Michelle B Shop

Creating an online presence for an established fashion brand.

Michelle Berkins has run a successful designer fashion business for years, but suddenly found herself without any footfall when she closed her store down during the coronavirus pandemic. Quickly, we pitched a solution to Michelle’s situation – with a speedy outcome.

The Creative team saw an opportunity for Michelle to bring her popular women’s designer clothing store online. The brand already had a strong social media presence, so creating an e-commerce website where Michelle and her team could sell products online was the logical next step in the development of this flourishing business.

With its Lancashire shop closed for the foreseeable, time was of the essence. The Creative team sprung into action, working tirelessly to produce a website in record time – 10 working days from concept to completion.

ecommerce – print design – photography – social media

Finding the right platform for the client

Creative’s web team chose to build Michelle B’s website using Shopify. This was our platform of choice for a number of reasons. Firstly, it’s highly suited to clothing retailers, so the structure was in place for a business of this kind. Secondly, Shopify’s user-friendly CMS would enable Michelle and the team to process orders and add products themselves, offering them a sustainable solution they could continue to manage without any third party assistance.

After our web team added some initial products to the site, we conducted a basic training session remotely with Michelle and her team. Now, they are able to add new lines and process orders themselves, with ease and confidence. Another reason we chose Shopify for this project was its versatility. With plenty of scope for front end development, it gave us the opportunity to tailor the site’s colour scheme, typography and overall feel to the business’s well-established branding.

Finally, using Shopify enabled our web team to easily integrate the new e-commerce website with Michelle B’s existing social media accounts, so new products and lines could easily be promoted to the company’s growing social audience. Plus, Michelle B’s team could use the company Facebook and Instagram accounts to drive traffic to the website.

The results

Within just 10 working days, the Creative team successfully delivered a stylish, high quality e-commerce website to keep orders coming in for a thriving independent fashion business.

Before Creative stepped in, all of Michelle B’s beautiful designer garments were in lockdown and the company’s loyal customer base was missing out on its fashion fix. Now, orders are flying in and customers can continue to support their favourite retailer from the comfort of their homes.

Michelle said: “Debra and her team reacted as soon as they knew what was happening in the COVID-19 shutdown, by advising me that the only way forward for my business was an online store.”

“I was nervous and very apprehensive, as I’m not that hot on computers and social media. However, Debra and her team took away all the stress and worries. Not only have they achieved a fabulous online store, they have also given me the confidence I was lacking.”

View the website here.