Challenge & Objectives
Bakels Group are a global business specialising in baking ingredients. They have 24 local websites across their countries of operation, and their group site.
Bakels approached Impact Media, as their custom built CMS was outdated and no longer fit for purpose. It was difficult to update, and gave limited control to adapt and manage content. They wanted to migrate all 25 sites over to WordPress, due to its ease of use and scalability and needed an agency with proven expertise in WordPress web development.
Solution
With their specification and requirements gathered, it was clear that this was the perfect project for implementing WordPress Multisite, allowing the creation of a network of linked global sites. This means that all of the sites share a single installation, making management and maintenance a more streamlined process.
Simplicity Of Use
The first phase of this project was to create their group website, which was to be the hub for their local sites within the multisite environment.
Their Group website acts as a top level window to their offering, highlighting their products, services, job vacancies, news stories and worldwide locations.
We created a highly customised but user friendly backend, to provide the technical solutions to their unique requirements.
First and foremost was to address the pain points they had experienced with their previous CMS, so content management and simple page creation were a priority.
We gave them a pagebuilder that allowed the Bakels team to easily create attractive new pages, with all the elements needed at their fingertips.
For ultimate ease of use, we created a series of training videos for Bakels employees, and placed them in the backend, so they would have access to them anytime they needed.
Global Location & Suppliers Map
The Google Maps API was used to create the Bakels Worldwide page, creating an attractive and interactive index of their businesses and distributors across the globe, with links to their local sites.
24 Country Specific Sites
Next was to create the suite of local sites, each tailored to the country of business, including expertly translated local languages. In some instances multiple languages were required, so we made use of WPML, which allows users to switch.
These sites share many features with the group site, but also have an array of additional custom functionality, including:
Frontend
- Account area where users can register and save their favourite products and recipes
- A Pinterest style insights page full of useful articles
- A stockists locator
- Dynamic search
- A recipes area with advanced filters pulling in ingredients and important information on allergens, suitability for specialist diets and nutritional numbers
Backend
- Spotlight Campaigns - allowing Bakels to create campaign landing pages
- Dynamic PDF Creation on the fly
- Advanced Product and Recipe Management
- A library of training videos
Multi-Device Bespoke Design
Technology & Plugins
Besides WordPress Multisite, we implemented Gravity Forms for form data management and personalisation. These forms were also integrated with Campaign Manager for easy email list management.
We used the Google Maps API to create the global locations and stockist map. Whilst we used WPML to handle country sites which required the ability to switch between multiple languages.
Results
Since launch the sites have been a great success, giving Bakels a highly customised solution, whilst providing them with ease of use and control over their content.
The Multisite solution means that any code pushes or updates only need to be carried out once for all sites, saving the client time and money.
