The blog update that started the project
Founding an eCommerce Wordpress initiative
Project
Summary
The salespeople within the company often needed to create microsites for their clients to sell branded products. The existing inventory management software was so niche that a single developer existed for it. That single developer was expensive, severely backlogged, and created mid-90s-esque websites.
After redesigning the blog for the Blue Soda Promo website and seeing the work by another designer, I believed I had a solution.
Roles
My role: Lead designer, website manager
Team: Developer
Objective
Find a way to streamline the creation of eCommerce microsites
Work
I created a quick proposal for my boss: Let me use Wordpress, which we've already used successfully for the blog and our designer was using to make another microsite for a niche product, to create a series of eCommerce sites. I had even found a plugin developer that would be able to integrate with the ancient inventory management software, given the right attributes.
My boss approved the idea and I got to work.
Our first two websites were microsites for CBRE and Success Academy. Both of them wanted to sell products with their logos on it, but for different purposes.
The CBRE holiday site
CBRE
CBRE wanted to sell promotional products for both client and employee gifts. They were intended on being rewards.
The website functioned like a basic ecommerce website, where anyone could technically access it and purchase from it. They did not advertise the URL except internally.
Products had very limited customization, though there were a very large amount of products.
The Success Academy school uniform shop
Success Academy
Success Academy was a different challenge. Depending on the role of the person who logged in, the products available and the product pricing would change.
It wanted to sell uniforms to students and their families, but it also sold supplies to their employees.
It had a limited amount of products, hidden behind a login.
End results
My eCommerce initiative was a wild success. I could knock them out in a week or two, work directly with the salespeople and clients, and my websites saved the company approximately $60,000 per site I created. They were infinitely more valuable because I could then also train the salespeople to update the products as necessary.
Reflection
This was relatively early on in my career, before I completed my Human-Computer Interaction degree. It was wildly out of the scope of the data entry job I'd been hired for, but I saw an opportunity to fix a big issue some of my coworkers had. I think it was here that I started building the confidence I would need in later jobs. Since then, I've grown even more incapable of staying in my own lane.