vinnicombes wines

Services: Strategy, Website Design, Website Development, Website Hosting, Ecommerce, Content Management, Search Engine Optimisation
Technologies: ASP.Net, MYSQL Database, XHTML, CSS, Javascript, AJAX.
Launched: March 2008
URL: www.vinnicombes.com

Background
Vinnicombes was established in 1857 and has gone from strength to strength becoming one of the leading wine, spirit and beer merchants in the South West of England. With more than 3000 product lines, Vinnicombes distribute to a wide range of companies including pubs, bars and restaurants through their outlets in South Devon, but were keen to begin supplying the retail market. An ecommerce website was needed to generate exposure within the new market sector.

Project Brief
- To establish an online presence for Vinnicombes promoting the products available to the retail market.
- To export and integrate the existing dos-based stock system containing 3000 products with a web-based database, allowing visitors to the site to easily locate desired products and securely pay for them online.
- To integrate a comprehensive content management system allowing the team at Vinnicombes to edit the product database, run a wide range of special offers or bulk discounting pricing structures, as well as amend latest news and events on an ad-hoc basis.
- To create an enewsletter system allowing Vinnicombes to integrate their offline mailing list and distribute special offers and news via email to an opt-in, email-based mailing list.
- To deliver a targeted Internet marketing campaign to spread awareness of Vinnicombes to the target market.

The Outcome
The new Vinnicombes website was launched in March 2008 and has been well received by visitors. Each of the Vinnicombes products are now available to be securely purchased online, having been integrated with the bank / payment gateway of choice.

The content management system allows members of the team to quickly and easily edit any aspect of the ecommerce product database, events, news or special offers on an ad-hoc basis. A global price change feature has also been included allowing for a % increase to be added to all 3000+ products when required.

The ecommerce solution is very flexible, taking into account scaled delivery prices depending on order value, staggered special offers reducing product prices by either a £ value or % based on order value and complicated search criteria (the wine section alone allows visitors to search by country, colour, price, grape, vintage, % volume, type, bottle size, etc!)

The average time spent on the website by visitors is in excess of 5 minutes, with most visitors accessing over 40 pages each - showing that the intuitive navigation and search system is having the desired results. More than half of the people who have accessed the site have added it to their 'favourites' indicating an intention to return on a regular basis.

Visit the website at www.vinnicombes.com