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We're hiringBelfast Candle Company Blown Over By Online Christmas Sales
22 December 2011
by Web Bureau
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
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Image: From L-R, Graeme Ferguson, MD and Maria O'Neill, Retail Manager of Yankee Store Ltd with Colin Graham, Technical Director, The Web Bureau.