Volusion Store Customization For Home Brewing Supplying Company in New Jersey

Summary

Brew Hardware is a company based in New Jersey that devotes its time and effort for serving the home-brewing community. The company is famous for supplying home brewing & wine making equipment for both the beginner and advanced brewers. The company further expanded into ingredients and consumables.

The client was running their eCommerce store on Volusion. The client was facing problems on their website due to the limitations in the customizing capability of their eCommerce platform. The client’s site had a single product displayed twice in their store so that users could buy them in quantities of pounds and ounces. This was confusing the users and costing the client their business. The client required help from an expert to resolve their issue and approached Virtina.

Challenge

The customers of Brew Hardware could buy products from them in terms of pounds (LB) or ounce (OZ). The client had to display the same products twice (in LB and OZ) on their site, which confused their customers. The user could order an item without noticing the quantity and end up receiving a pound of malted oats instead of an ounce or vice-versa. The challenge was that in Volusion, there is no option to set additional values associated with a category. Brew Hardware approached Virtina to remedy this problem and engineer an efficient solution for the challenge.

The client requested Virtina to create an Article Page and customize it to add additional features. The Article Page required features like categorizing the products based on the type of brewing ingredient used. 

The client wanted the user to have the capability to make sure that he/she is ordering the right product. The product name that’s shown in the Table had to be linked to the actual product page where the user could check the product images, description and make sure they are ordering the right product for themselves.

Solution

The main challenge Virtina faced was that in Volusion, there is no option to set additional values associated with a category. To tackle this problem, a table arrangement called GRAIN BATCH BUILDER Page was built. The Table lets the customer order the products in whichever quantity (LB or OZ) the user preferred. The Grain Batch Builder allowed the user to create grains specific to his/her needs.

In addition to this capability, a custom API integration was implemented for the inventory stock. The Table also calculates the price of the products for the specific quantity of the user’s order. The user could also view the stock of the products on the Article Page, which is updated regularly.

The custom API integration implemented by Virtina made it possible for the users to view the live status of the stock of the product. The stock is automatically updated after a purchase is made.

At the bottom of the Table, Virtina implemented a single line that showed the total weight and total cost of the products selected. It also shows the weight in both LB and OZ, depending on the quantity initially entered by the user.

All the products listed on the Table on the Article Page was hyperlinked to their corresponding product pages. This was done so that the user could make sure that he/she is ordering the right product and eliminate any confusion.

Providing a grain milling & grain matching option at the bottom of the Table is yet another innovative move by Virtina. The grain milling option was implemented with a drop-down menu providing 3 options to the user. The options allowed the user to pick a milling method that is most suitable for his/her needs. The grain matching option allowed the user to mix up his/her ingredients or keep them separately.

Results

The Grain Batch Builder page created by Virtina gave the users a one-stop destination to browse, customize, and buy the ingredients/products they need. The customer could select all the ingredients he/she needs from the Table, type in quantity (LB or OZ), choose how fine you want the ingredients milled, and even process the milling process in batches or independently.

Virtina successfully implemented the ultimate tool for the client. The tool lets customers order multiple items from a single page, which are categorized for user convenience. The real-time stock displayed on the page, along with the Total Price/Weight calculator made it easier for the user to place orders. The hyperlink on the product name made sure that the customer had no difficulty finding the product he/she is looking for.

The simplicity in navigation and interaction of the page significantly reduced the bounce rate, which was at an all-time high. The Virtina team also implemented a one-page checkout, which means that the customer could go straight to the checkout page from the Grain Batch Builder page.

The “cherry on top” of the project was the feature Grain Batch Grouping. The feature lets the customer mix ingredients in whichever way they want and in whatever proportion they want. The options let the customer create 4 unique batches of mix or opt for a separate mixing for each ingredient, as per the customer’s choice.