Client Spotlight - Midnight FashionsWritten on the 7 April 2010 Midnight Fashions was established in Stones Corner in 1999 and quickly became a fixture in the Stones Corner fashion precinct. From slinky dresses for school formals, to cute cocktail dresses for the races, to renowned bridal gowns, Midnight Fashions has the dress for you. Specialised and trained staff are always in store to assist in fittings and are available for styling consultations. Winners of the 2009 Quest Business Achievement Awards.Challenges before the website
How the website helped overcome those challenges Most of the above challenges were easily overcome with a simple, yet very effective website. This business wanted to showcase their strength in the market with products to their potential customers as soon as they arrived on their website. To do this their catalogue categories were clearly displayed on the home page that featured professional, attractive images of their products. Site visitors loved this introduction, as it enabled them to instantly be attracted to the website (business) and be able to find what they were looking for instantly. By being able to view all their products online, see what midnight fashions had to offer (thanks to the Product catalogue tool), clients saved time by enquiry online first, it also increased her viral traffic as many would refer the site, and images to others to go check them out. Running testimonials on the website helped provide credibility and further demonstrated their high level of customer service, especially hearing candid feedback on the enjoyment clients got through the whole process. Having their online presence it has increased their foot traffic into the store as some clients reported they wouldn't have even know the store even existed if it wasn't for their online presence/website. It is even easier now to communicate with clients which is saving a lot of time and frustrations. The website is so simple for the team to update with new stock as it arrives, up coming events and any new information on Midnight Fashions. Thanks to the website Midnight Fashions can now regularly engage in regular communication with customers, which in turn helps builds the relationship between them. With the help of the website Midnight Fashions can now track unique visitors to the site, see where they came from, how many page views and their main traffic sources. Her objectives of the new site
Results since having the website? When asked what were their leads before and after their website, Midnight Fashions stated that in terms of numbers it has dramatically increased since the launch of their website. Before they had enquiries from their labels websites, which means that they were competing with other stockists as well. Now it is directly to them. Since having the website they also got a level of return on investment and increased their conversion rate. By having a Bloomtools website, they are able view their statistics at the backend of their website on a daily basis. This helps them track print media adverting results as well as direct hits. Since Midnight Fashions went live on February 2010 til today they have had approximately 1000 (925) unique visitors and approximately 7000 page views (6829) and is steadily rising. Their traffic sources have come through referral sites at 20%, search engines at 23%, and Direct traffic at 56%, which shows that their clients are recognising them and thinking of them. And perceive them as a valuable source of the information that is being sought. Midnight Fashions also chose specific keywords relating to their services and implemented a search engine optimisation program. The website has also become a vital sales aid and since the website went live there has been a strong increase of foot traffic into the store. Strategies at the expo? Midnight Fashions had great success at the Queensland Brides Wedding Expo. They increased awareness of Midnight Fashions and showed the public the range of dresses and sizes available. By having a presence at the Queensland Brides Wedding Expo, they were able to expand their clientele. They were also able to promote the new website as it was included in their material at the expo. Where do you see your business heading now that you have a website with Bloomtools Midnight Fashions will one day soon organise a VIP customer program with specialised VIP events, communicate more (through Email Marketing) to all their contacts, and overall reward their regular customers and further build their relationship. They are also looking at adding some way of capturing peoples details who come to the website and don't act, so they can build trust and encourage them back to the website or to contact us (through email marketing trigger based feature). They also hope to include a shopping cart down the line so customer's can buy online if overseas or far away. And maybe open up another Midnight Fashion store. The products they used to date:
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