Case study·Handmade skincare
A logo, a website and a small shop for a handmade skincare maker.
Chaseway Lane Botanicals, run by Annalisa Herve in Leigh-on-Sea. With us since 2016 - first looking after the website she had built herself, then rebuilding it from the ground up when she was ready and not a day before.
We hosted her website for years before we touched it
Chaseway Lane Botanicals came to us in 2016 on a recommendation from a colleague of Annalisa's, with a website she had built herself. What she wanted was somebody to keep it online. So that is what we did, and we left the rest alone.
A site somebody has built themselves is a site they understand, and replacing it before they are ready sells them something they have not asked for. So it stayed as it was, and stayed online, for years.
When the suggestion did come it came once, gently, and it is in her own words further down this page. She thought about it, decided she was ready, and asked us to start again from the ground up.
A logo for something made by hand
We used the clients story as direction. Their ethos is purity, simplicity, calmness and kindness. Chaseway Lane has a wide variety of plants growing either side of it. The branding and wider house style needed to represent all of it in the icon and typography.
- Navy#3C3C54
- Lavender#4248A8
- Sage#9CA896
Our website build
WordPress, as her previous site was. So she can write her own words. The theme was built bespoke for this brand not off a shelf. We have control over it all. Scroll through, or go and see the real thing.
The second site was built from scratch rather than tidied up. WordPress, because she is used to it and a theme drawn for this brand rather than a stock one dressed in her colours.
The shop was the interesting decision, and it was a decision to build less. A handful of products does not need a large e-commerce system; it needs a clear page per product and a checkout that works. She already had a shop plugin she liked and knew how to use, so it went into the new build rather than being replaced with something bigger she would have had to learn.
Every product gets its own page. Gift vouchers sit alongside them, which for a small maker is a second way to sell the same shelf.
Under the bonnet
The website, the web hosting and the email sit with us, and have done since before there was a site of ours to look after. Maintenance is on a regular frequency to keep the site secure.
Hosting includes SSL, Timeline Backups of the site and its database, malware scanning and server maintenance, with edge caching through our CDN so a page is served from a node near whoever is reading it. A shop raises the stakes on all of that: a brochure site that has a bad morning is an inconvenience, and a shop that has one is a morning of orders that never happened.
The checkout is the part we did not build. She arrived with a shop plugin she liked and understood, and it came across into the new build rather than being swapped for something of ours.
Annalisa chooses to ask us if there are any changes to make on the website. Although she has the knowledge and of course we are happy to help with direction, she finds it easier to call on us if there are any adjustments.
No hard sell, redesign when the client feels it's right
A small business with a short product list. If there are issues impacting business, we will share it. If not, there's no push for the client to spend money with us. The previous site was operational, but not a great customer journey. We improved that journey to turn visitors into customers.
In her own words
Annalisa HerveChaseway Lane BotanicalsGoogle reviewAndy has been looking after my website for many years, following a recommendation from a colleague of mine, it's the best thing I've done! His devotion to website management is second to none; attention to detail being one of his many qualities.
Whenever he runs his regular security updates, he always tests my website then contacts me to let me know what he's done. When he gently suggested that my old aging website could do with a freshen up, he walked me through the entire process with the patience of a saint. He redesigned it within my budget and has made my new website look amazing. Andy very quickly recognised that I am a bit of a Luddite when it comes to anything computer related and has very kindly been to my house to streamline my emails on my laptop and phone. Whenever I've yelled for help, he's responded within the hour - often fixing the problem at the same time. Looking back through my emails to him, it seems all of my "sent" emails have the words "thank you so much". Do what I did - get Andy to sort your website out, you won't regret it.
Got a website you built yourself?
We will host it and leave it alone until you want it rebuilt. Ask what that would take, and when.
The call is with Andy, the person
who will primarily be working on your project.
