About half the websites I create these days are eCommerce ones. I feel that I bring the most value to these sorts of projects. Here’s why I love eCommerce so much:
In 2015 my boss (at the boutique marketing agency I used to work at before starting Nutmeg) tasked me with creating a big Shopify website for one of our local sports retail clients. The business had a thriving physical store and a loyal local customer base. They wanted to expand to selling their MTB and road bikes online across the country.
I had never worked with Shopify before. My role with web design and development involved managing old school html websites in Dreamweaver and creating simple WordPress ones. This was a mighty big challenge. And it wasn’t just a design project: I managed and set up everything. I cataloged their entire retail store (200+ products), I arranged meetings with couriers to identify the best-fit partner (bikes are of course pricey to ship), I consulted on payment gateways to negotiate the lowest % transaction fees, I wrote all the copy + store policies, I sourced all the images, I designed everything. I managed and guided the entire project to completion, with minimal help.
There were late nights and a few moments when I wanted to run away. It was hard. But I didn’t give up. We went on to launch a beautiful, clean and modern Shopify website.
But the business was weary to invest in paid ads. So here we were with this shiny new website and barely any sales. I created an SEO strategy focused on blogging. My hard work started to pay off – the first few sales started coming in – high-ticket sales for top-of-the-range MTB and road bikes from people all over South Africa.
I got this website to the first page of Google. All sales were coming from organic traffic alone. That’s when I fell in love with eCommerce. It’s so hard, but the payoffs are magical. And that’s why I’m well equipped and have the experience + knowledge to help your brand build a strong, conversion-optimised eCommerce website.
