Smarter B2B UX and a custom LED channel kit builder resulting in 37% more revenue, and kit builder AOV 30%+ higher.
Only four months after SCF came on board, Wired4Signs USA's October revenue was already up 37% on the same month the previous year, and up 46% on the month before we started working with them. Whichever way you measure it, revenue grew by more than a third in a single month.
About Wired4Signs
Wired4Signs USA supplies LED lighting components, aluminium profiles and sign supplies from Powell, Tennessee. Their customers are sign makers, contractors and fabricators, and many of them buy at trade volumes. The business is owned by entrepreneur James, who also runs the sister fabrication shop 865FabLab.
The catalogue is technical. A working LED channel needs the right strip, power supply, controller, covers, end caps and mounting clips, and one wrong part can stall a job on site.
The challenge
W4S was paying good money to bring buyers to the site, and then losing them once they arrived. When James first got in touch, he described the business as "trading but feel we could be doing better with our store". What he wanted, in his own words, was "higher conversion".
The store had real strengths. It ran on Shopify Plus with a solid premium theme, had a more than capable in-house technical team and was already well integrated, from Cin7 Core and ShipStation to Klaviyo, Gorgias and REVIEWS.io. The gaps were in the buying experience:
1. Complex purchases with no guidance
Buyers had to work out a compatible set of channel, strip, driver and accessories from spec sheets on their own.
2. Accessories were hard to find
Finding compatible accessories and components for their various products wasn't clear.
3. Trade buyers' needs weren't met
Quotes, reorders and B2B pricing all needed work.
4. Previous agencies hadn't delivered
James wanted a long-term partner who would push back, not just take orders.
What we did
We didn't rebuild the store. We fixed the buying experience one release at a time, and shipped something new almost every week.
The retainer started with a weekly call and a written weekly report. In the first week we agreed that a kit builder would be the biggest lever. So we got the foundations right first and then made it the priority.
1. Foundations and a full UX review
- We put their theme under GitHub version control, with a clean vanilla copy kept for comparison, so W4S always retains the ability to upgrade it in future.
- Audited all 60+ installed apps with W4S's technical admin. Every paid app earned its place, so there was no bloat to cut.
- Reviewed the site end to end, covering the header, footer, navigation, home page, collections and product pages. We then agreed the changes with the team and built them.
2. Helping buyers find the right parts
- Home page, product page and global UX changes went live at the end of the first month.
- The enhanced UX of the Quick Add went live, allowing trade buyers to better add to cart straight from a collection page.
- A custom Compatible Components widget was created and relocated directly under the Add to Cart on product pages, and also added in the Quick Add.
- We also launched a compatibility guide page alongside a cart-aware checklist.
3. Trust and trade buying
- UX improvements on the Request a Quote product template for items that are priced to order.
- Trust badges that show product certifications, such as UL listed, RoHS and TAA compliant, on the products where they apply.
- Tightened up branding and a new default social sharing image.
Since then we've also launched Cart to Quote, which turns a cart into a branded PDF quote, and clearer B2B discount visibility for signed-in trade accounts. B2B reorders and draft-order quoting are next.
4. The Channel Kit Builder
An LED channel fixture isn't a one-click purchase. The Channel Kit Builder walks a buyer from the channel they've chosen to a complete, compatible kit, so nobody has to work out the parts from a spec sheet. It opens from Quick Add on channel products and from a new Helpful Tools & Resources section on product pages. It also links to the compatibility guide without losing the kit in progress.
The original plan was an off-the-shelf bundle app. When that stalled, we built the kit builder in-house instead. W4S now owns it outright, it fits their catalogue exactly and it adds no new monthly fee. It went live in mid-October.
The results
October net sales were 37% up on the same month the year before, and 46% up on June, the last month before we started.
The growth came from more visitors buying, not from more visitors. The store had 14% fewer sessions than the previous October, yet took 44% more orders, as the conversion rate rose from 0.84% to 1.54%.
| October compared with | Same month last year | June (before SCF) |
|---|---|---|
| Net sales | +37% | +46% |
| Orders | +44% | +38% |
| Conversion rate | 0.84% → 1.54% | 1.37% → 1.54% |
| Sessions | −14% | +39% |
Source: Shopify Analytics. Net sales are after discounts and returns, before shipping and tax.
The kit builder had only been live for about two weeks of October. Most of the uplift therefore came from the UX, compatibility and trust work shipped from August onwards.
The kit builder's early numbers are already strong. Orders built with the kit builder were 32–39% larger than the store's average order, because buyers guided to a complete, compatible kit buy the whole kit, not just the channel. In its second week, use of "Add all to cart" grew by a further 21%.
Source: GA4 and Shopify Analytics.
What other B2B merchants can take from this
- Fix the buying experience before buying more traffic. W4S already had the visitors. The growth came from helping them buy.
- Technical catalogues need guidance, not just product pages. Compatibility tools and kit builders do the job a good sales rep would do on the phone.
- Ship small and often. Weekly releases and weekly reports kept momentum without a risky big-bang rebuild.
- Build when it fits, buy when it doesn't. An in-house kit builder fit W4S's catalogue better than a generic app, and it costs nothing per month.
Selling something technical on Shopify, and losing buyers between the ad click and the checkout? Book a call →