Does a brand’s ability to be agile and responsive have to be compromised by its need for...
In just 6 months Anson PDR has gone from a small family-run business to a big corporation.
How did that happen I hear you say? Well here’s a little story about how making one change in your business can have a huge impact.
Anson PDR is a company specialising in vehicle paintless dent removal. A challenging market on lots of levels. But if you’re focused on doing things a bit different and open to fresh ideas there are opportunities. Which is exactly what the owners Christina and Vinny are about.
Anyhow, let’s start at the beginning...
A frustrating situation had developed
Anson PDR operated an ecommerce site, their online showroom. Built on a Magento platform it had been running for 7 years. Tracking site traffic and customer activities are part and parcel of operating this site.
The fact was they were losing customers and not gaining any new ones. At face value, this was frustrating if not a bit scary but it was a symptom of a bigger underlying issue. What they also found was that customers weren’t telling them why - so they decided to ask them.
Simple when you look at the facts and understand why customers are voting with their feet. A series of issues emerged. The search function was not accurate. Products were being shown when not in stock. You couldn’t find what you were looking for. All pretty fundamental for an ecommerce site, right?
To add to their pain, employees were also unhappy. They were frustrated with the whole system. The inventory was never correct and the search engine was inaccurate. The result was traffic dropping from the website because customers and staff hated the experience.
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The feeling of being stuck in a box
For anyone who operates on a Magento platform, you will know that it all comes down to the coding. You have to pay billable hours to make it happen because everything is custom coded. Vinny knew this but didn’t have the code to fix it, which felt like an impossible situation – costing him time and money.
Time to look at some other options. He researched what else was out in the market that would make his life easier and a friend in the industry was raving about Shopify. The modern Cadillac of ecommerce platforms and a solution that wasn’t reliant on coding. It was the complete opposite, designed to give businesses easy options, menus and templates.
But who can you trust?
Vinny had connections with a similar type of company in the UK called TDN. They had switched to Shopify and worked with David at GeminiBlue to manage the whole implementation.
“There was a definite fear of moving to something new. After so long on a Magento platform it felt like a big leap of faith - kinda better the devil you know. But TDN raved about David who came highly recommended so based on their experience we said what the hell.”
It didn’t feel like a square peg in a round hole. TDN talked about how many more sales they were doing, how much easier it was for their team members and being able to add stuff without having to code anything.
Doing something different from their competitors had a big appeal factor. Going down the International route was even more exciting. They could look at it from a different perspective with new styles and designs. A fresh approach with expectations of knocking it out of the park.
Managing the move over to Shopify
David worked directly with Anson PDR’s web developer Tom. He knew the business and what was needed so it made sense. All Vinny and Christina had to do, say what they wanted. They didn’t need to get involved in all the detail, just trust what was happening.
Working together on the details, David and Tom produced a delivery plan. It was a very tight deadline with a 6 to 8-week turnaround. The ambition was to get the site ready before Christmas and ideally for Black Friday in November.
Switching from Magento to Shopify can be done in just 5 simple steps. David and Tom agreed on what needed to happen and by when. They just asked for help when it was needed but mostly cracked on with making it happen.
Smashing it out of the park
Expectations were high. There was a feeling that all eyes were on Anson PDR to see what would happen. Kinda worked in their favour because they are now going great guns. The business was turned around and in a position to grow.
Customers were once again being looked after. They weren’t leaving but sticking around on the website and they kept coming back for more. Retention rates went through the roof with new and existing customers loving the new website experience.
The inventory management that had been such a pain in the butt was now built into the process. But there were so many other benefits:
- Easy to use which meant staff were now on board with the site
- See every product and how many items are in stock
- All sales go through the system
- Easy to load up new products in just 15 minutes
- Transfer items to different locations
A simplified system with everything all in one place made it so much easier. Most important, it was a much quicker way to get products to market – if they ain’t on the website it can’t be sold. Every month sales targets were being smashed compared to previous records.
With such an amazing turnaround came growth. Anson PDR is now managing not just one storefront but three supported by this amazing eCommerce shop.
“We surprised ourselves really by adding 2 new retail stores and definitely wouldn’t have done this without Shopify. Because we could now see the big picture, our whole operation in one place, we started to dream a bit bigger.”
The confidence in Shopify saw them move to a new building in a new city during the busiest time of the year. There was no pain, no fallout it was seamless. How can that be? Because customers, products and shipments were all in one place.
Shopify allows you to grow without the growing pains. An eCommerce platform that centralises your business operation and makes your life so much easier.
