TL;DR
Over a decade after creating their original website, we migrated large e-commerce store Discount Fire Supplies to WordPress, along with a website redesign to improve customer experience and increase conversion rates.
Project Overview
Over a decade after their site first launched, Discount Fire Supplies had outgrown their e-commerce platform. We migrated their website content, including a catalogue of over 2,000 products, to WordPress and WooCommerce, allowing them to manage content and products with capacity for growth, and giving us custom functionality to add new features.
During this process, we took the opportunity to refresh the website design to modernise the site and make it easier for customers to browse products and purchase.
Who are Discount Fire Supplies?
Discount Fire Supplies are one of the UK’s premier retailers of fire safety products and accessories. Their extensive catalogue includes fire alarm systems, emergency lighting, fire extinguishers and gas detectors.
Discount Fire Supplies are comfortably one of our most successful e-commerce websites. We’ve supported their e-commerce journey since 2009 and continue to provide a full service digital agency experience as they evolve to meet today’s market.
“Ballyhoo have developed and supported our e-commerce websites for the last 10 years and have been a key part of why we have grown year on year. Would highly recommend as we always do.”
Tariq El-Hoss
Discount Fire Supplies
Project Brief
As a market leader, Discount Fire Supplies receive a high online footfall, but their outdated website was no longer working to the company’s potential. They needed an easier way to update their website and products, allowing them to continue to grow. The brief included:
- Migrate the website from Ballyhoo Commerce to WooCommerce;
- Retain SEO and ranking;
- Extend e-commerce functionality using WooCommerce plugins or custom development;
- Refresh web design for better customer experience.
Our Proposal
Together, we decided on a plan of action which included:
- Safe and secure migration of content and products to WordPress Woocommerce;
- UI audit to identify design improvement areas;
- Modernise the look and feel of the website with a refresh;
- Launch with SEO in place, to retain ranking positions.
Website Migration
The existing website was created on Ballyhoo Commerce – our bespoke e-commerce platform. However, this platform is no longer being supported, and therefore the website needed to be migrated to an alternative. We recommended the WooCommerce integration for WordPress to provide the level of functionality and customisation required to support Discount Fire Supplies’ requirements.
The beauty of using a content management system such as WordPress is that it makes it easy for admins to add, manage and update content – something that Discount Fire Supplies needs to do regularly. What’s more, using WordPress for e-commerce allows us to quickly and effectively build in new features and functionality to suit the business’ evolving needs.
It was essential that the existing content was retained and accessible on the new website, so we developed a bespoke tool to export all site data (customer accounts and logins, order history, content pages and products, including variations) into a format compatible with import to WooCommerce.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is an advanced plugin available on WordPress which gives a website e-commerce functionality, allowing us to add products, shipping, checkout rules and more. With a number of add-ons, personalised settings and features, out-of-the-box WooCommerce was a close fit for Discount Fire Supplies, giving us flexibilty to create custom features and bespoke plugins to develop a site that meets their full requirements.
Content Migration
Discount Fire Supplies use their blog regularly to provide valuable information to customers and create a community, therefore it was paramount that this was still accessible for users. We also migrated all of their content including pages and posts to the new site, ensuring valuable resources were still available.
SEO
As Discount Fire Supplies are an established company, it was important that we retained their SEO during the migration, in order to continue keeping their well performing rankings on Google. We retained URLs where possible, setting up redirects where necessary, and ensured that page structures and content affecting rankings were maintained.
- #HTML5
- #CSS3
- #WordPress
- #WooCommerce
Website Refresh
Look & Feel
We carried out multiple audits on the existing website, to find areas of improvement in the design, to help modernise the website and make it accessible to all customers. Analysing the site allowed us to easily identify sections that we could improve.
Colour Contrast & Accessibility
The sheer number of fire safety products on this website means that users need to be able to find what they are looking for quickly and easily. The existing design used a drop-down category menu allowing customers to browse the majority of product categories without leaving the page. Each of the product categories are colour coded, however, upon auditing the website, we identified that these shades were not accessible to all users.
We updated the colour palette to increase the accessibility of the website, ensuring that all combinations of colours achieved at least WCAG 2.0 Level AA colour contrast with white or black text.
Homepage Design
Your homepage is often where customers first land, giving them a first impression of the business and what it offers. It is paramount to get the design right. Retaining the personality and general structure, we made some key changes to the Discount Fire Supplies home page design, including:
- KSPs above the fold to highlight why customers should shop with DFS
- Sliders including real photos rather than stock illustrations to connect with users
- CTA buttons to have colour, rather than grey, to stand out
- Updated brands carousel to showcase stocked manufacturers
- Easy to navigate drop-down categories, with new accessible colours
Colour Association
We’ve taken the colour association with categories one step further in this new version of the site, carrying the associated colour through to the respective category pages as a highlight colour, notably on the category search bar as well as on the titles in the dropdowns.
Category Icons
Further reinforcing the distinct categories, and useful for anyone who is unable to distinguish certain colours, the icon representing each brand is also pulled through on category pages as a watermark on the category description, as well as on the category thumbnails on the homepage.
Key Features
Focus on Search
Search was identified as a main driving force on the site, with a high percentage of repeat users immediately using this feature when landing. To help more users take advantage of this functionality, which features autocomplete results, search has been given prominence on the home page hero section as well as in the site header.
As common landing pages, product categories also include the same full-size search bar to ensure users can quickly search for what they need.
Slideshow
An eye-catching slideshow on the homepage below the search field instantly attracts potential customers who will either decide to stay on the site or look elsewhere. This conveys a number of tempting messages designed to instill confidence in their purchase.
Category Dropdowns
The new design also makes use of substantial full-width drop-down category menus, allowing customers to browse the majority of product sub-categories without leaving the page.
Community
Throughout the website, customers are encouraged to join the Discount Fire Supplies community and visit the DFS blog, follow DFS on Twitter and take the opportunity to sign up for the free DFS newsletter – either by entering their details on the website or opting in during account creation and purchase.
Product Pages
Product pages have been given a makeover too and are designed to be as clear as possible. Large product images, highlighted prices and prominent add to basket buttons combine to make the page inviting and straightforward.
Product descriptions are condensed into tabs. When adding a product to the site, Discount Fire Supplies have the ability to split the full description into as many tabs as required, including Summary, Specification and FAQs. This layout means that users don’t have to scroll endlessly and allows them to quickly find the information they need.
At the foot of the website on every page users are reminded of the value Discount Fire Supplies bring to their purchase, whether through the assurance of secure online payments or the promise of swift dispatch. Users can also find links to information about the company and their contact details are always on hand if they need assistance.
- #Javascript
- #PHP
- #MySQL
- #REST API
Blog
Blogs are a fantastic addition to any website. While they are a good way to provide interest for your customers and create a community around your business, they also have many search engine optimisation benefits such as the regular introduction of fresh content and the inclusion of more keywords on your site.
Discount Fire Supplies take advantage of our content writing service, allowing us to create a number of blog articles per month to increase website traffic, creating a hub of resources for installers and customers alike. By demonstrating Discount Fire Supplies knowledge, the blog enhances the company image of leaders and experts in the industry.
Online Marketing
We’ve been working with Discount Fire Supplies over the years to get their business seen by search engines. As mentioned above, we create and add fresh content regularly to help promote their brand and products, boosting brand visibility and allowing search engines to see that this is a website dedicated to quality content and resources for users.
Development Retainer
Discount Fire Supplies continue to optimise and evolve their website through an ongoing website development retainer, which allows us to carry out website improvements on a regular basis. Enhancing website features and adding new functionality ensures that the website stays current and increases usability, helping to increase conversions.
Google Workspace
As Google Partners, we have the ability to manage clients’ Google Workspace accounts for them, helping organisations to build and run businesses more efficiently.
Discount Fire Supplies are advocates for Google Workspace, having utilised the features for many years. Discount Fire Supplies especially benefit from the ability to collaborate on Google Docs and Google Sheets. Maintaining a vast majority of complex spreadsheets covering supplier costs, various sales pricing tiers and product data, Google Docs and Sheets allow the team to jointly access and amend documents via any web client, which is extremely productive for them.
Being on Google Workspace has allowed Discount Fire supplies to grow their business and save time by streamlining the collaboration process.
Further Development
Cloudflare
We have set up Cloudflare for the Discount Fire Supplies website, protecting the website from malicious activity, with a powerful firewall to block bad bots from accessing the website.
Additionally, Cloudflare protects customer data from being analysed or targeted, providing a layer of trust for customers when shopping on the Discount Fire Supplies website, giving them an edge over competitors and allowing them to serve customers in a safe and stable environment.
Cloudflare also provides us with a content delivery network, allowing us to serve cached resources from a highly optimised server near to you, greatly reducing load times and providing the best possible browsing experience.
Dedicated Server
Ballyhoo are proud to offer green website hosting on our UK servers, providing safe and secure hosting for our clients’ websites. We have recently moved Discount Fire Supplies to their own dedicated server, due to the high volume of traffic that the website is seeing. Having a dedicated server helps the website to load quickly, whilst also protecting it from harm in the unlikely event of a shared server failing or another hosted site being compromised.
How Can We Help?
If you are in need of a new website, a revamp for your existing website, development to work responsively or anything related to websites and email marketing then get in touch now by calling us on 0121 295 5352, emailing us at [email protected] or using the contact form on our contact page.
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