End-to-end commerce solution for wine merchant
16.2% increase in organic traffic
9.6% increase in checkout success rate
1 point of control for all management
The brief
Hennings Wine were in the market for a best-in-class platform for stock management, providing an end-to-end workflow for stock flowing through their business.
The efficiencies that come with tying all online and offline management aspects into one system attracted them: along with stock management, they would also be able to handle their website, purchase order processing, product information, orders and customer data from one single point of control.
The solution
Split over two phases, our work provided Hennings Wine with a significant upgrade on their previous eCommerce set-up. It promises them massive long-term savings in operational time and costs.
We conducted several workshops to get a better understanding of the business, how they operate and the finer details of their eCommerce website design brief.
This included an on-site visit to one of Hennings Wine's stores.
This first phase of work saw our new website project integrate with Hennings Wine's existing management system, Sage 200.
Website design and development was completed in-house by our front-end team.
Several feedback rounds were offered to Hennings Wine ensuring they were happy with the work delivered.
Once the specifications were nearing sign-off, the client explored the option of moving the master stock record to Venditan Commerce instead of using Sage 200.
We agreed to split the projects into two phases at this point, with the data migration piece following on after the conclusion of the new website launch.
A phased approach
By breaking the migration into two phases we could minimise disruption to Hennings' daily operations whilst gradually implementing changes.
Specifying and implementing a new eCommerce website that is integrated with their existing management software, Sage 200.
By attending to the eCommerce website first we could make significant improvements to their consumer-facing tool before the turn of the year.
This allowed us to make significant UX and conversion rate improvements, which has a direct impact on the bottom line of any business.
2023 will see us move their master stock record control to away from Sage 200 and over to Venditan Commerce, which includes Purchase Order Processing, Stock Management, EPOS and their healthy B2B operations.
Venditan Commerce will enable Hennings Wine to manage every aspect of their online and physical operations from a single point of control. All of the platform features are seamlessly connected, giving them one view of their stock and customers across all of their retail touchpoints.
How we helped Hennings Wine
Read on for more detailed information surrounding the work we provided as part of the migration to our platform.
Onboarding and workshops
Onboarding began during a very busy period for Hennings Wine. It meant that we had to conduct our fact-finding workshops remotely, although usually this would be done in person.
This allowed us to make strides with the specification stage of the project, starting by exploring the design brief for the new eCommerce website.
Designs were created for all of the key templates across the website, such as product listings pages, product details pages, checkout steps, blog content and, of course, the homepage. The designs were created and sent using Figma which allows for easy client feedback.
Further workshops were held with Hennings Wine’s then-current platform for inventory, stock and customer management: Sage 200. Third-party integrations are always an exciting challenge for us. We like to deal with them before starting any development as they offer the most complexity and need the most attention. We and the third party must have a clear understanding of the timescales for delivering the parts of the project that rely on each other.
Specifications and implementation
Once the workshops had concluded, we delivered 16 specification documents to Hennings Wine. Covering project management, SEO, data migration, development and reporting. They set out the client’s requirements, how we will handle them, and how they can expect this to be delivered.
We encourage feedback on our specifications so that we can achieve a shared understanding and start the implementation stage of the project. During our discussion, Hennings Wine explored the option of moving their master stock record to Venditan Commerce, instead of using Sage 200. We explained how this would work, and agreed to split the projects into two phases once the client was comfortable with moving forward.
The move to make Venditan Commerce the master stock record removed the reliance on a third party and, in turn, the biggest challenge in the project. 2023 will see us begin that migration.
What comes after a new website launch?
Following the launch of the new eCommerce website in February 2023, we entered into a period of post-launch support where our development team monitor the deployment and provide a quick response and resolution to any support that may be required.
We are committed to ensuring we help Hennings Wine transition to new processes and workflows, with Venditan Commerce training provided to help the client maximise their new eCommerce platform.
Before launching a new website we store benchmarks of the current design taken with various tools including Google PageSpeed, Lighthouse and Google Analytics. This means that we can review and assess the performance of the new design, and have discussions with the client to help adapt and make any improvements necessary.
A new digital presence for Hennings Wine
Take a detailed look at some of the work involved in our Phase 1 project, providing Hennings Wine with a stunning new eCommerce website, completed in-house by our front-end team.
Revamped menu system
With a product as varied as wine, we deemed it critical that the website's navigation system was able to demonstrate the width and depth of Hennings Wine's stock, without overwhelming the user.
The decision was made to organise the product mix by Type, Country, Region and Variety, giving users several options to browse wines based on their preferences.
Product information overhaul
It was also important that we made it simple for users to order the right quantity of their selected wine.
We restructured their existing eCommerce functionality to display on the right hand side of the page, as we know that users will gravitate towards this space when they are ready to add to basket.
The central space was then utilised by introducing rich product information, including iconography that covers the wine's type, origin and more
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Shop from category
Sometimes, users just want to checkout quickly - particularly if they are repeat customers who know what they want.
Hennings Wine facilitate a lot of repeat business and so we made sure to retain the functionality that allows users to add wine to their basket from the category page.
We developed this further by allowing users the option to specify quantity, too, meaning they can bypass the product page entirely.
We can help you
Spend less and achieve more with our feature-rich eCommerce platform. It combines best-in-class modules and intelligent management systems, powering your growth and managing every aspect of your online and physical operations from a single point of control.
