The Client
(Not surprisingly!) a leisure-wear company specialising in a wide range of t-shirts, sweatshirts, outdoor and sports wear for adults and children.
The Brief
As a start-up company, The Leisurewear Company (TLC) not only needed a brand new website to help them stand out from the crowd but also needed assistance in importing product information (images, descriptions and prices) from their wholesaler and setting up of their shop to enable them to sell their products quickly and easily online.
The Design
A quick survey showed that many websites selling similar products were quite “busy” ie. lots of clashing colours, adverts and special offers which tended to distract from the items actually on sale. We therefore took the decision to keep the design of the TLC site as clean and simple as possible, allowing the images of the clothes to stand out and also making it easier for visitors to find those items of interest to them. The addition of “hand-drawn” style lettering and icons added a little extra character, helped to prevent the site looking too minimal and also added a friendly, casual feel in keeping with the nature of the business.
With the outline design agreed upon, the next step was to manipulate the data provided by the wholesaler to put it into a format suitable for use on the site. With some 2,000 different products & 40,000 different variations ie. colours, sizes etc. and each with different product images, colour swatches and prices, this was quite a challenge but was undoubtedly time, money and effort well-spent as it saved having to pay someone to input all the data manually and once complete, the site was pretty much finalised and ready to launch.
Some additional development work added the option to automate ordering direct from the suppliers – thereby saving still more time and money on a daily basis.
This was probably one of the largest online shops I’ve developed in WordPress and although I was ready to switch to another platform if it proved unsuitable, both I and the client were pleasantly surprised at how well, with just a few additional tweaks along the way, Woocommerce and WordPress have been able to handle things.
See the result here – The Leisurewear Company
Feeling inspired with ideas for your business? Need your own online shop, WordPress or Woocommerce site? Why not contact me and let’s chat.
Cassie is an excellent designer, conscientious, diligent and a pleasure to work with – DP, The Leisurewear Company