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Paradiso Group Website Case Study

Established in 1995, Snowys has fast become one of Australia’s prominent camping and outdoors suppliers. Not only do they offer quality brands and products at competitive prices, they back this up with excellent customer service and advice.

Build an online store to supplement the bricks and mortar store
Integration with Microsoft’s Retail Management System software
Inclusion of a members area
Content management system to allow staff to manage the entire website
A special ‘auction’ facility within the website called Bids4Bargains®
Additional customized functionality to enhance the online shopper’s experience

Strategic Plan: Snowys approached DBG to help create an integrated, streamlined online shopping experience to supplement their bricks and mortar store. With online retailing becoming a competitive area for Australian businesses, Snowys didn’t want to create just another standard online store – they wanted something different. They wanted to make shopping through their website a pleasure for their customers, with every potential need covered.

Web Design & Development: The Snowys design was a complex one in that there were many important features that had to be on every page, but they all needed to be easily accessible and set out in a logical sense. There are 4 types of navigational structure throughout the site, with the most important being the top level navigation that is used for the different categories of products, as it was felt that this is the most beneficial for users. Given that the camping and outdoors market is often driven by brand names, users are also given the opportunity to Shop by Brand.

The design of Product pages was also extremely important, given the large amount of information that had to be incorporated. The product image was paramount, and the Product Details, Specifications and Customer Reviews were provided in tabbed format to make the most of the space. Each product page also displays Accessories, Similar Products, Recently Viewed, and the ability to share via Facebook, Twitter, or Email.

Content Management System (CMS): A customised CMS was created for the website allowing website administrators to assign varying levels of access to different editors of the site. The CMS was integrated with Snowys existing Retail Management System software to allow for automatic updating of pricing and stock levels. The CMS had to be structured well as it allows the admin to manage products that appear in multiple categories with multiple sizes and colours.

Special Functionality: Bids4Bargains – This completely unique concept introduced by Snowys allows users to bid on certain items posted by the website admin. The user simply has to register as a bidder, and enter the amount they are willing to pay. If a user is successful they are contacted by Snowys staff to arrange payment and their free delivery. This feature really gives users another reason to keep coming back to the site, and the countdown timer draws attention and encourages interactivity.

Compare Products – It was identified by Snowys that when trying to buy some of their products, often it was hard to tell the difference between certain similar items without a Salesperson. This is where the Compare feature was introduced, allowing users to select up to 4 items from a category and compare them side-by-side based on Specifications such as height, price, material, weight etc.

Advanced Shopping Facilities – When shopping with the Snowys website, users are treated to different options like buying a gift card or checking a gift card balance online, tracking the status of their orders, redeeming discount vouchers, ordering via fax, requesting quotes for business or school group, and additional payment options such as PayPal and BPay.

The Snowys website is a complete online shopping experience. The Snowys team left no stone unturned in their quest to build the perfect website and we are glad that they chose DBG Technologies to help them get there!

Visit the Snowy's Outdoors website

“In my initial search for a web designer I interviewed 6 companies. I chose DBG Technologies because they presented as an honest, capable and hardworking team. I haven’t been disappointed!

DBG took my raw design and functionality ideas and created the best website in our category in terms of appeal, usability, and since launch, high levels of customer satisfaction.

DBG have been accessible, accommodating and willing to go the extra mile. I like their “can do” attitude. Special thanks to Mat Dicker!"

Richard Wescombe – Director, Snowys