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We Are Your Strategic Partners in eCommerce

5.0
3 reviews

Northern is Canada's Leading eCommerce Agency. We deliver enterprise eCommerce solutions for retail, manufacturing & wholesale. We specialize in building Magento & Shopify websites, and provide full-service digital marketing solutions. From the stages of planning to promotion, our goal is to help you launch & maintain a successful eCommerce initiative.

 
$25,000+
 
$100 - $149 / hr
 
50 - 249
 Founded
2015
Show all +
London, Canada
headquarters
  • 300 Wellington Street, Unit 200
    London, ON N6B 2L5
    Canada
    866-930-4608
other locations
  • 1245 Caledonia Rd, Unit 200
    Toronto, ON M6A 2X6
    Canada
    866-930-4608

Portfolio

Key clients: 

Rexall, Western University, The City of London, Trudell Medical, Nature Fresh Farms, Start.ca, Stormtech, Oxford Learning, tentree, William Ashley, The Royal Conservatory, Gongshow Gear, The Salvation Army, Carnivore Club

Reviews

5.0
3 reviews
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Web Dev & Digital Advertising for Marketing Company

“I've done my due diligence and have never found a team that comes close to Northern Commerce.”

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5.0

Quality: 
5.0
Schedule: 
5.0
Cost: 
4.0
Willing to refer: 
5.0
The Project
 
$200,000 to $999,999
 
Oct. 2013 - Ongoing
Project summary: 

Northern Commerce built Canadian and U.S. versions of a WordPress site with e-commerce and 1,000 pages of content. Their digital marketing strategy encompasses Google AdWords, PPC, SEO, and social media.

The Reviewer
 
1-10 Employees
 
Ontario, Canada
Founder, Kre'Adiv House
 
Verified
The Review
Feedback summary: 

For 5-6 years, Northern Commerce’s digital advertising and SEO campaigns have generated 10-20% annual growth in online lead generation, web traffic, and both paid and organic search results. Working collaboratively and communicating effectively, they decreased the PPC cost and maximized ROI. 

A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I'm the president and founder of Kre'Adiv house, a marketing and advertising firm. We represent anywhere between 2-10 clients depending on the time of year. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Northern Commerce?

We needed web development support for a client’s digital platform and overall marketing and advertising strategy. Their needs exceeded our capacity as a boutique agency, so we hired Northern Commerce as a partner to help manage that project. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Northern Commerce built two distinct WordPress sites for our franchise client’s operations in Canada and the U.S. Each platform has built-in customizations and is integrated with Google Maps. My team can make minor edits and changes, but we task them with any substantial programming for new features. 

For almost five years now, Northern Commerce has been buying and managing our paid digital advertising including Google AdWords and social media. As the client liaison, I focus our priorities for each location while they target overarching strategy. In collaboration, we create content and push the brand in new directions. We generated almost 1,000 extra pages of copy to showcase product offerings. 

An integrated system runs our call tracking partner’s services through the site. It produces metrics for specific ads and links that help us track progress. All this data migrates into the management system that the sensors use at each location. Northern Commerce sends us detailed reports that break down these results. They use SEO techniques and build add-ons to improve our organic footprint and support online sales. 

What is the team composition? 

Anywhere from 5-15 resources from Northern Commerce have worked on our project at a time. There are two distinct teams for web development and digital marketing. They also assigned us a lead project manager, and I contact specific people based on the topic we need to discuss. 

How did you come to work with Northern Commerce?

We had gotten to know Northern Commerce when they were a different, smaller company. Our first project was experimenting with a basic iPad app. They programmed code for the creative house where I worked previously.

How much have you invested with them?

The cost totaled between $250,000–$500,000. We pay a monthly retainer for management and SEO services. 

What is the status of this engagement?

This project started in October 2013. Northern Commerce is still providing ongoing development work for our website. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Northern Commerce’s digital marketing has increased our trackable online leads, inquiries, and new business between 10%–20% annually. We've seen close to double-digit growth for the past 5-6 years. Both organic and paid web traffic has consistently improved. 

We've received an excellent ROI on cost per click. Even if the price increased in individual years, it's definitely gone down as an overall trend. Our conversion rates have also increased, which makes these ads more valuable and useful.

We use many different marketing methods for this client, but Northern Commerce's services account for about 35% of our annual spend. They’ve continued to fine-tune our strategy and coach my team on content creation and SEO techniques to bolster our organic search results. 

How did Northern Commerce perform from a project management standpoint?

We haven't experienced any issues at all. I send an e-mail whenever I need something, and someone from Northern Commerce will follow up and take care of my request. They complete changes, fixes, and updates very quickly and send us monthly reports.  

Northern Commerce offers flexible scheduling rather than fixed meetings. I can reach out to them to set up an appointment based on our agenda. Instead, we discuss reports and new client needs. They send quotes based on specific projects before we decide to move ahead. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Northern Commerce has worked hard to help us grow. Managing marketing for a franchise organization is a difficult challenge. Overall, I've been impressed with the team growth we've throughout our partnership. They've been highly responsive and rapidly complete our requests. 

Even though they've grown substantially in our time together and I know they have much bigger clients than us now, we’ve always felt taken care of.  They provide a consistently reliable service. I've done my due diligence and have never found a team that comes close to what Northern Commerce offers. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Northern Commerce is professional, effective, and collaborative. The team is easy to meet with and communicates well. They’ll offer useful ideas and take feedback well pointed in new directions. 

5.0
Overall Score They've done a great job and have never failed us yet. They work hard for me, my firm, and our client, and push us in new directions.
  • 5.0 Scheduling
    ON TIME / DEADLINES
    I don't think we've ever been more than a week or two late on any of the work we've done together.
  • 4.0 Cost
    Value / within estimates
    It is a substantial monthly commitment, but they offer a great value overall. I'm sure I could find cheaper services, but not necessarily better.
  • 5.0 Quality
    Service & deliverables
    I’ve never had an issue with their services. I see them whenever I need to, and they work independently.
  • 5.0 NPS
    Willing to refer
    I would absolutely refer them.

Development & Design for Financial Planning Software

"We’ve had 300% growth, year-over-year."

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5.0

Quality: 
5.0
Schedule: 
5.0
Cost: 
5.0
Willing to refer: 
5.0
The Project
 
$200,000 to $999,999
 
Jan. 2014 - Ongoing
Project summary: 

Northern Commerce provided design and development services, working on a PHP-based database site, using various APIs and XML language. They continue to focus on maintenance, digital marketing, and branding.

The Reviewer
 
1-10 Employees
 
Toronto, Canada
Charlie Conron
CTO, Life Design Analysis
 
Verified
The Review
Feedback summary: 

Their work has been extremely successfully, contributing to 1000% growth in the first year after their conversion rate optimization efforts. The site is excellent, meeting the business' need perfectly and continually improving through further iterations.

A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CTO of Life Design Analysis, a financial planning software dedicated to the insurance space. The platform aggregates all life-insurance rates from across Canada, helps advisors compare them, and produces a visual report at the end.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Northern Commerce?

I had designed and developed a prototype for our software solution, but I’m not a classically-trained programmer, so it became a bootstrapped sort of solution.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve used them for everything from development and maintenance, to digital marketing—ads and remarketing—logo development, and branding.

They were involved from the prototyping stage, taking the product from my Excel macro all the way to what it is today—a national bilingual service in Canada and the U.S. They turned it into a full enterprise solution. The main feature is aggregating rates from across Canada. We work with various APIs and languages like XML, and the whole site is coded in PHP.

We needed to build the e-commerce side of it—billing, checkout, and converting trial users to paid ones. They did great work on advertising the site, creating awareness around it, and, most importantly, taking in and getting money from customers.

They also work on digital mailer ads, Google Ads retargeting, and SEO. They’ve also helped us develop our blog and some of our content.

What is the team composition?

I worked with three dedicated developers, and with five people on the marketing side. We’ve probably worked regularly with 15–20 members of their team.

How did you come to work with Northern Commerce?

I did a Google search and came across their page. I was specifically looking for people in the London, Ontario area. Northern had worked with a lot of large partners, and they had a nice portfolio. They had a combination of marketing and full-stack developers, which was a great fit for us.

How much have you invested with them?

The total cost so far has been around $500,000 CAD (approximately $380,000 USD).

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with them around January 2014 and the prototype went live in July of that year. They continue to provide development and marketing work for us.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We went through a conversion rate optimization and website rebranding in our first year, following Northern’s leadership. We saw 1,000% growth that year, and, since then, we’ve had 300% growth, year-over-year. We’ve continued to invest in the platform and build it out with them, and the results have been phenomenal. Being able to grow the company and provide new features equates to a good relationship.

They’re top-notch in terms of the processes used for anything from project management to code reviews. Northern has a team of incredibly talented people and they find the things I haven’t thought of. It’s beneficial to work with people smarter than yourself.

How did Northern Commerce perform from a project management standpoint?

They’ve performed extremely well and they're easy to work with from a project management standpoint. They haven't missed a deadline so far, and they’re always organized in terms of expectations and deliverables.

They stay on point and they have great tools, but they work in the style of the client. I wanted to be more hands-on with the development team and the project managers, and they accommodated that style.

We’re both fairly local, so much of the work is done in-person or through email. We also use different project management tools, including Basecamp and a home-built one from Northern, which is quite useful in tracking projects, keeping everyone on the same page, and inviting different team members. We can use the tool to remain organized and keep a log of everyone’s thoughts.

What did you find most impressive about them?

The quality of the products that come from them is impressive. Our customers always reference us as providing a beautiful, top-notch product, and a lot of that is the result of working with Northern. They stand out for the polish of the product, the thoughtfulness beforehand, and surfacing issues before they even come up, through proper project management.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There are always areas to improve, but they’re constantly enhancing their internal resources through training. They have a forward-thinking dev team.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

I’d highly recommend them to anyone, but the client needs to be prepared to spend more money with Northern. After getting a budget, we always want to develop more and more. I’m excited to build new products because they always turn out successful.

5.0
Overall Score I couldn’t do what I do without them. They help me be successful, so I’m very happy with the relationship.
  • 5.0 Scheduling
    ON TIME / DEADLINES
    They’ve always hit targets, often before the anticipated date.
  • 5.0 Cost
    Value / within estimates
    They’re extremely competitive, especially given the results.
  • 5.0 Quality
    Service & deliverables
    They deliver top-notch, well-thought-out products, from an extremely educated and forward-thinking team.
  • 5.0 NPS
    Willing to refer
    I’ve recommended them to a number of colleagues.

Full Service Ecommerce Development for Juice Company

“Northern Commerce is second to none in terms of quality. They take all the guesswork out of the equation.”

See More

5.0

Quality: 
5.0
Schedule: 
5.0
Cost: 
5.0
Willing to refer: 
5.0
The Project
 
$200,000 to $999,999
 
Nov. 2013 - Ongoing
Project summary: 

Along with branding support, Northern Commerce designed and developed a Shopify e-commerce site from scratch. They engage a target user base on social media using Facebook geotargeting and contests. 

The Reviewer
 
1-10 Employees
 
London Area, Canada
Christian Vemb
President, Pulp & Press
 
Verified
The Review
Feedback summary: 

Northern Commerce works as a close partner to garner new customers through social media and motivate existing ones to buy more products. Within a year of launching the new Shopify site, sales increased from 50,000 to roughly one million. Exemplary project management includes seamless communication.

A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the president of Pulp and Press. Our cold-press juice company has been producing raw, fresh, organic juice for five years. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Northern Commerce?

Our initial challenge was to create an online presence for our e-commerce site. Northern Commerce has done extensive work for us since we began this effort.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Northern Commerce helps us with all of our branding work. They take the lead on wireframing and create imagery on-site using multiple photographers. Once we present an idea, the project manager will assign tasks to the relevant teammates. We hold meetings along the way to gauge progress and prioritize next steps. Once things have moved far enough along, they bring me in to work hands-on with content production. I work with the senior members of Northern Commerce to give approvals and indicate what improvement.

Northern Commerce is continuing to help us grow through all our social networks. We’re focused on attracting new customers and incentivizing existing ones. They’ve held contests and worked on geotargeting our user base on avenues like Facebook. Previously, customers had to call or email us to place an order. Northern designed and developed a Shopify e-commerce platform to make purchasing products much more accessible. Integration with an ERP system lets us access essential details like shipping information to process orders faster.

What is the team composition? 

We’ve worked with about 10–20 resources in total. It’s been a team effort; almost everyone from Northern Commerce has engaged with our project to varying degrees. A typical plan includes project managers and resources working underneath them. I have a central point of contact for my questions and input. She assigns tasks to the appropriate developers and designers from there.

How did you come to work with Northern Commerce?

My business partner at the time’s wife had worked with Northern Commerce previously. They were so pleased with the work that he suggested approaching the team about furthering our company’s brand.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent $350,000–$400,000 on their services.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working with Northern Commerce in November 2013 and officially launched our company in January 2014. Our collaboration is ongoing. They’re doing similar work for all the other lines we’re starting to launch.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Northern Commerce is very much a part of our success over our past five years in business. We launched the new Shopify site they built in 2018. Our sales went up year over year from 50,000 to an estimated one million. This statistic sticks out to me the most.

Northern Commerce is second to none in terms of quality. They take all the guesswork out of the equation. We’ve had a tremendous amount of lead generations on social media this year, and it’s all due to their work. I couldn’t imagine achieving these results without their team.
 
How did Northern Commerce perform from a project management standpoint?

Northern Commerce’s communication is fantastic, and their project management is second to none. We correspond using phone and email along with weekly face-to-face meetings at the office. They provide regular updates on keyword movement, but they’re also happy to explain anything I ask about in-between.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They have extensive experience with everything digital marketing, and their creativity is unbelievable. It’s not surprising that Northern Commerce wins awards every year.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There are none that  I know of. I’ve only ever worked with Northern Commerce, but the fact that they regularly win awards truly makes me feel I’ve made the right decision.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

If you’re aiming for growth alongside a collaborative and creative team, Northern Commerce is the company you want to work with.

5.0
Overall Score I can’t wait to see what will happen in the future. Everything they do seems to turn to gold for me.
  • 5.0 Scheduling
    ON TIME / DEADLINES
    They finish everything on time.
  • 5.0 Cost
    Value / within estimates
    They’ve given us great rates from the start.
  • 5.0 Quality
    Service & deliverables
    I’ve been amazed at the quality of work they provide for every single project.
  • 5.0 NPS
    Willing to refer
    I’ve recommended them many, many times.