Avant Garde Hair Salons: Launching a Premier E-commerce Platform
In August 2008, following the successful update of their brand identity, Avant Garde Hair Salons collaborated with The Site Doctor to develop a cutting-edge e-commerce website. The goal was to create a platform that not only reflected their refreshed brand but also bridged the gap between their physical salons and the online marketplace.
Strategic Vision and Funding
Recognizing an opportunity to serve both existing clients and attract new customers across the UK, Avant Garde aimed to establish a market-leading online presence. Concurrently, they were launching a new salon in Worcester, which posed financial constraints. To address this, we assisted Avant Garde in securing 80% funding from the West Midlands Business Link, making the development of the e-commerce site feasible.
Advanced E-commerce Features
The resulting website was one of the most sophisticated e-commerce platforms we had developed at the time, featuring:
- Comprehensive Content Management System (CMS): Empowered Avant Garde to manage their entire product catalog and orders through an intuitive web-based control panel, ensuring timely updates and responsiveness to industry changes.
- Automated Up-Selling: The system intelligently suggested related or upgraded products to customers, such as recommending a matching conditioner when a shampoo was selected or proposing a larger size for better value, thereby enhancing sales potential.
- Integrated Mailing List Facility: Allowed for efficient management of email campaigns, enabling targeted promotions and customer engagement.
- Anonymous Checkout Option: Catered to customers preferring a streamlined purchasing experience without account creation, reducing cart abandonment rates.
- In-Depth Real-Time Reporting: Provided detailed analytics on shopping cart contents, order values, and customer behavior, facilitating informed decision-making and strategic planning.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Integration with third-party directories like Google's product listing site and implementation of XML Sitemaps protocol ensured high search engine visibility.
Immediate Success and Future Plans
The e-commerce site achieved remarkable success shortly after launch, receiving its first order within 12 hours and nearly £200 in orders within the first 72 hours—all without prior advertising. This early performance underscored the platform's effectiveness and market demand.
Building on this momentum, Avant Garde planned to initiate a Google AdWords campaign in collaboration with The Site Doctor, aiming to further boost visibility and sales. The integration with Google Analytics allowed for meticulous tracking of campaign performance and ongoing site optimization.
Through this project, Avant Garde Hair Salons not only extended their reach beyond physical locations but also established a robust online presence, setting a benchmark in the hair care e-commerce sector.
We looked at and met with several web design companies when we decided to take our web business further. Having already had a website and image that had become dated we knew it was time for a major new look in time for our new salon launch. We decided to go with The Site Doctor because they made it so personal to us individually, briefly touching on work they had done in the past but trying to understand our business so the site can reflect our corporate values as opposed to shadowing other projects. The personal approach The Site Doctor showed us only grew as the project started, not only by constantly updating us with progress but adding ideas to the site and showing an amazing level of expertise with the website development itself. I look forward to working with The Site Doctor as my company and the website grows.
Ian Beswick | Managing Director, Avant Garde Salons
