The Challenge
ATB Guitars was founded by experienced and highly respected session musician Mike Long. The business had sold over 3,500 guitars via eBay but Mike wanted to take the business to the next level. He had found a showroom in Cheltenham where people could make an appointment to try out a guitar. He also wanted to move from eBay to having his own eCommerce website.
The guitars Mike sells are high value and each purchase is a very personal choice. The site therefore needed to have more functionality than a standard eCommerce website to give customers confidence in their purchase. At the same time, Mike had a budget he needed to work to and wanted to find cost-effective solutions.
The Solution
We worked collaboratively with Mike to give him a site that balanced budget against functionality. For each element he specified, we offered two options. The budget option took an off-the-shelf element of the Perch Runway eCommerce platform we were using and adapted it to deliver most of what was required. The more expensive bespoke option created exactly what was required from scratch. In each case, Mike was able to decide which option was right for his business.
Our work on the site included developing an application to give every guitar on the site its own image gallery where visitors can see every detail of every guitar. The galleries are hosted remotely by Cloudinary and delivered via the CDN closest to the visitor. This way, visitors can see all the detail they need but the speed of the site isn’t compromised.
We also developed a product enquiry form for every guitar. To save visitors having to enter the details of the guitar they’re looking at or waste Mike’s time while he tries to work it out, every message is automatically pre-populated with the details of the relevant guitar.
Another feature we developed was the ability for visitors to make a below-asking-price offer on any guitar on the site. While Mike assesses the offer, the guitar has an ‘on hold’ sticker so it can’t be bought by anyone else.
Finally, we adapted the eCommerce platform so that sold guitars move to a sold gallery rather than being removed from the site. This means visitors can see Mike’s track record and the calibre of the guitars he sells.
The Results
The website has far exceeded Mike’s expectations with regards to visitors and revenue generated.
We are currently working on new features to encourage engagement from new and returning customers.