"Overall the team has a can-do attitude that delivers both on the initial brief and beyond"
- Jason Piggot, Marketing Manager

A WHOLE NEW WORLD OF BARBEQUES

With more than 165 retail stores in Australia and the United States, Barbeques Galore is one of the leading specialty retailers of barbecue and barbecue accessories in the world. T-bone productions were tasked with developing a global online strategy.

T-bone has been Barbeques Galore Australia's online partner since 2001, together bringing consumers resources that are informative and useful both pre and post purchase. Under T-bone's management the Barbeques Galore website has grown in key performance areas, seeing considerable increases to:

  • the number of average monthly visits;
  • product brochure downloads;
  • permission based emarketing signups;
  • online customer enquiries.

Overview

Barbeques Galore required a unified global strategy for the Barbeques Galore brand online that would ensure continued growth and success. This strategy needed to set the direction for both the Australian and USA websites and provided a “road map” of initiatives that would roll out over a two year period.

A Comprehensive Process

To kick-off the strategy and redesign process the project team reviewed all usability and technical aspects of both the Australian and USA websites. With this information we were able to develop and extensive strategy document which detailed:

  • current traffic analysis;
  • search engine optimization (SEO) analysis & future trends;
  • website user flow diagrams;
  • up-stream & down-stream marketing initiatives;
  • online advertising opportunities;
  • backend integration issues;
  • user interaction & best practice scenarios;
  • future opportunities.

Customer-Driven Ecommerce

The first project currently in development under the global strategy is the redesign & development of the USA ecommerce website. The usability design process was underpinned by an extensive research program in which the project team analyzed a range of ecommerce websites differing in size and the products stocked.

Our research and information architecture experience shaped the design structure, visual look & feel and user experience with the ultimate goal to convert website visitors into customers through:

  • clear, simple and intuitive navigation;
  • building trust with a consistent experience;
  • engaging promotional areas;
  • product 'search' and 'browse' usability;
  • strong calls to action;
  • enticing product photos and information.
"Providing an excellent experience for both 'browsers' and 'searchers' was a key consideration throughout the design process."
Barbeques Galore

"Our research highlighted two major types of users, those who like to 'search' by technical requirements and those who like to visually 'browse' through product ranges discovering the right product for them along the way" said Brett Flower, T-bone’s Lead Designer. "Providing an excellent experience for both these user types was a key consideration throughout the design process."

"Building customer trust is something we took very seriously, the product & customer service information help to provide a high level of confidence."
Barbeques Galore Barbeques Galore

It's one thing to order a product; it’s another thing entirely to deliver it in a timely manner. The back-end development provided some exciting challenges for the development team, as Nathan Heckenberg, project Developer describes. "To process and fulfill online orders we integrated the ecommerce system with Barbeques Galore JDA supply chain management system. Pricing information, stock levels, purchase orders and shipping information is transferred between the two systems to provide a seamless link between the website and the warehouse." Additionally we developed real-time shipping quotes through integration with the FedEx shipping calculator and secure fraud protected credit card payments through PayPal Pro.

The end-result was a flexible design that provided the product and marketing teams an intuitive platform for delivering product information, marketing material and customer support.

Marketing Extranet

The marketing extranet is an integral tool for the Barbeques Galore marketing team. Allowing suppliers and the stores network to source content through a web based interface. Users can download digital assets such as:

  • images;
  • style guides;
  • press releases;
  • radio ads;
  • TVC.

The marketing extranet contains a comprehensive security matrix so the marketing department can control user access privileges allowing access to specific content to be granted to individual users.

The Future...

With the development of the USA ecommerce website winding up we are now looking forward to working with the Australian product & marketing teams to take some of the key learnings and deploy a revamped website for the Australian market. With some exciting challenges ahead we continue to enjoy the opportunity to work alongside the Barbeques Galore team and their franchise and supplier network.