WOOCOMMERCE HOSTING
Revitalizing eCommerce With the Flavor of Success
WP Engine Agency Partner Granite Digital delivers a high-performance, multilingual eCommerce experience for Ireland’s most beloved purveyor of smoked salmon.
Site:
Industry:
Food Service
“WP Engine’s WooCommerce Hosting enabled us to build a world-class eCommerce experience that looks great and provides our client with the right foundation for their growing business.”
—Sean Owens, Head of eCommerce, Granite Digital
40%
Reduction in Bounce Rate
94%
Increase in Organic Traffic
174%
Increase in Session Duration
The Client
Burren Smokehouse is an Irish family-run producer of smoked fish. The company was established in 1989 in County Clare by Peter and Birgitta Curtin. The smokehouse started with the smoking and curing of salmon and later branched out into mackerel, trout and eel. Cheese was also added. According to Good Food Ireland, it is a "highly acclaimed, award winning traditional smokehouse" The company also runs a visitor centre, and it is one of the organizers and participants of the yearly Burren Slow Food Festival.
Granite Digital is Ireland’s largest Independent digital agency. Working with leading public and private sector organisations to design, develop and maintain clients’ online presence and digital interfaces, Granite’s core services include digital transformation strategies, UX research and solutions, web design & development, mobile app development, SEO, PPC and managed hosting via AWS/Azure.
The Challenge
Create a new eCommerce experience for Burren Smokehouse, maintaining its strong SEO rankings and integrating with existing accounting, stock control, and inventory systems—all while emphasizing aesthetic and functional enhancements.
The Solution
Tapped to build the new Burren Smokehouse site, Granite Digital strategically selected WP Engine's WooCommerce Hosting, implementing WPML for multilingual translations, optimizing the site for all devices, and addressing the challenges of precise delivery scheduling for perishable products.
The Results
Burren Smokehouse has long been considered the go-to for smoked Irish organic salmon.
Boasting more than a dozen Great Taste awards, and most recently, a Bronze Medal in the most prestigious of Irish food & drinks awards, the Blas na hÉireann, the family-run business has enjoyed resounding success since it began in 1989.
By 2023, however, its website, which had gone through various iterations over the years, needed to catch up.
Built on Magento, and limiting when it came to making updates and changes, the lean team that manages Burren Smokehouse’s digital presence needed a framework that afforded them more flexibility.
Tasked with rebuilding the site in a way that would enhance its look and feel while providing content owners with more control over backend functionality, Granite Digital zeroed in on WordPress and WooCommerce via WP Engine’s WooCommerce Hosting.
A WP Engine Agency Partner, the team at Granite Digital was able to navigate a series of challenges with dedicated agency support standing by.
This included preserving the previous site's strong SEO rankings during a platform transition, ensuring seamless integration with existing accounting, stock control, and inventory systems, and enhancing both the aesthetic and functional aspects of the site to suit a premium product.
Additionally, the site was integrated with WPML for accurate translations in multiple languages, optimizing the site for an international audience.
The Granite team also focused on refining the site’s mobile user experience and integrating various systems to streamline Burren Smokehouse's operations.
The outcomes of these efforts have been notable.
The revamped website not only improved the user experience, particularly on mobile devices, leading to a decrease in cart abandonment rates, but it also enhanced operational efficiency through better system integration.
Moreover, the website's visual upgrade effectively highlighted the premium quality of Burren Smokehouse's products.
The above improvements also helped the new site deliver on key objectives surrounding engagement, with the site experiencing a 40% decrease in bounce rate, a 94% increase in organic traffic, and a 174% increase in session duration post-launch.
In executing this project, Granite Digital demonstrated a keen understanding of Burren Smokehouse's unique business needs.
Their agency team ensured deep functionality across the site while maintaining the specific requirements related to the shipping and handling of perishable products.
The end result was a harmonious blend of aesthetic appeal, functional excellence, and operational efficiency, catering to both the business’s and its customers' needs.
“WP Engine’s WooCommerce Hosting made it easy for us to build a world-class eCommerce experience that looks great and provides our client with the right foundation for their growing business,” said Granite Digital Head of eCommerce Sean Owens.
“Combined with the superior level of agency support we receive as a WP Engine Agency Partner, we’re able to execute on our promise to clients and deliver transformative outcomes for their digital projects.”
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