"You shouldn’t have to choose between quality and your small pet. You're our #1 priority."
Bill Gordon, CEO of Small Pet Select
Finding a good fit in a Shopify agency partner is easier said than done, as Small Pet Select experienced in their early days on the platform.
ShopCreatify initially started working with Small Pet Select via proxy of another agency. Brilliant as they were, they weren't 100% compatible with SPS's way of working, ambitions and requirements. Fortunately we were.
Since 2017, ShopCreatify have been working collaboratively with the team at Small Pet Select to constantly and iteratively improve the store to where it is today.
* That's not a typo, I just saw the opportunity to write the scientific plural of formula and took it.
Naamah Stockdale“[..] an amazing team of talented designers, developers, and project managers. They deliver white glove service and are always eager to help.
[..] communication has been seamless, and they are always quick to offer both creative and technical solutions.”
The very first piece of work we did for Small Pet Select was a thorough analysis of some candidate themes for their store. We settled on Turbo by Out of the Sandbox and while it's so customized as to be unrecognizable, it has served them very well over the years.
The store was carefully designed with a heavy focus on conversion optimization and with big improvements in their mobile user experience and usability.
Their existing blog was incorporated into the site via a small custom created Shopify app. This allowed them to retain their existing publishing platform (the ubiquitous Wordpress) as it came with a wealth of valuable tooling for their small army of writers.
From there it was off to the races.
Small Pet Select are the exemplar merchant of experimentation and trying new things. From loyalty systems to brand storytelling with their mascot Belinda the Spokesrabbit.
In their "backlog" there is always a list of exciting things to get stuck into that improve their customer's experience. In our regular strategy sessions with their team, we're also constantly add to this list so they're consistently trying new things, improving aspects of the store and bringing greater value to their loyal clients.
With the old adage of assumptions being the mother of all f'ups, we've very intentionally set up comprehensive tracking of everything we can track in Shopify for Small Pet Select.
Not to the extent of testing 41 shades of blue, but when someone in the process of working on the store or suggesting improvements "feels" that something should be done, or be done a certain way, we always ask why,more than once. We then also look at what we might have in the way of data backing up or disproving this assumption.
This allows us to all know what we're getting into with new ideas or changes. Either it's new territory where results will be proven or disproven in time, or things that can objectively be declared as things we should or maybe shouldn't be doing.
Without giving away any of our client's secret sauce, it's suffice to say that there are areas of an ecommerce store that you can do a boatload better than what comes out of the box with Shopify and it's myriad apps and themes.
From their advanced search and filtering, to their rich social proof... from their autoship to their ambassador affiliate program, it's all been tweaked and improved.
The custom designed trust seals on the Small Pet Select product page shown above, with their little micro-interaction call-to-action tabs are a perfect example of some of the smaller touches that make a big difference in ecommerce conversion.
If there is one thing that really enamours us to a merchant and makes us want to work with them, its that their customer support is top notch.
We're heavily invested in the success of every merchant we work with. Knowing that they recognize the value of impeccable customer service gives us comfort that we're not building something great where certain pillars of the ecommerce equation are weak or missing.
"I’ve always had a great experience with Small Pet Select. Their customer service is top notch. I’ve never been disappointed."
Amy, a Small Pet Select Customer
Small Pet Select value their customers and their loyalty is testament to this care they show to each interaction.
Like this adorable little words-of-wisdom earworm teaches us (warning, this will be stuck in your head for days), keeping on keeping on and pushing the boundaries is what it's all about in this game.
We've loved working with Small Pet Select, seen people climb the ranks on their side, helped them with the opening of their UK store and more importantly, seen them really grow in the time we've been working with them.
It would be naive to think that their success is purely down to our involvement, and there have been many players from the technology vendors like Shopify as well as all the specialists and amazing people both at and contracted to the merchant. It's a collaborative effort, and it's definitely paying off.
We hope to be working with them for many years to come.
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