Case Study
The Client
 SpecialityBEERmerchants.com, with its learning
academy and e-shop, offers UK customers a selection of hundreds of different
beers from around the world. All the beers have been hand selected by the
company’s resident Master BEER Sommelier Marc Stroobandt, who is also on hand
for specialist advice.
The Challenge
SpecialityBEERmerchants.com came to Pin Digital with a requirement to develop an
e-commerce website to facilitate the sale of their range of speciality beers
and other associated products such as unique branded beer glasses.
They had specific requirements for the website to:
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Be accessible
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Be educational
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Be easy to use
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Make Speciality Beer more available to a wider audience
SpecialityBEERmerchants.com has developed a unique way to simplify the beer
category for the UK drinker thereby making it easier to understand. The new
classification and definition of beer style (named the SBA BEER Matrix ®),
should help users and thereby make them feel more comfortable and confident
shopping for BEER.
The SBA BEER Matrix was to be central to the layout and design of the website,
the overall aim of which was to open up a whole new beer experience for UK
drinkers.
The Solution
 Pin Digital set out to develop a
website for SpecialityBEERmerchants.com that would not only educate and inform,
but also allow users to experiment and easily purchase almost any beer style,
with the option of its bespoke branded drinking glass, to enjoy in the comfort
of their own home.
The website was built to make use of the latest technology including ASP.Net,
XML and SQL server and features a full content management system which can be
administered and updated by any member of SpecialityBEERmerchants.com’s staff.
Due to the wide and varied range of products SpecialityBEERmerchants.com wished
to sell, the ecommerce functionality on the website needed to have a very
flexible data structure which would allow for unlimited dynamic categories and
product attributes. This enabled them to present the varied beer information
such as colour, alcohol group, appellation, brewery, and even suitable food
suggestions, in a clear structured format. The website even features an ‘Other
products you might like’ facility which suggests products based upon the users
browsing habits.
The whole site is administrable by the client at any time by way of an easy to
use website administration system, allowing them to add and amend categories,
products and product attributes and a whole host of related information such as
product pictures and information. The same administration system also allows
them to run management reports on sales.
The Bottom Line
The completed website not online meets all the needs laid out in the initial
requirements but also includes additional functionality that was identified and
requested during the course of the development of the website.
Users to the website are now able to access the internet’s largest resource of
information on speciality beer and purchase the products at the same time. They
can purchase single items, selected mixed cases, vintage beers and gift packs.
The company can even in some cases source beers that they currently do not
sell.
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Pin Digital formed an integral part of our team in developing this website and
they brought to the table valuable technical expertise. This was always going
to be a challenging project as we had two objectives, to educate the consumer
and to sell our beers. We pushed hard for some interesting features on the site
and Pin Digital delivered every time, albeit sometimes with some interesting
discussion, and creative solutions! As a result our site is easy to use,
accessible and quick. Even I, a self-confessed technophobe, can easily amend
our site and work on it.
Fiona Smith, Director, Speciality BEER Merchants |
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Project Specification
| COMPANY: |
Speciality BEER Merchants |
| SECTOR: |
Retail |
| THE SOLUTION: |
Ecommerec website development |
| URL: |
www.specialitybeermerchants.com
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| TECHNOLOGY: |
Windows 2003 Server
ASP.NET
SQL Server
XML |
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