Biketreks Case Study
Biketreks is situated in Ambleside in the heart of the Lake District. Established in the late eighties by Andy Stephenson, over the last twenty years the shop has grown to become established as one of the leading bike shops in the North of England. Having recently moved into new larger premises in the centre of Ambleside, Biketreks now offer an unrivalled selection of bikes and accessories.
From Epos to fully integrated 'Clicks & Mortar'.
Citrus-Lime's initial involvement with Biketreks was as the supplier of their Microsoft RMS Epos and Stock Control System. This provided them with both point-of-sale on the shop floor as well as back-office functions such as stock control, purchasing, customer management and reporting. As we developed our relationship with Andy and the team they also became one of the first customers for our Bike Workshop Module - which expands on features in RMS to provide functionality for the efficient management of the servicing side of Biketreks business.
Citrus-Lime's Bike Workshop Module
The next logical project was to integrate Biketreks ecommerce activities with the retail systems they have already invested in, allowing Biketreks to grow their online sales on a modern web platform whilst reducing the time and administration involved in running a separate non-integrated ecommerce site.
The Design Process
Once the decision to proceed with an integrated ecommerce site had been made the next step was to arrange for a meeting between Andy and his team and the design guys here at Citrus-Lime. At the end of this meeting the design team had a good idea of the style and character of the site Biketreks wanted, and both groups had benefited from the opportunity to 'kick-about' various ideas on the functionality of the site and the design options open to Biketreks. It is at this early stage that much important ground is covered. Citrus-Lime get to better understand the client and what they want to achieve in terms of branding and presentation, and the Client gets to benefit from our experience of developing sites that work both creatively and commercially.
Following on from this initial meeting, our design team produced a visual mock-up of how the site - as proposed - would look. In effect it is a non-functional representation of what the site would look like in terms of navigation, styling, branding and functionality. We then arranged for a second meeting to present this work to Andy and his team. Based on further input from Biketreks this design was approved and we went ahead an organised a statement of work - a document which listed the exact timescales and inputs required from both companies to move the project from the design stage to a fully functional site.
The New Site
The new Biketreks site has now launched! It has a fresh look and is designed to be constantly expanded with new information providing Biketreks' customers with not only an online shop, but also an online community. The products featured online are drawn directly from the shops epos system as are their stock levels - so if you see it available online then you can be confident that it is. Biketreks are also making use of social networking tools such as facebook to keep their friends informed of what's going on, be it new rides organised or new products launched, or in fact anything to do with Biketreks. The homepage also features space which is being updated through a blogging engine - so wherever they are the team can provide updates on whatever they're doing. As time goes on there will be more and more content on the site and as it will remain fresh it is hoped that Biketreks' customers will find it an increasingly useful resource.
Of course the site also features all of the standard functionality in Citrus-Store 2.0 such as great search and navigation, as well as some nice touches such as zoomable product images. Why not take a look for yourself and see how they are getting along?
Visit Biketreks' New Ecommerce Site |