Belfast Yankee Candle Company Blown Over By Increase in Online Christmas Sales

by denise 22. December 2011 09:41

A Belfast candle company has been blown over with an incredible 1500% increase in site traffic as it cashes in on record online Christmas sales.

With almost 1,000 organic daily site visits, www.yankee.co.uk is one of the largest distributors of Yankee Candles in the UK and Ireland.

Graeme Ferguson, Managing Director of Yankee Store Ltd, is delighted with web traffic to his refreshed website. 

“Last Christmas our site was receiving an average of 60 organic visits a day and this December we’re seeing nearly 1,000. 

“While E-commerce sites will always perform best at this time of year to witness such growth in traffic in 12 months is absolutely incredible.”

The Centre for Retail Research, is expecting online Christmas spending in Britain to reach a total of £13.4bn. This expected online spend was highlighted on Cyber Monday (5th December 2011).

“We experienced a significant surge in online traffic and received a higher than average quantity of online orders but were well prepared for the increase in demand. Our dispatch teams worked extremely hard to get the orders processed and the site coped particularly well, maintaining speed and performance.” 

Graeme Ferguson attributes much of the site’s success to the Belfast web specialists The Web Bureau.

Colin Graham, Technical Director of The Web Bureau said: 

“80% of the population are now hooked up to the Internet and of that number 75% research purchases online before buying.

“These figures highlight how important it is that firstly consumers can find your website and secondly that you make it appealing to purchase from your website. 

“For www.yankee.co.uk we wanted the site to be attractive as well as easy to use but we also implemented a successful Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) strategy resulting in the site being ranked within the top 3 Google results for related search terms.

“To encourage repeat visits several additional features were integrated into the site. This included competitions, a media centre to upload product images and videos and a Paypal payment option.

“Links to the company’s social media pages have also been incorporated allowing customers to contact the company via the most suitable medium. 

“We’re pleased the site is already delivering such great results and the online marketing strategy is producing high levels of organic traffic.”

Graeme Ferguson, Managing Director of Yankee Store Ltd who also has six stores across Northern Ireland, said:

“Working with The Web Bureau we were able to upload a ‘review’ feature for our customers to leave their own thoughts and opinions on products. This is a great indicator for us of what is popular with the customers and allows us to select our ‘fragrance of the month’.

“Customer feedback is very important to us and the response to the site has been very positive. Happy customers results in return visits and that’s the principal aim.”

More information on The Web Bureau can be found at www.thewebbureau.com

The Web Bureau can also be followed on Facebook and Twitter.

(Image, from L-R: Graeme Ferguson, MD & Maria O'Neill, Retail Manager, Yankee Store Ltd pictured with Colin Graham, Technical Director, The Web Bureau).

A Day at The Grand Opera House Belfast

by denise 25. November 2011 14:53

The Grand Opera House Belfast is a well known theatre in Northern Ireland situated in Belfast city centre, but up until a few months ago, we only thought of the Grand Opera House as being a show venue.  After a recent tour of the facilities, where we met some of its enthusiastic team members, we have a totally new perspective of the Grand Opera House Belfast! 

The Web Bureau has been working with the Grand Opera House Belfast and its box office system partner for a number of months on the launch of its new and improved website so we thought it was time for our internet marketing team to get inside Belfast’s oldest theatre venue to find out a bit more about what The Grand Opera House Belfast has to offer the people of Belfast, Northern Ireland and our overseas visitors.

Theatre in Belfast

The Grand Opera House presents a wide variety of shows in many genres, including drama, comedy, musicals, family shows, opera and dance.  At the minute, the upcoming highlight will be the extremely popular annual Christmas pantomime, which this year is Jack and The Beanstalk

As a theatre venue, The Grand Opera House Belfast has a lot of history and character. Whilst standing in the empty auditorium, looking down from the corporate boxes or the upper circle, we got an insight into how your experience of watching a show can differ depending on where you are seated. Looking up, we also developed a new appreciation for the intricacy of the building’s design from its ornate roof to the elephant and Buddha characters which are contained within the design. There is much to see that is simply missed during the hustle and bustle of a show night, where the lighting is dimmed and your focus is on the stage rather than the surroundings.  The Grand Opera House Belfast is certainly a unique venue and one that is well worth a tour.

Places to Eat in Belfast

If you are a regular show-goer, you may be familiar with the Hippodrome Restaurant at the Grand Opera House Belfast, which seats approximately 70 people and is available for pre-theatre dinner booking for ticket holders.  This L shaped restaurant in Belfast city centre overlooks Great Victoria Street and internally, it is situated on a balcony overlooking the entrance to the Baby Grand and Lucianos Cafe Bar, a more recent and modern development to the Grand Opera House Belfast.

Many of us enjoy eating out in Belfast, especially during a shopping trip, work lunch or simple just to have a catch-up with friends. Lucianos Cafe Bar is definitely a lunch or afternoon tea venue in Belfast that should be added to your ‘favourite places to eat in Belfast’ list and we can highly recommend the cheese burger with salsa and fries!

Conference Venues and Meeting Rooms in Belfast

The events, conferencing and meeting room facilities at the Grand Opera House Belfast are perhaps better known in Belfast’s business community.  From the auditorium to the Baby Grand to the Shakespeare Rooms and Boardroom, the Grand Opera House caters customers who require for meeting rooms, conference venues, corporate hospitality and graduations and awards ceremonies in Belfast, to fashion shows, private parties, murder mystery nights, burlesque nights and is even a wedding venue and wedding reception venue! 

A Unique Wedding Venue in Northern Ireland! 

If you are looking for an unusual wedding venue in Northern Ireland, somewhere that bit different from all the other wedding venues you have been to, the Grand Opera House Belfast is definitely one of the best wedding venues in Belfast for your wedding ceremony, wedding reception and wedding photos. The hospitality team also offer a range of catering packages to suit each customer’s preferences. 

I hope this gives you a greater insight into what our local theatre in Belfast has to offer as it did for us!

     

 

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