We've been working with Chloe's Creative Cards since 2021 - most recently, on a theme update to improve the customer shopping experience and the brand's conversion rate.
We caught up with Chloe to ask what it was like to work with us.
It was a pleasure to hear that the benefits extend beyond the project deliverables.
What challenge were you looking to solve with Coldsmoke?
The website had become a little bit dated, and it was pretty obvious that it needed a little bit of kind of renovation.
Since we did the website last there are a lot of new apps and a lot of new developments, and there's stuff that Shopify brought out that because of the theme we were on, we couldn't really utilize.
The new website went up, I think it was July, and we're seeing a really big improvement in general usability.
We've seen a bit of an uptick in conversion rate as well, which is brilliant, and just overall the general customer experience.
What did you think about our in-depth Discovery process?
I like the fact that you do a deep dive at the beginning, because I think that answers a lot of questions, rather than questions popping up further further down the line.
It did create a bit of a roadmap of what we needed to do, what we needed to improve. And for us, it gave us an idea of budgeting and where the money's better spent.
Doing that hard work at the beginning enabled us to think, really start and pinpoint what we wanted on the website, what were the key features, what was important to us.
From start to finish, we had clear milestones of when things should be hit and when things should be delivered on time, which for us, planning as a business, really helped.
What’s it like to work with Coldsmoke?
Having Amira managing this whole project, she pulled everyone together and made sure everything got done on time.
Sometimes you get the tech, but you don't necessarily know how to use it properly.
I had a couple of questions about the lookbooks and how to update them myself, and Amira got one of the developers who actually built the code on the call to take me through everything.
So that, for me, was really, really helpful, because once the project's finished, I'm completely independent and I know exactly what I'm doing.
And the recommendation of apps was really beneficial; you introduced us to Videowise. I had no idea that even existed, but actually it's fitting really well! We're now looking to do even more with that.
We've worked with another web company years ago, and that wasn't the greatest of experiences of all time.But we trust what you advise and trust what you're doing.
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FULL TRANSCRIPT
What was your experience like with the Discovery process?
I think doing that at the beginning gives everyone a clear plan; everyone knows what we're expecting from it and what the end goal is.Doing a deep dive, we're going to find out exactly what we're going to do, what apps we need, and all the information about the theme and such.
And then if there's any questions along the way, they're answered at that discovery bit, rather than halfway into the project where stuff's being developed, and it's like, 'Oh, actually, we don't want to do it like that anymore.'
We've already made that decision, so we can think about it at the beginning and then just implement it after. And I think for everyone, that probably flows a lot smoother.
And for me, when we're working with an agency or a freelancer or anything like that, I'd rather we have a clear brief of the work and then just pass it over and I'll just check and review, rather than having to be as involved as things go along. Because I think sometimes that's where time gets wasted.
Was there anything that surprised you?
Not really! The team that we started with saw the project through, which I think was really good, because then you're not rebriefing. Having Scarlet on user experience, having the developer on as well, to look at things more technically, I think that was really beneficial.
Because sometimes we've got these apps, but we don't need these ones anymore. I know a bit about Shopify, but from the technology point of view, I don't know everything about it. So that was really helpful for me.
What would you miss the most if you could never work with us again?
We knew we were gonna have a transition period here where the old website moves up to the new one, so we'll maybe press pause on that launch, leave it for a few weeks, make sure the new website's up, make sure everything's working.The fact that you've got a lot of experience and a lot of different people that you can draw on, nothing's ever a problem. It's never, 'No, that's impossible. You can't do it.' It's, 'We'll have a look into it and see what we can do.'
You guys are just really easy to work with.
We completely trusted you with the project from start to finish. And even though we're in different time zones, that didn't even cause too much of an issue.
To be honest, it's been brilliant.
