Case Study - How we helped provide a powerful ecommerce shopping cart website for a customer whose existing site had turned into a nightmare with a built in timebomb!

This customer is a products retailer and wholesaler based in the UK. They already had an e-commerce web site that had been built by a web design company using some off the shelf shopping cart software. However as you will see, the website turned out to be a bit of a time bomb waiting for a chance to reek havoc!

It took almost 6 months for an employee to learn how to use the software that was needed to maintain the web site. This software only allowed the company to update the product details themselves. If they needed to change contact details or add additional site pages, they had to contact the web designer. The site contained just over 1000 products.

The number products on the site and complexity of the software (originally sold to them as a simple solution) meant that keeping track of products and simple tasks such as keeping prices up to date had become a full time job.

Expensive and time consuming!

The owner new that keeping the site up to date was expensive, but he had invested so much time in the project that he was reluctant to change to a new system. He had also realised that he needed to continue to provide customers with a way of accessing product information on line and could not afford to be without a site whilst a new one was being built.

Ka boom - the time bomb exploded !

For the above reasons, the site continued in the same format until a major problem arose.

The employee who looked after the website became pregnant and left the company! - DISASTER!

Now, no one knew how to maintain the web site, remember, it had taken 6 months for this employee to learn how to use the software in the first place , now she had gone, and the products and information on the site rapidly became stale.

A fast, cost effective solution was required!

The problems that arose by the employee leaving the company really brought home to the owner just how much more control he needed. It was no good having a complex system that could only be maintained by one key member of staff. He needed a simple to maintain, yet robust website that could easily be updated by any employee with basic computer knowledge.

The Absolute Shopping Cart e-commerce system was chosen to provide the solution and this enabled the company to put over 1200 items up for sale on the web site within just 10 working days!

What was a full time job for one person had turned into just a few minutes work per day and the minimal level of I.T. knowledge required to maintain the website meant that just about anybody at the company was able to do it.

Who is this company - are you reading a fairytale, where are the pixies?

This is NOT a fairy tale. It's a true story. Our clients request for confidentiality prevents us from publishing the full company details on our web site. However, if you feel the need to contact this firm and make sure it's not a fairytale, please telephone us on 01226 247576 and we'll put you in touch.