Craft Commerce for a streamlined user experience

Launching an e-commerce business

When webdna first started working with Tim Kennedy, owner of Modelli Fabrics, back in 2009, the intention was to create an online platform selling high-quality upholstery fabric directly to the public.

Tim had been running a fabric agency business since the mid-1980s and was looking for a fresh challenge that could fully optimise the considerable experience he had acquired during that time.

A custom Craft Commerce website

We designed and built an online platform that Tim could build his business on.

For that, we initially used Pyro CMS and built a fabric finder tool that allowed Tim's customers to drill down through the hundreds of fabrics available on the website to find the colour, texture, and pattern of material that is just right for their project.

The problem with buying fabric online is that most people really want to feel it, see it up close and get a sense of what it would be like in the room they planned to use it in. To help overcome that, we built a sample tool. Any sample could be selected and Tim would send it out free to the customer and then follow up with them by email to see how they liked it.

The idea of providing a free sample seems like second nature today but back in 2009 it was unheard of that anyone would send out a free fabric sample to anyone who asked for one.

In the beginning, the website had to work especially hard. There was no fallback of a brick-and-mortar shop or even a telephone line that a customer could call. Everything had to be available through the website and in such an intuitive way that no one needed to speak to anyone at Modelli.

Optimising Tim’s business for sustained growth

By 2012 it was evident that the business model, originally conceived in 2008/09, not only had legs but could continue to prosper with the right technical support.

New iterations of the website were introduced in 2011 and again in 2013 - each time streamlining and simplifying the customer experience.

The benefit of these investments, along with the regular monthly investment Tim makes with webdna has proved to be more than worthwhile given that the business has seen double-digit growth every year since.

From the very beginning, Tim has set webdna the challenge of allowing him to run his business with very low staff overhead, and we have delivered exceptional results.

His business currently operates at ten times the revenue per employee of the business due to the multi-faceted approach that we have taken in partnership with Tim.

webdna has worked with Tim to improve every area of his business including optimising label and invoice printing, integrating with his accountancy software, and providing his email marketing, SEO and PPC. This was all built on a beautiful Craft CMS website that works for his standard retail requirements, trade requirements and the very bespoke requirements of some of his customers.

A full digital marketing partner

We are now Modelli's digital marketing team 

We know more about fabric than we ever thought we would and are implementing that knowledge to help Tim take Modelli from strength to strength using a range of our skills from website design and development, through digital marketing including SEO and PPC and even stretching to customer service if required.