PROGRESSIVE WEBSITE FOR INDEPENDENCE

Support tights and mobility aids – not the most glamourous merchandise but it has a significant market, nonetheless. Last month Rade Digital launched a new website for Independence, a family firm with a strong ethos of helping customers ‘live life to the full’ by supplying high quality aids for everyday living.

Nick and Judy Holdsworth started Independence back in 1985 and today offer a wide range of products. The new Independence website is mobile-friendly, easy to manage and has an embedded back office system. The secure online shop features lots of great ideas to make life easier; from hosiery to herbal ointment.

Nick’s aim for the new online store was to have an all-in-one solution, by dealing with a single supplier and avoiding complex integration. Rade was chosen for their experience in building and supporting high volume online stores.

“We look on ecommerce as a business system rather than simply a website” says Jake Barton, MD at Rade Digital. “We have been building mail order ecommerce systems for 15 years with our largest customer taking, at peak, 6000 orders a day”.

A large percentage of Independence’s orders are placed by telephone, so it is crucial that the team can process orders quickly and efficiently on the new system. Reducing work load and data duplication, stock, orders and shipping are now managed entirely through their Magento store making the former back office system redundant.

The configuration of the online shop was not without its complications. Certain products qualify for VAT relief, where the customer is eligible on medical grounds, which needs a customised checkout process.

Key to the design had to be usability by the target market; the older generation and their carers. Employing responsive design, the website adapts to the screen being used. On a mobile screen, the layout is simplified with easy to select buttons and links. Not only does this support less agile users, it means the Independence website does not fall foul of Google’s latest mobile-friendly algorithm.

Have you checked your website on Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test? Talk to Rade if you’re looking for an agency with the technical know-how to deliver a website that meets all your objectives.

About the author

Rade

Rade is a digital agency specialising in web design content management, ecommerce and online marketing.

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