Session goes back to the future
It was Session’s third visit to the Future of Web Design conference and this year our Associate Creative Director, Giles Airey was in attendance. He shares his best takeaways from the event.
A great line up of personalities and talks ensured The Future of Web Design conference did not disappoint. With egos left at the door, a natural camaraderie was evident as we discussed how we are shaping the future of the web.
Held at The Brewery, East London, for the third year running, the event featured two conference tracks, an expo area and networking sessions.
The theme was, as always, content is king.
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Session Digital’s expanding in Liverpool
We’re pleased to announce the development of our Liverpool office with a move to the heart of the city’s commercial district, The Cotton Exchange.
Yair Spitzer, CEO of The Inviqa Group, comprising Session Digital, Inviqa UK, and SensioLabs UK explained the significance, “the expansion allows us to service more customers and grow our client base. The Magento ecommerce platform has grown rapidly and been adopted by many leading retailers, prompting a huge increase in demand for our services.”
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10 things we learnt at the eCommerce Futures Conference
Dedicated to ‘Taking Fashion Forward’, Wednesday’s eCommerce Conference saw attendees from leading online fashion brands come together to gain insight from those in the know. As hosts we were delighted to hear their expert experiences. Here’s our pick of the most interesting things to take away…
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eCommerce Futures Conference
This year’s eCommerce Futures Conference on 24th April in London’s Haymarket Hotels aims to be the most stimulating yet. Abundant with industry insiders that span the spectrum of retailers, we’ll be discussing the challenges and opportunities faced by the eCommerce fashion collective.
As proud hosts of the summit, our co founder, Richard Jackson, will be offering direction on how retailers should be responding to this evolving industry. Our work with luxury brand Smythson, allowed us to develop the first responsive templated website using the Magento Enterprise platform. Likewise, the fast growing online fashion brand, Missguided, enlisted our help in initiating a series of improvements to their site, before assisting with their international expansion. It’s with this insight that Richard will give an overview of the ways that eTailers should engage with consumers in order to drive growth.
If you’re part of the fashion industry and want to join us register now.
Session Digital delivers responsive eCommerce for Radley in just four months
Established in 1984, Radley is Britain’s leading designer and manufacturer of handbags and accessories. With online spend in the UK showing no signs of slowing down, Radley wanted to revamp its website to capitalise on consumer demand for its exciting range of products, including handbags, shoes and accessories.
Radley were looking for an eCommerce platform that would give them:
- Greater flexibility and control over content
- Lower maintenance costs
- Integration with the company’s internal and external systems
The flexibility of the Magento Enterprise platform combined with our ability and experience to create powerful online user experiences, was the ideal solution to meet Radley’s requirements.
In just four months, we delivered a new look for Radley’s online store.
We took a responsive design approach for eCommerce, meaning that important features of the website would move and shift around to fit any screen size.
Using responsive design, we created an experience that would help customers to almost feel the product.
Depending on the screen size, the best image available is rendered to display the item in all its glory. All the important functions involved in closing the sale, such as the basket, are always kept visible to the user.
With this unique approach, Radley is giving customers what they want – an in-store experience but over the internet.
But a stunning website is meaningless if it cannot fulfil demand.
We worked with Radley’s IT team to ensure that the online store was fully integrated with the company’s back end ERP systems including reporting, finance, and order and inventory management.
Did it work?
The new website went live at the beginning of November and the Radley team is delighted with it.
Enhancing the customer experience - people first, centre and last
by Peter Drakes
In this day of mass technology, big data, omni-channel retailing and content marketing with every guru, maven and expert in the online or digital marketplace offering a semantic, holistic and / or integrated solution there seems to be little time for ‘old school’ marketeers.
The key failing of a lot of brands and by extension their eCommerce sites is the reliance on technology to replace people, which is all wrong. Technology should empower people; both customers and staff, and enhance the existing processes of communication rather than create / replace them.
When I first studied marketing communications there was an emphasis placed on psychology and human interactions – why do people do what they do? Psychology: The power of persuasion”. Later in my first ‘proper’ job there was lots of training on the customer is always right, it takes 7x more money to attract a new customer than to retain an existing one, KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid!) – yet now we seem to forget that customers are still our life blood.
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Session Digital Scoops Award at E-Commerce Awards 2012
Winner of Best Enterprise Solution Recognised for Unrivalled Expertise in Magento
We are delighted to have been awarded ‘Best Enterprise Solution’ at the e-commerce awards 2012. With its ability to build exciting e-commerce platforms and customer experiences from the ground up using Magento Enterprise, Session Digital was recognised for its fresh approach to providing businesses with a cost effective, high performing and scalable platform.
Billed as “the Oscars of online commerce,” entries to the 2012 E-Commerce Awards were invited from online merchants and software vendors from all over the world.
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How Digital is Shaping the High Street
by Peter Drakes
It’s the beginning of 2013 and Jessops, HMV and Blockbuster have all announced they are going into administration, having not generated enough Christmas revenue to stay afloat and meet their obligations.
What is interesting is that despite the internet slaughter that has culled so many of the retailers that failed to adapt or change their business model, many larger ‘retailers’ are still struggling to adopt a truly integrated sales and customer service presence.
The high street has become dedicated to the long-tail of retail – niche, independent stores or franchises that have lower overheads with less support functions and wages to cover.
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Session appointed to Magento Global Solution Partner Council
Session is proud to announce our appointment to the newly formed Magento Global Solution Partner Council as the UK partner representative.
The role of Solution Partner Council is to represent the interests of all Magento partners, promoting and discussing issues that affect both partners and their clients.
The Council meets twice a year with 12 partners attending from all over the World and discusses and advises the senior Magento and eBay team on issues, concerns and opportunities as seen by the wider partner network.
As the sole UK representative, this appointment is a further recognition of Session’s input and contribution to the wider Magento eco-system.
Magento Developer Certification - My Experience - Marco De Bortoli
At Session Digital, we now have 6 Software Engineers with the Magento Developer Plus certification. We tracked down Marco De Bortoli to find out why he put himself through the ordeal and what tips he has for others preparing for the exam.
During his time at Session, Marco has also been involved in many large-scale Magento implementations for clients such as Warner Music International, the French fashion brand Kookai and the UK’s biggest bed retailer, Dreams.
