Case Study
Shoreline Fruit
We worked with Shoreline Fruit to build a custom eCommerce website, positioning them for growth in their retail brand as well as supporting their commercial business.
Web Design & Development | Digital Strategy
Overview
Company Background
Shoreline Fruit, is a grower-owned processor and marketer of a broad selection of the finest cherry products, dried fruits, and wellness supplements. They market these products under the brands of Shoreline Fruit, Cherry Bay Orchards, Cherry Bay Wellness, and CherryPURE – servicing retailers, distributors, rebaggers, and ingredient customers as well as as well as individuals directly through their website.
The Opportunity
Throughout our time working with Shoreline in a marketing capacity, it became apparent that a larger refresh of their website was needed. The growing mobile usage and the addition of product lines ultimately meant Shoreline needed a new platform that would position them for continued growth.
We exercised a 3-phased approach that began with strategy and research and ultimately allowed for a seamless transition to the new website at every level of the business.
Key
Challenges
Clearly Positioning Retail and Commercial Brands
The website needed to support the commercial business-to-business side of the organization while also providing a great experience for consumers looking to purchase the products online.
Integration and Reporting Capabilites
Shoreline had multiple software platforms in place that needed to be integrated into the new website. This included importing orders into their fulfillment partner's system, connecting with MailChimp for email marketing, Google Merchant Center for Google Shopping Ads, and customized internal reports.
Minimal Disruptions During the Transition
A major website and software overhaul affects almost every aspect of Shoreline’s online presence and many back-end operations. We needed to find a way to seamlessly transition from the old systems and website to the newly updated website without significant downtime or disruption.
Key Actions
and Metrics
Phase 1: Discovery
We began with a discovery phase to analyze current data, review competitors, and conduct strategy meetings with Shoreline's team to establish goals for this project.
Then we worked together to prioritize features and create a plan for what would ultimately provide them the best solutions. This not only helped prioritize costs but clearly defined what the new software platform needed to be capable of. Knowing these steps created the foundation needed to begin the next phase of the project.
Phase 2: Design & Develop
This phase began with wireframing key pages of the website and mapping out customer flows. We then created a draft of the design to work through initial design decisions. Finally, we dove into the development of the website to build the systems needed to bring it to life.
This phase also included working with Shoreline's team to add content to the website as well as implementing the technical SEO requirements and performance testing to ensure all of the details were in place.
Phase 3: Launch, Training, and Maintenance
As part of the launch we conducted training with Shoreline's team to create a smooth transition to the new system. We then took care of the technical aspects of launching the new website and transitioning all systems over. Of course a website is a living part of your brand, so ongoing maintenance and improvements have continued.
Outcomes and Major Highlights
Built on a Flexible and Powerful Software Platform
We chose to build the website on Craft CMS because this allowed for the flexibility to create exactly what was needed. The software is commercially supported and continues to get better, which positions Shoreline well for future growth without the need to change platforms.
This software allowed us to create the custom integrations needed while providing an exceptional experience for Shoreline's team to control the content and manage the online ordering system.
Custom Checkout Flow
After determining the requirements, we sketched out a custom checkout flow to simplify the order process and streamline the user experience.
Fresh New Design
We created a custom design that was consistent with both the Shoreline Fruit and Cherry Bay Orchards branding, supporting both commercial and retail product lines.
Consumer Product Pages
We increased the focus on direct consumer sales to better serve this group of customers who make up the majority of visitors to the website.
Commercial Product Pages
Bulk products are presented in a simple, clean design to present the high quality of Shoreline's products.
Decreased Page Load Times by 66%
Website performance is critical for many reasons. It not is essential to a great experience for visitors, but also is a factor in Google's search engine rankings. We made this a priority throughout the project and decreased page load times from 5.9 seconds to 1.9 seconds.
Ongoing System Maintenance and Improvements
After the successful launch of the new website, we continued to make improvements. This included, implementing a site search function, adding the page layouts, and updating the server for security and performance.
Conclusion
While working with Shoreline’s marketing team, our goal was to fill in and provide value where needed. First working in a marketing capacity, we were able to improve their customer base and overall sales and provide them with insights and strategy to position their brand for success and future improvements. Shoreline Fruit is growing and we will continue to provide value where needed.
“It is my pleasure to recommend the Marketing Support Services of Clarity Square, LLC to any company that is looking to establish or grow their ecommerce business. I have worked with Clarity’s Founder, Andrew Gregory, for nearly ten years in various business capacities. I have always found him to be a person of exceptional personal and professional integrity.”
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