Parkfield

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the marketing director for Jerry Pair, and we are an interior design showroom. We represent 20 different furniture and textile lines that we sell to designers and architects.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Parkfield?

We had our website on Magento and switched over to Shopify, so we were looking for someone to help us migrate our items off of Magento and into the Shopify format.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They started with the content migration and really expanded to develop the capabilities of our site and add thousands of new items that we had never been able to list there before. They built the site itself from the ground up, creating all the filtering systems and tags for our products.

We were able to provide them some images for the content on the site, but they had to scrape the internet for about 60–70% of those, which took a lot of work on their end.

What is the team composition?

I mainly worked with Thor (Co-Founder, Parkfield) and Kevin (Web Developer, Parkfield). There were as many as 5–6 people working on the project depending on what stage we were at, but Thor and Kevin were my main points of contact.

How did you come to work with Parkfield?

I actually found them on the Shopify partner pages and saw that they had experience with the platform, so I reached out about the project.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent a little over $25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

We officially signed with them in November 2018 and launched in June 2019.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They helped us go from around 3,000 products on the website to over 35,000. Traffic improvement is hard to tell because we didn’t even have the ability to track that on our old site but based on the numbers we have now, we’re estimating it to be around 8 times higher than before.

How did Parkfield perform from a project management standpoint?

They were absolutely amazing; I really can’t say enough good things about them. It was one of the greatest work experiences I’ve ever had. We usually communicated through email or phone calls, and they responded almost immediately throughout the duration of the project.

Their entire team was extremely professional and always communicated exactly what they were going to do, and then they delivered on their promises in a timely manner. All their work was done correctly the first time because of how thorough their review process is, which we really appreciate.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’re just incredibly reliable. Finding a developer is like finding a contractor: it’s extremely rare to get that combination of honesty, skill, and complete lack of excuses in one team.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything I wish they would do differently.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

My advice would be to move forward and get a proposal from them. There’s not a lot they can’t do but they will at least be really honest with everything and you’ll be able to see if it’s the right partnership for you.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the founder and CEO of Six&Sutton, which is an online luxury consignment company. We help customers sell vintage or pre-owned products, with a primary focus on apparel and accessories.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Parkfield Commerce?

They developed our e-commerce site from the ground up and helped us with promotional material that would bring in more customers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Before hiring them, I’d already researched different out-of-the-box solutions and selected Shopify as our platform. After I hired them, we discussed some of my ideas for the look and feel, but they handled all of the technical work.  They took care of the development and design, even providing me with a new logo when I explained that I was in the midst of rebranding.

In terms of the site, they integrated some Shopify apps, made a back end interface for me so I could manage the online store more easily, and also handled my initial SEO once the site was ready. They’ve also performed a few updates for me since the site launched.

What is the team composition?

Our main point of contact was our project manager, but we also worked with one of their co-founders and then a third employee. There were also developers working on the project, but I never engaged with them.

How did you come to work with Parkfield Commerce?

I researched companies that Shopify identified as experts with their platform and contacted six of them for interviews. Parkfield Commerce stood out as having a high comfort level with the platform and they were very straightforward. I felt confident that they could work with a small startup like mine.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked with them from May–August 2018.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

They got my site off the ground and provided solid advice on e-commerce best practices, which has obviously had a large impact on my business. Now that I’ve been online for a few months, I’m ready to make adjustments and improve the site even further.

How did Parkfield Commerce perform from a project management standpoint?

The project was supposed to take eight weeks and ended up lasting 12 due to my indecisiveness, but they were great throughout the process. They’re very responsive and patient, whether it was via phone or email, and they answered all of my questions. I appreciated how much interest their team took in my project.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They created a high-quality product and delivered not only great professionalism but also excellent customer service. I appreciated being kept in the loop on all of the progress. Not only that, they took a very collaborative approach and offered suggestions on how to help me implement my vision for the final site. They proposed ideas that would never have occurred to me in order to maximize the user experience.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything. I was very happy working with them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Our engagement took longer than it could have because I didn’t lay out my expectations thoroughly when we started. This resulted in more collaboration, which was good, but it ate up a lot of time in the beginning. I’d recommend thinking carefully about the project in advance so that it’s easier to dive in and get to work.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are an online jewelry retailer, and I am the director of ecommerce and digital marketing.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Parkfield Commerce?

After having been on the Magento Enterprise for a number of years, we made the decision to migrate to Shopify Plus. In order to help us with that transition, we reached out to Parkfield.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They oversaw all aspects of the project, not only in re-platforming but also a top-to-bottom redesign, leveraging their expertise in Shopify. It was important for them to provide our site with a new design aesthetic while keeping our extant branding in mind. All of their initial concepts were right on the mark, demonstrating their instinctive feel for our brand and customers. There was no time wasted in development, which allowed them to move quickly into implementing the beautiful new designs.

What is the team dynamic?

They use a project manager and a dedicated development team.

How did you come to work with Parkfield Commerce?

Prior to this, I had utilized them for another project and examined their portfolio. It was important that whomever we hired had a feel for the aesthetics of luxury fashion and jewelry brands. Their portfolio included a number of similar brand examples that made them stand out.

What is the status of this engagement?

It began around February of 2017, and we launched in the first week of August that year.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

We have been thrilled with the results. Despite our concerns about the migration in general, there has been no conversion fall-off and all measurable impacts have been positive.The end product has been well received by both our internal staff and, most importantly, our customers. We have received very positive feedback from customers about the new UX, especially the ease of mobile shopping and checkout.

How did Parkfield Commerce perform from a project management standpoint?

They have solid project management skills, and their internal development team is very strong. The project manager is responsive and cares about the quality of their work. They create a high level of comfort with their clients and reply to queries or issues in a timely manner. During the project, we used email as well as Basecamp for communicating.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their pricing is extremely reasonable for such high quality deliverables. Knowledge of the desired platform was key, and their development team has extensive experience with Shopify, for which they have also developed specific apps. The migration was complex, but their knowledge and capabilities made it a painless process for us. There was not a single moment that we regretted our decision to engage Parkfield.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Nothing that comes to mind. They have provided us with the highest level of service, and we intend to work with them for years to come.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Do not hesitate to reach out to Parkfield’s team with questions or concerns. They are approachable, and able to explain complicated issues at a basic, comprehensive level. No matter the issue, they always have your business in mind.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Homenature is a home goods store. I designed and managed their website.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Parkfield?

We had a design for a new e-commerce website ready to go. We had chosen the Shopify platform as the best platform for us. We needed an agency to build out the website and connect it to Shopify.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We passed off 5-6 different layouts. They needed to build those out in proper HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. They then needed to connect the systems to the Shopify platform and do some custom programming for tag-based functionality and some layouts that were dependent on image size. They worked with us to get some third-party apps installed, tweaked, and redesigned to meet our needs.

For the layouts moving from desktop view to mobile view, they made recommendations and suggestions in terms of ways to optimize that. The bulk of the design was passed to them.

What is the team dynamic?

I worked with one developer directly.

How did you come to work with Parkfield?

They were close to us and the owner of the company wanted to have a face-to-face meeting before hiring anyone. In the process of collecting competitive bids, they asked the right questions. They had a good view of how the project would flow. They had Shopify expert status. They were able to work to our slightly aggressive timelines. They offered a very fair price.

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in July 2017 until October 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Parkfield’s work is completed, but the second phase of this was connecting the website to a point of sales system with another provider. That process has been delayed. Everything is working as it should, but we’re not selling online as of yet.

Having been in the industry for over a decade, I understand what they were doing and I appreciated how well they did it and their attention to detail. They put a lot into it that most agencies wouldn’t.

How did Parkfield perform from a project management standpoint?

It was excellent. I started off working with the same person who had worked through the scope of work with me. It became clear that it was more efficient for me to work directly with the developer. I started working more directly with the developer, but the main project manager was always involved in those conversations and aware of everything that was going on to make sure everything was on time and on budget. We communicated via email and phone mostly.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They stayed to budget, to timeline, and were responsive to our changing needs. They were amazing and that’s pretty rare in this industry - to have people take ownership of a project and have a pretty quick response time. You can actually get on the phone if you need to talk through something. They presented options when we ran into roadblocks. They had good attention to detail and were dedicated to the project. They treated it as if it was their own and we were the only client in the world.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No. They were pretty amazing.

Do you have any advice for potential clients of theirs?

Ask the questions. Talk through functionality. A lot of people don’t understand on day one what they need their website to do, especially with e-commerce. Parkfield was great about walking through what standard functionality is and what more custom functionality is, because it will definitely affect project skills and budget. Before anyone gets into a contract, they should understand the scope of the work.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

Kulani Kinis is a swimwear brand with a focus on online sales. We have branched out into an omnichannel approach, including traditional wholesale.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Parkfield Commerce?

When we started in February 2015, we launched using a very basic Shopify template; the goal was to create the bare minimum to get the job done. After a year, we started getting more serious about the matter, because we had started to do well. We decided to renovate our website and create something a bit more special. We engaged with Parkfield Commerce, which had a different name at the time, but the same team.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

They were brought in to build a custom, bespoke website from the ground up. We provided a wish list of 5–10 items, and they built upon those in 6 or 7 ways. I knew exactly what I wanted, so, in many ways, I was a good client and able to convey that information. The site wasn’t revolutionary, but it was aimed at solving all the friction points we’d had, in order to increase our conversion rates.

It was meant to be aesthetically pleasing and have an initial screen which let the user choose their location. As an Australian company, we’d had issues in the past with U.S. customers not understanding foreign currency. We didn’t want to use Shopify Plus as it’s an expensive solution, so we jerry-rigged a landing page which redirected to 1 of 2 Shopify stores, with the same theme copied across.

We also set up a nicer system chat and made the new site more mobile-friendly. Our main business comes from social media, so many customers find us while on their phones. The initial experience needed to be easy and fun, making them more likely to come back and convert on a desktop.

We gave them a good brief on what we wanted the branding to be. I’m a bit of a stickler around what the brand looks like as it’s important that our brand is consistent. They didn’t decide what our brand looked like, but they helped us a lot more with the technical aspects around how we could get the brand to match our goals. They listened to what we wanted to encapsulate and provided the best use of space on a page in order to present everything visually.

What is the team dynamic? 

I’ve had 2 points of contact from their side: a designer who made sure our requests were put in place and a technical developer. They conveyed our messages to their respective teams.

How did you come to work with Parkfield Commerce?

I’m not technical enough to appreciate different developer skill levels, but I evaluated them in terms of past work and response time. After that, it was a matter of trial work. I took a chance with them and hoped for the best. They were listed on the Shopify experts page and had worked on a swimwear label in the past. We had a phone call with Richard Emanuel [co-founder, Parkfield Commerce]. 

We did approach another company too, but Parkfield was more comfortable working with us. We got different quotes and theirs was reasonable as any places can be expensive.

How much have you invested with them?

The build itself cost about $6,500. We’ve spent $1,500 on small tweaks on a monthly basis, so it came to $8,000 in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

I’m currently talking to them about building a custom sizing tool. A big issue for us is getting people finding their correct size in order to reduce returns.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

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

Many of the things we set out to solve, were solved. We used to receive frequent questions about price changes during the checkout stage, but I’ve not had that feedback since launching the new site.

People have found the website to be easy to navigate, and we haven’t gotten as many questions on it in general. My conversion rates have gone up, and, even though the brand didn’t accelerate off the back of the site, it gave our wholesale partners something nice to look at. I’m no longer ashamed to direct people to my site. We’re a seasonal brand, except in a few parts of the world. During summertime in the U.S. and Australia, the website will convert at about 3%, which is good for that time of the year and the industry.

The best measure, from a qualitative perspective, is that I want to work with them again. I’ve kept in touch with Richard for the last 2 to 3 years. He’s told me that our website has attracted a lot of work for their company as they can direct clients to something they’ve done well.

How did Parkfield Commerce perform from a project management standpoint?

We had a few issues in different areas as we went through the project, and they were very good at listening. We would speak on the phone every week. We’re based in Los Angeles, while their team was in New York at the time. They’re good at communicating and they’re often available.

What did you find most impressive about them?

I haven’t worked with anyone else on a web project, but what I liked about them is that even when I’m not paying them or talking about updating the website, they will reach out to me and ask how everything’s going. I understand that’s a normal marketing follow-up, but it’s also nice to have a check-in. To me, it’s a sign of good service.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It’s hard for me to say anything since I haven’t really tested them in terms of design. They were on top of doing what we needed them to, and I’ve never had an issue with the website since, in terms of it being clunky or broken. It’s been working for the last year and a half. I would have found someone else if I wasn’t satisfied.

Do you have any advice for future clients of theirs?

Communicate often. That’s true for any kind of project. If we communicate often, the results are generally better, and the project won’t go down any rabbit holes. Other people may have different experiences, depending on what they’re leaning on the developer for.