http://www.colonialcandle.com

Situation: Colonial Candle, a leading manufacturer and marketer of fine quality candles for more than 97 years, required a Web presence that would showcase their inventory of nearly 1,000 candle products. Colonial Candle not only faced the challenge of presenting aromatic products in the online environment, where the sense of smell is absent, but also had the challenge of presenting their products in a way that would best appeal to their target demographic - women ages 25-50.

Objective: Colonial Candle was looking to establish the best possible online environment for their target demographic. They were looking to focus not only on site design, but also usability.

Solution: To accomplish these goals, Americaneagle.com provided the following solutions:

Design: Americaneagle.com worked closely with Colonial Candle on the design of the new Web site in order to ensure the best possible design according to branding guidelines. The new 1024 design maximizes on screen space, allowing for plenty of room to place marketing banners, featured products, and more. In addition, Americaneagle.com created a color scheme editor which allows Colonial Candle to keep the site fresh by changing color areas as well as updating homepage images based changing seasons/holidays/etc.

Navigation: Focusing on usability, the site's homepage now includes an intuitive navigation system which allows shoppers to quickly filter through candles by fragrance, color, and type. The site also taps into the home decor market with a section on decorating ideas, enabling visitors to narrow products based on occasion and see products in a lifestyle setting.

idev® Search Tool: Given Colonial Candle's inventory of over 1,000 candle products, the company chose the idev® Search Tool to make locating products on the site as simple as possible. The tool opeartes using the most up-to-date features within the online search industry. As visitors enter terms into the search bar, the search tool queries the product database, providing a list of items that match the letter sequence being typed by the visitors. The tool also provides alternatives based on spelling errors or closely matched terms, while drill down menus within the results pages allow users to narrow products based on specific criteria. What’s more, the idev® Search Tool provides sorting capabilities, corresponding breadcrumb navigation, and a “more like this” option which calls on DHTML technology to present products within a pop-up window, graying out the rest of the screen.

E-commerce: Colonial Candle chose the idev® e-commerce platform as the optimal structure for their site. The idev® platform provides Colonial Candle with a fully customized system which utilizes the latest advances in technology. Indeed, the e-commerce system includes an area for promotion codes, suggested items, and a secure checkout process which takes shoppers through 3 quick steps.

Content Management System: Americaneagle.com worked with Colonial Candle to create a fully customized back-end solution. The new Content Management System allows for long-term maintenance by providing the tools and resources necessary to control nearly all aspects of the site, including the ability to swap out color areas and manipulate page layout. This functionality ensures enduring reliability and growth.

Impact Results: Since the site launched in Spring 2007, Colonial Candle has seen an increase in average order size and overall sales.

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