View Entry
How did the project start?
We recently set up a wine company, Aroma Wines, with the intention of supplying fine wines to the trade and consumer markets. We had a lot of interest from trade and immediately began selling to restaurants and cafes but really wanted to optimise our consumer sales. I soon realised that to do this we would need to set up a website.
I wanted a user-friendly, stylish site that reflected the fact that all Aroma wines are great quality and made it clear that we were just as happy to supply one gift wrapped bottle as to fulfil large trade orders.
What options did you consider?
As the company was a start up we needed our site designed and built from scratch, which seemed like quite a daunting project!
To get started, I approached a number of different local web design companies and asked them to come up with designs and ideas for our website.
We needed our site to showcase all the products that we sell and be easy to update as we are always adding to our range of wines.
As we don’t have a physical shop, the site was to be our only point of contact with the consumer market, so it also had to be professional and trustworthy and have a secure way of taking orders and payment.
Fusebox came up with some fantastic ideas; they really seemed to understand our business and the image that we wanted to portray, so we decided to use them for the project.
The team had great solutions to all of our needs, and shared some insider knowledge about how to encourage people to buy from the site! They suggested that we add a news section to the website and think about sending out regular e-newsletters as this would allow us to personalise our service and reassure customers of our credibility.
What help and expertise did you receive?
As well as the design and build of the website we received help with search engine optimisation and training on all aspects of the website functionality, enabling us to add web pages, add new wines and send out newsletters to all of our clients.
The Fusebox team was friendly and helpful throughout the whole project and having our own account manager really helped us to understand the technical side of the project and to keep track of progress.
Did you face and challenges or learn any lessons?
Every part of the project ran smoothly; if there were any problems then they were resolved before I was aware of them!
However, the fantastic response we had to the website taught me what a difference branding and image can make to business; so I asked Fusebox to carry the website designs through a whole range of print material as well.
What are the outcomes and how has it improved your business?
Our website went live in December 2008, enabling us to start supplying wine to the consumer market. The site was finished ahead of schedule so we were trading in time for the Christmas boom and as a result sales so far have exceeded all our expectations.
The website has given us a fantastic front for our business and acts as a point of contact with all of our customers as well as helping to position Aroma Wines as one of the premier fine wine traders in the North East.
What are your plans for the future?
Since the website has gone live we have added new pages, designed to promote our service of supplying wine to private functions. This will hopefully increase revenue for the company and help us to expand.
The long term plan is to open a shop in the North East – but we will definitely be keeping the website as well!
