for me. We provided the content and they structured the pages.

What is the team composition?

I work with three people from their team.

How did you come to work with Future Holidays?

I took a look at their websites and liked how they were designed and structured.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent $15,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in June 2020, and we wrapped up in August 2020.

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

They’re a very professional company and they’re very easy to work with. The team takes care of almost everything when it comes to actual site development.

How did Future Holidays perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicated via Zoom and email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their best attribute is their design.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, nothing comes to mind.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the marketing manager for the restaurant side of RMD Group, a hospitality group.

What challenge were you trying to address with Future Holidays?

We’ve worked with Future Holidays to build websites for two of our venues. They were responsible for creating, coding and launching both of our sites for the two concepts. We had a smorgasbord of ideas that we developed with an outside branding group that they were able to put together into a sleek website for us.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They built two WordPress sites from the ground-up.

First, they made glorified splash pages for us. When the project had delays on our end, they were able to come in, build-out, and release other parts of the sites so that we still made progress while we waited for permits. 

Also, while we worked with an outside branding agency, they did some design work with color palettes and animated graphics.

What is the team composition?

I’ve worked with four people from Future Holidays, and we just hired them on a flex retainer so we’ll keep some members of their team around.

How did you come to work with Future Holidays?

We were looking for a strategic partner. Since our company has grown, we're right on the cusp of having a bandwidth issue in-house. We were looking for a company that could be a technical partner who’s both an extension of our team and a master of their space, and we found Future Holidays.

How much have you invested with them?

We invested between $10,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began the work sometime around April 2019, and 99% of the design is done as of January 2020. We’ll keep working with Future Holidays in the future as they're now on flex retainer. 

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

The UI is great both for us and for our guests. They really focused on user design and UX, and the site is really developed and advanced.

I work specifically on four different restaurant web sites within our hospitality group. The two sites that Future Holidays designed are, by far, the easiest sites to navigate and use. The sites are very user-friendly, and they made it possible to troubleshoot from my end.

How did Future Holidays perform from a project management standpoint?

It’s super easy to work with Future Holidays. They utilize Trello for project management, and I can easily drop a question whenever I want and they’ll quickly follow-up and respond.

It’s easy to track progress as well. If there’s a delay, we could find how who or what was causing the delay. The delays were usually on our end, and this allowed us to quickly rectify the problem.

I don’t believe Future Holidays ever missed a deadline. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re great all around. So far no complaints, they’re one of my favorite vendors.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nope.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Make sure you have all your ducks in a row—they can only work with what they’re given. The more information you give them, the better the feedback they can give you and the more they have to work with.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the director of innovation at the Museum of Photographic Arts.

What challenge were you trying to address with Future Holidays?

We reached out to Future Holidays because we wanted to get more in-depth and resolve challenges with our site. We had a number of technical issues with a website we built in 2017 through WordPress. 

We needed someone who was familiar with WordPress and not only knew to resolve the issues but could also help us with the next steps. We want our website to be easily accessible for our users and also show videos of what we have on display.  

What was the scope of their involvement?

Future Holidays went in the backend and worked on several revisions. Our exhibitions are now properly displayed in the right fields so that when someone visits our site they can easily find the different categories. They also worked out a solution to better display our different hours on the site. They used careful processes to find the right resolution that works with us and also for our visitors.

What is the team composition?

I worked mainly with their owner and lead designer, project manager, and front-facing customer service staff.

How did you come to work with Future Holidays?

They reached out to us because they were familiar with our organization. Future Holidays wanted to get more involved with nonprofit clients, so they were excited to work with us. We did some thorough vetting because we have had some experience with other companies. 

We were careful about hiring someone that had the right qualities that we were looking for. We took the time to do a small project with them and showed they were the right company to work with. 

How much have you invested with them?

We have spent between $10,000–$25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in August 2019 and the relationship is still ongoing.

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

Future Holidays has clearly demonstrated they are guiding us on the right path that will improve the experience of our visitors on our site. The changes have been very recent, so we haven't had a chance to measure its numerical impact.

How did Future Holidays perform from a project management standpoint?

I am very happy with Future Holidays’ communication skills. They are always clear to help us understand their intentions and show how they’ll accomplish our goals. As a museum, we don’t have the type of technology that they have. They’re very good at helping us break it down and providing solutions that we can then implement. This has been so critical for us being non-technical people.

They use online project management boards that allow me to check-in at any time to see the status of the project. I am able to easily respond with feedback and take the next steps with them. Usually, within a few days, we can make a lot of progress very quickly.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They understand that nonprofits and museums like ours have very specific needs and they have to be adaptable to us. We don’t easily fit into a model that other industries do, so they’ve always been extremely adaptable in understanding where we’re coming from, and helping us find solutions that are data-driven. This is so important for us because we have such limited resources. 

It has been hard to follow projects that cost a lot of money and result in little impact, but they are really good at helping us reach a successful project. Also, they’ve been smart about helping us understand how to change and adapt over time so that we can improve and reach our visitors in the right way.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be open to Future Holidays’ data-based decision-making process. Give them time to collect data and analyze it before sharing the results so that the money for the project is fully utilized. 

It was a little bit of a challenge for us at first because we aren't familiar with this type of process, but once we saw the data, it made everything so much more clear and understandable. I understand the challenge for some organizations that are not used to doing that, especially when it challenges the perception you already have.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the owner and CEO of MJH Studios, a designer boutique and personal styling showroom.

What challenge were you trying to address with Future Holidays?

My store only has a physical location so far, and I wanted to expand my business. So, I hired Future Holidays to bring the vibe of my storefront to an online site to reach a bigger client base.

What was the scope of their involvement?

I sat down with Ryan (Founder & Chief Creative Office, Future Holidays) to discuss the project, and he gave me two directions to go in. I picked one, and then he began work on the site.

What is the team composition?

I worked with four people. Ryan led the team, and my main point of contact was Diane (E-Commerce Project Manager, Future Holidays). Diane was superb, always getting back to me quickly and leading weekly reviews. 

How did you come to work with Future Holidays?

I searched for web developers and picked the one whose site had an aesthetic that best matched what I wanted to do. It also was a perk that Ryan was in San Diego, so he could come into my store to see my vision.

How much have you invested with them?

I’ve invested around $20,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project began at the beginning of November 2019 and wrapped up in January 2020.

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

While the site isn’t live yet, I’m already so excited. I really like the way they presented not just my products but also my brand. They captured my vibe well, and I think it’ll result in a real big change in business.

How did Future Holidays perform from a project management standpoint?

I gave them a short window to complete the project, and they kept the timeline. They checked in every week to say they were still on track to deliver, and then they delivered.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their most impressive feature was their level of communication. I’m not a very technically savvy person, but they explained everything well and would walk me through what they were working on.

They were in constant communication with me and were very patient. They would answer every question I would have and follow-up with me later.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I don’t think so. I’m really thrilled with what they’ve presented to me.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Schedule a time to chat with them because they’re spending a lot of time to make sure the product is exactly what you’re looking for. Take advantage of this, and be sure to tell them what you want.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a wealth management firm. I'm a strategic advisor.

What challenge were you trying to address with Future Holidays?

We started our own business, and we hired them to help us develop our website.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We asked them for a minimalist website to appeal to our target users. It securely houses sensitive information, and was specifically designed to be easy to navigate.

What is the team composition?

We worked with a team of about three.

How did you come to work with Future Holidays?

A marketing firm we use referred them. Speed was important to us, and they gave a good impression in the introductory call. We were confident that they could deliver for us.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent just under $10,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in mid-July 2019 and ended the project in early September 2019.

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

The site is not our primary lead generator, but it is very professional looking, easy to use, and secure. No one has trouble logging on.

How did Future Holidays perform from a project management standpoint?

We had a view video conference calls with them, and we went through some iterations. If we ever had a quick question, we could email them. They sent weekly updates, and the process ran very smoothly.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're excellent communicators, and they're very creative. They always understood what we wanted, and they were quick to take any feedback when we needed them to make a change.

Are there any areas they could improve?

We had one revision to the proposal, but that had nothing to do with them. They were always responsive, and their work was effective.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Explain exactly what you want, and be forthright. They're very accommodating.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the marketing coordinator of a specialized real estate investor and operator.

For what projects/services did your company hire Future Holidays?

We engaged Future Holidays to redesign our website. We wanted to do a better job of reflecting our modern logo and providing our clients with an easier way to find more information about our company.

What were your goals for this project?

We hoped to complete a website redesign quickly and with minimal downtime.

How did you select this vendor?

We learned of Future Holidays through another agency. Although we considered other vendors, Future Holidays was the best fit for our project because of our anticipated timeframe of completion. It was also evident that they would have little trouble working with our design team.

Describe the project and the services they provided in detail.

We held a kickoff meeting with Future Holidays and our design team to gain a better understanding of the necessary steps in our project. Once we approved the process, wireframes, and mock-ups, Future Holidays began their work in designing and developing our new site and features. They gave us functional versions to test, and we provided feedback for them to make adjustments and improvements. We continued that iterative process until we felt the website was complete and could be launched.

What was the team composition?

We worked with six people from Future Holidays, but certain individuals were more involved than others depending on the workload and specific tasks. Our point of contact was always present, though.

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

Future Holidays managed to redesign and launch our website without issue. We are proud to have a more professional website that reflects our company and team well.

How was project management arranged and how effective was it?

Our project manager was accommodating and informative. Compared to other vendors, we worked with a far more professional team at Future Holidays. They complied with all deadlines, and though they worked to minimize any foreseeable issues, they were very transparent when communicating those delays.

What did you find most impressive about this company?

We had direct access to the project manager and the wider team assigned to the project as needed. This helped us avoid any directions getting lost or misunderstood when communicating through email. We appreciated having those open lines of communication.

Are there any areas for improvement?

No, we worked very well together. I’d advise future clients to log as many details as possible within a shared document to avoid stray ideas or notes.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the director of marketing and creative at Edens Garden. We're an aromatherapy company.

What challenge were you trying to address with Future Holidays?

We use Shopify for our e-commerce stores, and we needed a vendor to help us customize our backend.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Future Holidays redid our whole website. They used a Shopify theme, but they custom-coded each page for us. They also customized our rewards program and made our search options more user-friendly. We have our own design team, but Future Holidays helped us figure out where users are likely to click so that we could put text in the correct places.

What is the team composition?

We mostly interacted with their owner and an account manager, but they had a whole team dedicated to our project.

How did you come to work with Future Holidays?

We interviewed a few different development companies, and Future Holidays seemed the most approachable. They spoke our language and proposed a realistic and practical way of handling things, so we decided they'd be a good fit.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $25,000–$50,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them between January–June 2018.

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

They provided a lot of insight into our email newsletter program that goes out every week. It's been a big initiative this year, and it can generate more profit for us as we move forward. They also helped us make our promotions and discounts on the website more user-friendly.

How did Future Holidays perform from a project management standpoint?

They're very straightforward and responsive. If we had changes, they usually got back to us the same day. We used a Trello board to track our projects, and we had weekly calls to go over everything.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They're very friendly and easy to work with. They didn't talk to us in a coding language and explained complex subjects in simple terms. When they suggested an idea, they explained how it'd work for us instead of telling us how it'd work for a different company.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, we're happy with everything.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

They're very responsive to feedback, so let them know if there is an issue. They helped us resolve all the issues with the website very quickly.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of implementation and marketing at medifriendRX. We do pharmacy automation dispensing.

What challenge were you trying to address with Future Holidays?

We hired them for marketing and outreach.

What was the scope of their involvement?

Future Holidays does marketing campaigns for Google, social media, and email. I’ve collected the list of potential clients’ emails.

What is the team composition?

We work with three people.

How did you come to work with Future Holidays?

Our team received a referral and hired Future Holidays to build our website. As a result of that positive experience, we asked them to submit a bid for a six-month marketing campaign. Their response was concise and clear. We moved forward with that engagement because the team could provide the support we needed.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $36,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in October 2018 and the partnership is ongoing.

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

No, because we haven’t launched yet. Anecdotally, the tea is smart, organized, and responsive.

How did Future Holidays perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate at least twice a week via email and hold weekly meetings. We trust the team and their expertise.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The team’s Excel spreadsheets are highly organized, detailing the status of each item in the campaign. Not only do they track everything, but also answer our questions quickly.  

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything.