Building a Powerful Ecommerce Solution for an American Institution
MoJo Active teamed up with SmithsonianStore.com to increase sales, revenue, and online traffic. We provided the technical support and business solutions needed to ensure ecommerce success.
Background
Museums are our link to the past. They house our cultural heritage.
Museum stores allow people to buy souvenirs and unique items related to the artifacts, collections, and exhibits on display.
The Smithsonian Institution includes 21 museums and galleries and the National Zoo.
SmithsonianStore.com offers an array of National Zoo and museum-inspired products. One of the unique aspects of this business is that the revenue from sales directly supports The Smithsonian and the work of its scientists at nine research centers around the globe.
The Challenges
SmithsonianStore.com aimed to enhance its ecommerce shopping experience. The goal was to offer customers the same high level of service and quality they would find in physical museum stores.
To ensure future ecommerce success, SmithsonianStore.com needed a business solution that enabled revenue growth, increased sales, and drove new customers through its digital channels.
SmithsonianStore.com required the ability to track where its customers came from (i.e., email, print catalogs, clubs/groups, etc.) and measure the success of its promotions.
The team also needed to efficiently manage the marketing and merchandising of products and promotions without requiring help from a developer.
SmithsonianStore.com was running a bespoke site on Kibo Commerce that was reaching the end of its life. Even the tech-savvy internal team found the old system to be a constant maintenance challenge.
The old system had issues that affected the fulfillment of customer orders, which resulted in a less-than-ideal customer experience. For example, it allowed customers to enter incorrect shipping details or incomplete addresses.
The SmithsonianStore.com team understood that to achieve the growth it wanted, it needed to re-platform from a home-grown ecommerce ecosystem to the open SaaS world of modern-day ecommerce.
It chose BigCommerce as its preferred platform for its ease of use. But it also needed a third-party integration team to re-platform the site and maintain that relationship post-launch. The goal was to re-platform the site while keeping many of the systems SmithsonianStore.com needed.
- Tony Rosenberger, Client Senior Web Developer/Website ManagerThe most important technical integration we needed to achieve was the migration of our existing Order Management System.
The SmithsonianStore.com team wanted to work with an agency that would align the solution to its business strategy. And it needed a partner who would work closely with its graphic design team. That’s when BigCommerce mentioned MoJo Active – one of its elite partners.
The Journey
SmithsonianStore.com chose MoJo Active to help create an ecommerce solution that would achieve its business goals.
We understood how everything works together; from ecommerce and fulfillment to business needs, marketing, running sales and promotions, communicating with customers, design aesthetics, and user interface (UI). And the SmithsonianStore.com team valued our extensive experience with BigCommerce.
The team also appreciated that we would adapt to its strategic business needs. We offered additional strategies and marketing solutions as well as a range of services to drive traffic to its site to achieve the goal of increased conversion rates and sales.
And the team knew we were in it for the long run.
The Solution
MoJo Active worked with the SmithsonianStore.com team to create systems that allowed it to do ecommerce more effectively and efficiently. We also implemented strategic solutions to set the storefront up for long-term success.
- Tony Rosenberger, Client Senior Web Developer/Website ManagerThe MoJo Active team is very personable. They’re very easy to talk to and easy to communicate with because they listen. They're receptive enough not to flat-out say no but do flag options if there is some pushback. And they always suggest alternatives.
We opened up the functionality of the apps to improve service delivery, like by providing the capacity for customers to track their purchases.
Understanding the need to create a visually appealing yet minimalistic site, we worked with the SmithsonianStore.com team to extend the functionality of BigCommerce’s native Page Builder tool. The MoJo Active team created custom Page Builder Widgets for several custom design elements, such as promotional content and banner scheduling.
To guide marketing strategy, the SmithsonianStore.com team wanted the ability to track where customers were coming from and automatically apply a discount from a catalog or email. So, we built an app to track a given promotion's source code.
SmithsonianStore.com’s desire for an exceptional customer experience meant accessibility was an important focus of the project. Our implementation team leveraged both automated scanning tools to determine where improvements were needed. We also worked with Accessibility Partners on user testing services.
An essential component of user-centered ecommerce success is order fulfillment. We leveraged our proprietary Integration Platform to give the SmithsonianStore.com team the ability to automate the flow of products, orders, and customer data. This system also provides proactive alerts if any automation should fail, or orders have not been processed before the shipping cutoff.
We also solved the problem of delivery issues by integrating ShipperHQ into the site. Now, it embeds shipping rules, making it impossible to checkout without the complete shipping information.
The Implementation
We completed the project in October 2021, just five months after kickoff.
The SmithsonianStore.com team has an ecommerce platform that allows it to deliver a shopping experience that reflects the quality of the museum stores.
And the team is happy it has a platform that gives it the independence and control to create an aesthetically appealing store.
- Tony Rosenberger, Client Senior Web Developer/Website ManagerThe MoJo Active team was a great selection; they did outstanding work to get us up and running, and they continue to do great work for us going forward. We're very pleased to have a great group of folks work with our company!
The Results
The goal of the project was to increase sales and revenue for SmithsonianStore.com. Since implementation, we’ve seen:
- Increased sales and revenue
- Growth in online traffic
- More pure play ecommerce orders
- Improved native organic sales through paid search
The results were so significant that even during the pandemic, there was an increase in sales and revenue for the fiscal year.
- Tony Rosenberger, Client Senior Web Developer/Website ManagerThey were definitely a good choice to make, both during the project and post-launch. We wanted to establish an ongoing relationship with our integration partner to continue enhancing the platform, so it was important that we could see the long-term potential with MoJo Active.
SmithsonianStore.com now has a platform that can develop over time and grow alongside the Institution.
But we’re not done yet.
MoJo Active continues working with SmithsonianStore.com to further improve the site and its customer experience.