ORCA Websites

ORCA Case Study: Ecommerce

AN-X Menswear

AN-X opened its doors to the public in Bradford, West Yorkshire in 1991 and has been trading successfully ever since. In that time the Company has built a great reputation and an almost fanatical local customer base and is now one of Yorkshire’s leading independent fashion stores.

Despite this success, the business had no online presence whatsoever. We approached them in late 2006 and, following a very positive first meeting, presented them with an affordable website design that reflected their stylish image and which also gave them the tools and functionality they would need to  start trading and competing online.

The site was launched at the beginning of January 2007 after a build time of just 5 weeks and, within a few months, the sales the site generated paid for the cost of the build. Now, just 18 months later, sales are currently running at over £1000 per week!

However, the site has not just generated online sales, but it has also contributed significantly to offline revenues as website visitors have purchased over the telephone and have also made purchases in store after finding items online.

As with any client, our goal is to enable smaller businesses to really make the Internet work for them and to ensure that they maximise every opportunity - this has most definitely been the case with AN-X. The company has attracted the majority of their online sales from outside of their local area. In fact, besides attracting purchasers from all over the UK, overseas orders have become a regular occurrence and business is now done on a consistent basis with customers in France, the USA, Australia and Indonesia.

What’s more, a staggering 44% of the customers who purchased items in December 2007 did so after 18:00, when the store is closed. The latest figures demonstrate that this figure has increased to 55%.

As Alex Shaw, the owner of AN-X states:

“The site is performing beyond my wildest dreams and we’re taking over half of our sales when we’re not even open. If you had told me we could have done this just a year ago, I would have laughed you out of the shop!”

Figure 1: Website Sales By Time Of Day

Figure 2: Website Traffic For December 2007 By Time Of Day

They have even achieved the coveted number one spot on the Google search engine (world wide) for several of the brands they sell, thanks to clever use of their Website Statistics and Meta Page functions.

Although there is no miracle formula for search engine optimisation, the AN-X team regularly update the site, keep track of the keywords and keyphrases visitors use to find the site (and add them to their Meta Pages), and have also established links with other sites. It is this kind of activity which has enabled this small menswear retailer in Bradford to truly prosper online.

Figure 3: Keyphrases Visitors Use On Search Engines That Lead Them To an-x.co.uk

Figure 4: Keywords Visitors Use On Search Engines That Lead Them To an-x.co.uk

Figure 5: Google Search Results For "Location Goggle Jacket"

Traffic to the website has increased by a staggering 4000% from launch in just 12 months from 135 unique visitors to 5560 in December 2007.

Figure 6: Monthly Website Traffic 2007

Figure 7: Monthly Website Traffic 2007

A large contributor to this has been the use of the site’s Newsletter function that is sent on a monthly basis to the store’s customer database. This is a great tool that enables the business to proactively promote their offers, discounts, new ranges and sale items, as well as allowing them to send out offers and information to specific individuals.

The customer database is managed via the easy to use content management system and every time a newsletter is sent, it not only generates more sales, but the database grows as a result of recipients forwarding it to their friends and family.

The impact of the newsletter can clearly be seen in Figure 8 – note the spike in site traffic from the December 10th when the newsletter was sent and the subsequent ripple-effect that lasted for an entire week.

Figure 8: The Impact Of A Newsletter

Online success is achievable for any small business – we simply provide the tools that make it happen.

If you would like to make the Internet work for your business, call ORCA now on 0845 270 1128 or email info@orcawebsites.com.