Multi-Site Ecommerce: Kitchen Economy
Kitchen Economy is a family business that was founded in 1978. The company – a registered Euronics agent – has long been one of Cardiff’s leading appliance retailers, but its owners were keen to expand beyond the Welsh capital and grow their reputation as a UK-wide enterprise. As part of this expansion, they asked us to create a series of bespoke ecommerce websites for them, including a spare parts website, an online kitchenware shop, and a trade-only storefront. While all of these sites were to be built upon the same sprawling product database, we were asked to create a unique design for each one; the finished websites are aesthetically appealing, highly functional, and exceptionally easy for Kitchen Economy’s staff to manage.
Product Database
From ovens and fridge-freezers to baking trays and spare cooker knobs, Kitchen Economy really do sell a dizzyingly large array of different products. Instead of segregating this product range into four smaller databases – one for the bakeware website, one for the spares website, and so forth – we developed a single, centrally-managed database that allows Kitchen Economy to manage the stock for all of their ecommerce websites in one location. Looking after a database of this size is no mean feat, but we feel that Kitchen Economy’s smooth-running websites are proof of our success in this department!
Design & Branding
This client knew from the very beginning that they did not wish to carry the Kitchen Economy brand across all of their websites. Instead, they wanted to give each site its own unique personality; they felt that this approach would yield greater marketing opportunities and improve their audience appeal across the board. We worked hard to give each site a design that suited its proposed brand identity – for example, the trade-only website has a minimal, utilitarian look, while the kitchenware store has a much more colourful design (complete with mouth-watering photographs and suggested recipes) that resembles a traditional storefront. We also created eye-catching logos for each site.
Social Media Integration
A big advantage of selling one’s products via multiple ecommerce websites is the increased scope for social media interaction. Each of Kitchen Economy’s websites has its own set of social media accounts, allowing the company to reinforce the identity of each brand on sites such as Twitter and Facebook. Our digital marketing specialists helped Kitchen Economy to set up these accounts, and delivered social media training sessions to help them get started.
