Complex Ecommerce Platform With Affiliate Sales
The Problem
When we were engaged by Hinnao, they had already tried and failed to implement their business model with three other developers. Nobody had been able to successfully align all of the moving parts for them and the website was costing £600 per month in retained fees to their previous developer who was not able to deliver on the technical requirements. The business model was largely built on affiliate sales and with no working affiliate system, the website was not able to serve the business correctly despite endless investment..
The Brief
The client needed an ecommerce site that presented a different purchasing journey depending on the role of the user. Customers would purchase from the main online shop in a standard ecommerce checkout process. Customers who signed up for trade accounts would be given access to a trade portal which replaced the customer facing shop pages. The trade portal gave users access to dynamically discounted pricing depending on the number of items purchased and the role of the user. The portal provided the price to the user exclusive of VAT with separate line items for VAT.
Trade customers were also given access to training materials, price guides, social media marketing asstes and more. Training packages were available to purchase through the trade portal and completion of the training would elevate the user’s account privileges.
In order to apply for a trade account, customers submit a registration form with the details of their professional qualifications. Once accepted, they have access to discount pricing, training materials and the opportunity to purchase training. Users who complete training are automatically granted “Practitioner” affiliate status and given their own page on the website to promote their business. Website visitors can search for practitioner businesses through a geo-location aware map and also search for practitioners by profession. Affiliates can direct visitor’s to their own pages in order to establish a cookieless relationship to their referrals and earn 5% of the value of all sales through their customers for the life of the customer.
The Outcome
Having completed the initial brief, the Hinnao application functions so reliably that there is no requirement for future retainer based development work. The relationship with the previous developer was costing £600 per month and yielding poor results. The website no requires no additional maintenance other than standard backups, software updates and security checks etc. The project generated a saving to the client of £7,200 per year and delivered a working, revenue generating assets to the business.