Ecommerce Digital Transformation

Challenges

• The Design Dilemma

ACS’ website wasn’t securing them the conversions they needed. The UX lacked a clear focus and didn’t have the right levels of oomph to turn visitors into paying customers. 

To start pumping up those numbers, they needed to take their UX design back to the drawing board and cook up some structured, conversion-focused user journeys. 

• Scalability & Autonomy

With their existing site architecture, there wasn’t a lot of room for growth. On top of that, they found the site slow to manage and maintain. For a successful digital transformation, ACS wanted scalability baked into their site, as well as the autonomy to make quick changes and maintenance without needing development resources.

• Modernisation

ACS wanted to revitalise their operations. Their existing infrastructure just wasn’t delivering the speed, flexibility, and functionality that they needed.

• Legacy Infrastructure

Complicating the process of their digital renovations, parts of their infrastructure were old and severely out of date. Unfortunately, these were also essential components that would be difficult for them to replace.

Solutions

UX Rework: Leveraging Brand Equity to Increase Conversions

Working with ACS, we cooked up a new, strategic UX. 

One of the central aims with this new approach was to strike a balance between informative content and clearly defined user journeys. The original site had plenty of copy about their brand and processes but it wasn’t delivered in ways that complemented their marketing goals. We set out to rework and compile their content into a purposeful, cohesive structure that synchronised with conversion pathways.

As a brand, one of ACS’ biggest strengths was their decades of experience in the industry and wealth of high-profile endorsements. While structuring their UX, we made sure to weave in this information in ways that enhanced the conversion pipeline by demonstrating credibility and authenticity. 

We created an “Endorsees” page where users can browse through performers that use ACS products, read their testimonials, and see the specific products that they use. Their new homepage also features a testimonials section. We categorised the testimonials section based on use case so users can quickly find reviews from people with similar needs. 

Additionally, ACS’ products cater to a wide range of use cases, each with their own specific needs. In light of this, we built a “Help me choose” page that gives users a quick but comprehensive overview of product features and their optimal use cases. 

With these updates, ACS’ website had clearer, more effective user journeys and conversion pathways. 

Migrating to Headless Commerce

To get an updated e-commerce experience, we moved ACS over to a Headless commerce solution. This used BigCommerce for the shopping side of things, Strapi as a CMS, and Vue.js as a frontend framework. Additionally, we had a Laravel app acting as a proxy between the frontend and BigCommerce. 

The app served a few different functions, including connecting BigCommerce and ACS’ local database, safely storing API credentials, and extending API functions. 

Along with the new platform, we implemented custom features into BigCommerce to accommodate ACS’s specific needs. 

For example, some features of BigCommerce didn’t work as expected when used with ACS’ Headless implementation. So we had to develop workarounds for features like calculating VAT and fetching products by URL, as well as creating custom product modifiers. 

Their new, headless architecture gives them greater flexibility and autonomy when it comes to managing their site, as well as a strong foundation for scaling.

Legacy Integration

ACS’s legacy infrastructure presented a unique challenge. The new site needed to be connected to their local systems but there were significant compatibility issues due to the older code in their local system. 

To get around this, we developed a custom script that worked with the outdated code. This script was also designed to follow the same logic of the previous script so as to integrate seamlessly with ACS’ order processing system.

With this problem sorted, ACS has a seamless integration between their existing systems and their new platform. 

Results 

And the results are in…. Let’s take a look.

• Higher Conversions: Users have responded positively to the new designs and refined user journeys. Since the release of the new site, ACS have garnered a major uptick in conversions.
• Scalability and Autonomy: With their renovated infrastructure, ACS have the ability to endlessly adapt their site. Their new e-commerce system and CMS made it easier for them to make quick changes and simplified maintenance and updates.
• Enhanced brand presentation: The new site provides a better reflection of ACS status as industry leaders and technological innovators.

ACS’s digital transformation turned their website into an e-commerce powerhouse. And with their sleek and scalable new infrastructure, they’re poised for continued growth and expansion.