Case Study - Gippsland Bath & Body
“I chose to build my website with GippsTech because the features and design options of DIY website platforms, such as Wix and Squarespace, were limited. I wanted a website which could be customised specifically to my business and my brand, and I couldn't be happier with the end result!”
Sharon Stanford, founder of Gippsland Bath & Body
The Project
Sharon Standford has a passion for making organic, toxic-free skincare products accessible to all women. She runs Gippsland Bath & Body, and produces a range of handmade, all natural skincare products, which are sold online and at markets throughout the region. Not only this, but she is committed to educating and supporting her thriving community, and is an advocate for disease prevention. Sharon already had an existing website, however it was quite clunky, and visitors weren’t able to easily purchase products and e-gift cards in one transaction. She needed a solution, and sought the help of GippsTech to develop and design a new website, which would be easy for both herself and her customers to use.
The Challenge
Sharon has a passion for natural healthcare products and client education. She needed a website which had both an ecommerce store, and the capability for a blog and online workshop bookings. Given that her core clientele are women, she wanted the look and feel of the website to be approachable, friendly, and feminine. The website needed to be easy for customers to use and purchase from, and we were also tasked with improving the site’s user experience and functionality, as well as assisting her with optimising the site’s SEO and content.
The Solution
We realised early on in the process that Sharon needed a website with a custom design. Given her previous experience with her website being difficult to use, it was important to Sharon that she could easily make updates and add blogs to her new website herself. We also created a mobile-first design, making the site accessible across all devices. It was essential that the online shop was easy to navigate to from anywhere on the site, given that it was the most important feature. We also developed a design which spoke directly to Sharon’s audience, and nodded to her new business branding.
Disciplines
Digital Strategy, User Experience Design, eCommerce integration, Web Development, WordPress Development
“I absolutely love my new website! Cindy and the team were so great to work with, and the end result is beautiful and functional. It reflects my website brilliantly. I will be recommending Gippstech to anyone who needs a professional website built.”
Sharon’s website needed to be beautiful, warm, and inviting for its user. The most important element of the site was the integration of the online store. Sharon’s previous website didn’t allow customers to order multiple products in one transaction, which made for a poor user experience. Therefore, it was essential that we built an easy to use and functional eCommerce store. To achieve this, we integrated the website with WooCommerce, and used the Australia Post Postage calculator, so that shipping costs were both accurate and adaptive depending on the customer’s purchase.
Sharon had recently updated her business branding, so her website design needed to incorporate her new colours and logo. Sharon wanted a design which was feminine, but not too “girly”, given that her target audience are young to middle aged women. “We wanted to create a soft, warm, and embracing feel to Sharon’s website”, says Cindy Siew, GippsTech’s Project Manager. Because the design element of the site was so important, we needed a platform which would allow us to have full control over the styling and key elements of the site, beyond the capabilities of a traditional drag and drop website platform. This is why we chose to build the website on WordPress. “We wanted to reflect Sharon’s beautiful floral logo into the website, too. To achieve this, we utilised the green that was prominent in the logo, as well as touches of soft pink to create a pleasing and feminine look and feel to the site. In addition to this, we made use of the flower stems in her logo as section breaks in the website, which further enhanced her branding”, says Cindy.
We needed a platform which would allow us to have full control over the styling and key elements of the site.
The new website also included a blog and workshop booking feature. As a retail website, Sharon understands that SEO and digital marketing goes a long way in helping her reach a larger audience online. It was important for her to have a blog on the website, so she could drive more traffic to the website, while also helping to educate and empower her customer’s through her content.
Sharon’s previous websites back-end was difficult to use, so we made sure that we designed a site that she could easily edit and update it herself, should she need to. “We made sure that Sharon felt well-trained and well-supported at project completion, so she could update the website herself with any new product launches and blog posts in the future”, says Cindy. “It’s great to know that the team at GippsTech is there for support and assistance, should I ever need it”, says Sharon. “They provided training to teach me how to make updates to the website myself, plus a document which walks me through all of the relevant information. For a non-tech minded person like myself, this was a huge plus!”
Since launching her new website, Sharon has received wonderful feedback from her loyal followers and friends on her new design. She has also noticed that her website is now ranking higher on Google for certain search terms and phrases, which will go a long way in helping her receive more online orders and reach new customers.
“It’s great to know that the team at GippsTech is there for support and assistance, should I ever need it.”
