Challenge & Objectives
Morleys are a specialist retailer, providing furniture for schools and early years learning.
They approached us looking to replatform their 4 websites away from Magento, which was coming to the end of its life, slow and no longer providing them with the control they needed. They were experiencing a number of pain points with the platform, and needed custom code implementing, along with some features that Magento just couldn’t give them. As Magento 1 was coming to its end of life, they had to choose between replatforming to WooCommerce or reinvesting in Magento; a platform that they were becoming extremely frustrated with, and felt it was over complicated.
A new robust platform was number one on their list, and an agency who could get the most out of whichever platform they chose. If they went down the WooCommerce/WordPress path the agency needed to be able to understand their technical requirements and be able to support them long-term.
Morley’s also wanted clarification that the website would be able to manage sales across 4 different sites, all with different products, branding and assets. Each website with its own large product catalogue, and most products having multiple configurations available.
Migrating From Magento 1 to WooCommerce
This was an ideal project for WordPress Multisite, in combination with WooCommerce.
The first of their sites to be replatformed was their main school furniture site https://www.morleys.co.uk, and this will form the hub site for their multisite environment going forwards, and the website covered in this case study.
Managing 90,000 Unique SKUS
The primary Morley’s site has a product catalogue of over 90,000 unique SKUs, so it required an advanced data import. To handle this we created grandparent, parent and child SKUs, to manage the configurability available with each item; furniture height, colours and so on.
We also mapped each configuration to an image (where available) so that users can view what their chosen item will look like in their chosen configuration.
Usability
Research told us that Morley’s primary audience can’t always fill their basket and check out immediately with a credit card, but instead must provide quotations and request sign-off through the proper purchasing channels. To ensure we created a good user experience, we added a ‘request a quote’ functionality. Here a user can build out a quote and have it emailed to them to provide to their purchasing department. Then when they have sign-off they can return to their saved quote and have invoiced.
With such a large product catalogue, we added dynamic search, to make it easier for users to find what they are looking for.
We also made sure that creating a user account is a quick, easy and secure process where customers can manage their orders.
Seamless Responsive Design
Morleys, like all the website we build. was built to the latest best practice standards for responsive design. Each page template we created was carefully wireframed, designed, developed and tested.
Simple Product & Content Management
One of our main goals for every website we build, is to make it straightforward and easy to manage for our clients. This was always at the front of our minds when developing this solution for Morley’s. From managing sales and shipping, through to adding new products, or creating case studies, we wanted to ensure that it can be done with ease on this site (and the 3 future sites).
Multisite will mean that upgrades and code pushes will only need to be done on the hub site but will take effect across all four sites. It also means that the sales, quotes and order process for all sites can be managed centrally, yet each site will have it’s own branding, assets and product catalogue.
We included a custom page builder, which will make the creation of new pages and case studies a simple task for the Morley’s team.
We also provided them with a series of training videos, stored within the backend of their website, so they can access them whenever they need to refresh their skills.
Enhanced Performance
Morely’s old site was slow, and struggled with page load speed. With page speed metrics being so important for both organic search and user experience, we focused on creating an optimised and fast site. We use GTmetrix to measure page speed. Morley’s old site scored a D & E, their new site scores A & A.
Technology & Plugins
Aside from WordPress multisite and WooCommerce, the website uses Gravity Forms to manage form data and personalisation, and is integrated with SagePay/Opayo for online payments.
Results
There are more customisations and integrations to come, along with a further 3 Morley’s sites in production.
The new Morley’s site has already proved a success with its greatly improved user experience, and lightning fast speeds.
In its first month, bounce rate has reduced by 24.41% from the same period in the previous year. Page views have increased by 40.08%, and average session duration has increased by 16.55%.
Morleys will be working with one of our partner agencies on ongoing search engine optimisation.
