We have had a very long and successful working relationship with Acorn Media UK and started out by updating an Access Order Management System (OMS) to a web based PHP & MySQL system in early 2004, since then we have continued to work on the OMS and have built it into a huge system that now manages every part of Acorn's business.
In 2007 Acorn wanted to update their existing eCommerce site and link it into the OMS. They went out to tender and found a company to build their site.
After 6 months of nothing happening Acorn found out that this company was unable to build their site, this had left them in a very awkward position as their old website had been taken offline and was unable to be used in this interim period. Acorn at this point approached us and asked if we would be able to complete this project for them as a matter of urgency.
We firstly found out from Acorn the core objectives that they wanted from their eCommerce site.:
The website would be to serve as an important sales channel for Acorn to increase its market share as well as to convert some, but not all, of its existing catalogue customers to order via the website.
The website's look and feel needed to strike a fine balance between being engaging, clean and provide a seamless customer experience between the catalogue and the website. It also needed to meet the needs of a wide demographic with varied levels of usage and understanding of the internet.
The website must integrate fully with Acorn's order management system.
The website must include a content management system, a customer account section and also include additional features such as catalogue number quick order entry, best sellers, catalogue request, mailing list, wishlists, movie player to play trailers, customer account section, etc. with the ability to add further features in the future to expand the customers shopping experience.
It was at this point that we discovered the Magento eCommerce platform. Magento was very much in it's infancy being less than 2 years old but we recognised it as having the potential to be a class leader.
Acorn needed a lot of extra functionality to be added and it was essential for this system to integrate fully with the OMS on going live. Acorn had no website presence due to their old website being down at this point so we set an incredibly tight deadline of 2 months to build, test and put their new website live.
We managed to hit this deadline and 2 months after the build started, the website was put live.
It went on to beat their target twelve month turnover in just six months of going live and it's products regularly achieve page 1 positions on Google.
Magento has proved to be a real find for us. We recognised it as a fantastic system back then and it has developed into a class leader, we made the decision to incorporate it into our business and this decision is proving to be very good for us and for our clients.
We continue to extend the website and the OMS for Acorn and are currently working on installing the brand new offering from Magento - Magento Mobile, which is an eCommerce app designed specifically for the iPhone.
