Getting a taste of the Far East
Innovative startup business, Union Oriental Foods, tasked 21 Digital with creating an online store for their new business venture. Of course, we jumped at the chance to work with such a fantastic, unique brand that was clearly set for big things!
The website was to be aimed exclusively at Warwick University’s international students. It was to offer them authentic oriental produce delivered direct to campus. With the company’s new service, there would be no need to lug shopping bags for miles and miles – as you can imagine, this was a real bug-bear for many students on campus! And whilst the website was aimed at the needs of international students, there’s no doubt that the more confident chefs and foodies at Warwick University would be indulging in Union Oriental Foods produce too!
Defining objectives
After an initial consultation with 21 Digital’s marketing director, Sam Fletcher, we had a clear brief in mind. We started with a brand design, defined by market research and ideas generation, which we then developed to give a polished final design that brought Union Oriental Foods’ brand to life.
Once this had been designed, we were able to focus on the company’s website – presenting a variety of website options to the team to further enhance their business objectives. After taking into consideration our ideas and plans, the online oriental convenience store opted for a Magento eCommerce platform, which would offer greater flexibility for future development as the business grew.
A solution in Magento
There are a number of benefits of the Magento eCommerce platform that led us to recommend it to the client:
- Enhanced control of the online store – from merchandising to promotions and more.
- Increased ROI – Giving the merchant an open source business model that yields a superior product at a low cost.
- Increased growth – A flexible system that easily enables merchants to increase revenue.
The platform also included useful features such as search engine optimisation, analytics and reporting, mobile optimisation, order management and much more.
The 21 Digital creative agency team took advantage of the suite of features Magento had to offer. The result? A fully customised and responsive website tailored to Union Oriental Foods’ requirements. Of course, a responsive website was a key objective as we envisaged that more and more students would browse and shop online on the go, using smart devices like iPhones and iPads.
Commenting on the project, Michael Cain said:
“It was a challenging brief to produce a responsive website using the most popular ecommerce platform, Magento, but we’re extremely happy with the result.
“The site also incorporates a fully translated Chinese variant of the main site to cater for the client’s primary customer base.”
Union Oriental Foods add:
“The style and features of our new website have exceeded our expectations. We’re looking forward to fulfilling orders online in the upcoming weeks!”