| Eastern Silk |
Eastern Silk...Exotic Textiles, Pashminas, Homewares and Gifts
BackgroundEastern Silk is a bit of an institution in Adelaide and specialises in exotic textiles, silks, pashminas, saris, jewellery, homewares and gifts. The owners of Eastern Silk have spent 17 years refining their exclusive manufacturing of their fine silk textiles enabling them to offer a large range of fabrics and products that are unique. The BriefEastern Silk had a website with an online shop that was difficult for their internal staff to manage. They wanted an online shop that was easy to manage and had streamlined administration, thus reducing overheads. The owners of Eastern Silk also wanted their cusotmers to be able to choose products by colour first (especially the pashminas, which are available in over sixty colours) and then by other criteria. In addition, our analysis highlighted that the website itself was not easy for users to navigate and did not project the professionalism of Eastern Silk. The website also had not been optimised for search engines and therefore was not ranking well, or working as an effective marketing tool. The Solution - Design & FunctionalityThe website needed to be re-designed to provide a professional image and ensure that the information was presented in a user friendly manner. It was suggested that an advanced content management system be implemented with the online shop. This would enable the internal staff of Eastern Silk to easily maintain the website (add menu items, pages, content, categories, and products) and provide both longevity to the site and aide in user attention and retention. In order to streamline the importing of exisiting product information and imagery, it was also suggested to enable the bulk importing of data into the online shop. As a means of keeping in touch with existing customers, providing top-of-mind advertising, and establishing a ready-made audience to market new products to, it was suggested that an electronic newsletter and website subscription be used.
The ResultThe website was designed around the functionality of the online shop and utilised the core colours of Eastern Silk. Rich imagery was used on the home page to bring across the range and uniqueness of the Eastern Silk products. On the home page, the main categories and descriptions are presented as images in a automatic rotation, with roll-over mouse selection, and click-through functionality. The website and online shop are easy to manage and provide a streamlined system for the internal staff of Eastern Silk . In addition, the shop provides a simple and easy-to-use interface for customers. The site has obtained first page rankings in the major search engines for its keywords and phrases, both locally and nationally.
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