Milkcan

Freestanding, Slowfalling
Named for the iconic freestanding letterbox, Milkcan Outdoor Products has been one of Australia's leading designers of outdoor products for over 25+ years, with a vast inventory of outdoor installations, accessories, decor and (of course!) letterboxes. Having taken their business online several years ago with a WordPress / WooCommerce storefront, by 2021 they had become disappointed at the site's sluggish sales growth; a consequence of poor performance, an outdated, template-based design and limited ecommerce features. Furthermore, their expansion into B2B wholesaling wasn't well represented by the B2C-focused website, and the website as a whole was simply too complex and overbuilt for their digital managers to modify without harming performance even more.

With so many issues at hand and a wish-list of design changes in mind, Milkcan reached out to Kobe Creations with mandate to build a completely new site; one that would be faster, easier to manage and would provide a smoother shopping experience for all of their customers, B2C and B2B.

Numbers & Signs
Before starting development, we worked with the team at Milkcan to intensively analyse their existing website, checking the user analytics, purchase pathways and interaction heat-maps for both desktop and mobile views. This data was combined with testimonials, customer feedback and demographics data to isolate pain-points and bottlenecks that we needed to fix in the new site, and identify the features which were potentially missing from the current store. Our new website would therefore be hand-designed to better accomodate all of Milkcan's products, customers, and even staff, such that the site would streamline both the shopping experience and the site's management processes.

Signed Sealed Delivered
We set about to make a custom-theme WordPress/WooCommerce site. For the new design, we adapted the colour schema of the original, but jettisoned the template appearance and fonts; we wrought a new interface with a custom visual structure and style that matches the slick, modern construction of Milkcan's products. This includes distinctive elements like the site's mega-menu, the clickable product 'hot-spots' in gallery images and the 'complete the look' up-sell showcases, which were custom-built to be visually appealing, interactive and easily configurable through the wordpress back-end. Kobe's system of 'Flexible Content Blocks' greatly reduces the complexity of editing pages when compared to the default WordPress editor, allowing Milkcan staff to quickly change and update the site as they see fit, confident that the design will accomodate their edits.

Our chief aim was to build a storefront that complements the product range and enhances the impression of the Milkcan brand in the customer's mind. The sitemap was built to maximise SEO and ensure that search engines index every product, every category and every combination of filters to help guide potential customers to the exact item that they need - and this was just one of several unique features added to enhance Milkcan's sales. 'Complete the Look' showcases encourage buying products as a part of matched sets, whilst both a wishlist and recent-purchases section were incorporated to encourage repeat business. Variant products were given unique quick-views and swatch selections to make it easy to find and purchase the right variation. A preview UI for customisable products, such as addresses and nameplates, was added to allow customers to 'build their own product' online and order straight away. We gave retail customers whole new ways to search, understand and buy from Milkcan's product range. For trade customers however, a pared-down mirrored store was implemented, which strips out all of the B2C features and marketing materials to leave a fast, pure experience that makes it easy for users to find and buy what they need, in bulk. Similarly, the site's checkout was built to be 'distraction-free' to motivate more conversions. To top it off, lazy-loading images and advanced caching were incorporated on the the site to ensure that the site had low loading times alongside its smooth shopping flows.

Benefits
  A better user experience with a faster, more responsive website built for both mobile and desktop devices

  Improved customer engagement through a new eCommerce design, custom-built for Milkcan's product range

  New ways for customers to customise their products and find what exactly what they need

  Increased site traffic with an SEO-friendly site structure rebuild.

  Easier website management with a customised WordPress dashboard

Outcomes
The brand new website completely changed Milkcan's eCommerce, providing a faster, easier and prettier shopping experience for their online customers. By working closely with the client to pinpoint their pain points and business needs, the weaknesses of the old site were vanished and new new strengths introduced. Order volumes are up, with a wider range of products being sold online while at the same time staff are able to change and update the site content more easily than ever. At Kobe Creations, we're always trying to build the perfect eCommerce store for our clients, and with Milkcan is doubtlessly one of our proudest sites!

You can browse the store yourself at milkcan.com.au.

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