Situation

Epicurium, a UK-based healthy snacks wholesaler, has been on an exciting journey since its inception in 2005. Initially starting as a small distribution hub for ambient pouched meals, the company rapidly expanded its product range to include premium snacks and health-focused options. By 2012, Epicurium had established itself as the go-to place for innovative, healthier snacking options. Today, the company offers over 900 products from 130+ brands, serving 2,500 customers nationwide from a 25,000 sq. ft. warehouse.

Key Stakeholders:

Ben McKechnie: Managing Director
Michael Ratheram: Customer Engagement Manager

Challenge

Initial Goals and Objectives:

Epicurium aimed to transition to a multiplatform/channel online sales system that would cater to B2B suppliers but also needed a stylish product brochure site. The objective was to showcase their full product range, ensure the website loaded quickly, and looked great on any device. The ultimate goal was to encourage clients to register as B2B customers.

Challenges and Complications:

The main challenge was integrating a WooCommerce 'front-end' with the existing B2B platform, which functioned more like an intranet. Specific obstacles included ensuring product information was comprehensive and accessible, improving product search and filtering capabilities, and optimizing the site for SEO.

Operational and Financial Manifestation:

Operationally, the existing B2B platform's intranet-like structure made it difficult to present products attractively, leading to low engagement. Financially, this limited new client acquisition and retention due to poor online visibility and user experience.

Solution

Epicurium chose to develop a WooCommerce 'front-end' website to sync products from the B2B platform and display them in a user-friendly manner. Key steps in the implementation included:

Product Syncing: Integrated the B2B platform with WooCommerce for automatic product syncing.
Enhanced Search: Utilized SearchWP for improved product search functionality, including live search capabilities.
Dynamic Product Filters: Coded filters for nutritional aspects, allergens, religious dietary requirements, and brands.
Brand Taxonomy: Created a 'Brand' taxonomy to filter products and feature individual brand pages.
Custom Product Information: Used Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) to add extensive product information.
SEO Optimization: Optimized the site for on-page SEO to enhance visibility.
UX Development: Focused on navigation and filtering options to improve the customer journey across devices.
Content Pages: Implemented key pages such as Homepage, About, Wholesale Information, Blog/News, Product pages, Product Archive, and integrated Live Chat.
Transactional Emails & Contact Forms: Integrated Gravity Forms to capture inquiries and assist with signups.

Challenges During Implementation:

Data Formatting: Ensuring correct data formatting and handling dates/wrongly formatted data from the B2B platform.
Data Synchronization: Writing custom code to interpret CSV files accurately for allergen and nutritional information.
Testing and Filtering: Rigorous testing to prevent product data corruption and ensure reliable filtering.
UX and Presentation: Creating and displaying small, easy-to-understand icons for filterable data like 'Vegan', 'Halal', 'Gluten Free', etc., with mobile-first optimization.

Result

Outcomes: The new WooCommerce 'front-end' successfully showcased products attractively and improved user experience, leading to higher engagement.
Effectiveness: The solution effectively addressed the initial problems, improving search functionality and filtering options.
Short-term Results: Immediate improvement in website engagement and an increase in B2B account registrations.
Long-term Results: Sustained increase in organic traffic and higher conversion rates.
Key Learnings: The importance of data integrity, continuous UX improvements, and the value of comprehensive product information.
Application of Learnings: Future projects will prioritize data accuracy and seamless integration, focusing on user experience and mobile optimization.
Follow-up Actions: Regular updates and maintenance to ensure accurate data synchronization, ongoing SEO and UX optimizations, and monitoring user feedback.

- Epicurium

Conclusion

Epicurium's digital transformation through the development of a WooCommerce 'front-end' has significantly improved their online presence and customer engagement. By overcoming data and UX challenges, they have positioned themselves as a leading distributor of healthy snacks, ready to meet the growing demand for nutritious, premium products.

With a special focus on e-commerce, web development, and UX/UI design, we are the go-to choice for businesses not only in Newcastle and the North East but also throughout the UK.

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6/25/2020

Epicurium's Digital Transformation