Hobbs Barossa  Ranges | E-Commerce Adelaide | Web Design Adelaide | Hobbs Barossa Valley Shiraz

Hobbs of the Barossa

...a statement in excellence.

Background

Hobbs is an Australian family owned and operated fine wine vintner that is quickly building a reputation on the world stage of producing the very best red and dessert wines. Hobbs only creates a relatively small quantity of wine, but the quality is truly exceptional. Their vines have a hundred year old pedigree, are hand-pruned and the fruit are only ever hand picked. Situated in the Barossa Ranges, on the edge of the Barossa Valley, the vineyard provides unique conditions for grape growing and helps create very distinctive varietal flavour characteristics.

The Brief

Hobbs existing website was of an older style and did not project their vision for their wine or the business. The website was also not optimised for search engines, and therefore, was not ranking well, or working for them as an effective marketing and sales tool.  In addition, the website had usability issues and did not provide the ability to purchase online.

The Solution - Design & Functionality

The suggested design focus was contemporary with a focus on the nature of the business being one of wine enthusiasts, personal and family owned. Included in the design was bottle and lifestyle photography, map design and in conjunction with Hobbs,  writing the copy for the website.

The proposal to Hobbs included an advanced content management system and an online ordering/purchasing system.This would streamline the management of the website content and product information, enabling them to easily update the website. It was suggested to present the wine information within the shop as flash (to add an interesting bottle selection animation) and again in a standard way within the website (to enable the content to be read by the search engines). This information included the wine description, tasting notes and reviews for both the standard bottle and magnums. 

The ordering and purchasing system enabled the payment by credit card through a security certificate and payment gateway. This would automate the taking of orders and receipt of payment before the goods were shipped. The system also allowed for the setting up of individual pricing, ordering and purchasing for trade. 

Also to be included in the shop was a stock control system that would enable the system to track sales and place a "sold out" notice on stock when supplies were exhausted. In addition, the system would enable the placing and payment of "pre-orders" for next seasons stock. To automate this further, both national and international freight calculators were included.

To aide in customer attention and retention an electronic newsletter was suggested. E-newsletters utilise top of mind advertising and provide a ready-made audience for further product news and releases.The e-newsletter would enable Hobbs to easily construct and send out the emails through the content management system.

The Result

The result was everything that Hobbs were expecting and more. The design is contemporary, reflects the status of their brand, and is in keeping with the personal approach that they desired. The website highlights the exceptional nature of their wines, in both copy and imagery. The back-end of the site is easy to manage, yet functionally rich and powerful.

The site has obtained some first page rankings in the major search engines for its keywords and phrases. We are continuing to fine tune these results to ensure that Hobbs position in the search engines is reflective of their quality wine.

Where to next?

• Read about maximising your online web presense
• Read about effective website design 
• Read about content management systems
• Read about the importance of imagery & photography
• Return to recent projects
• Schedule a meeting with us