Custom built Craft CMS e-commerce solution
Fireclay Tile needed their site to reflect their focus on custom-made solutions. They brought us in to tackle the challenge of developing a highly interactive site which would offer many unique features while preserving the site’s functionality.
- Services
- Industry
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eCommerce
SITUATION
Reinvent an Essential Aspect of Our Client's Business
Fireclay Tile has been manufacturing beautiful handmade tile since 1986. The company’s showroom and factory are located in San Francisco but their business relies heavily on their extensive website. In order to develop their online business, Fireclay Tile brought us in to update and upgrade their site. Since then, many new features have been added and nearly every aspect of their existing site has been revamped and improved.
In order to fully understand the company’s vision and needs, our developers and the Project Manager visited San Francisco to meet in person with the company’s CEO, along with people from all of the company’s departments. The team visited the office, showroom, and factory to gain a comprehensive understanding of what the company needed for its site. When our team returned to New York to begin work on the project, they had a tangible plan for the site as well as a clear understanding of the company’s entire process.
PROCESS
Integrate Custom, Interactive, and Effective Features
The team began with bug fixes and then tackled the challenge of storing the site’s large number of images in a way that was effective and did not slow the site down. We added eCommerce and built a custom cart. These features were built to handle the complicated pricing structure and the various consumer options available for each order of tile such as size, shape, color, and finish. The online shop also needed to feature an easy way for customers to receive samples of the tile.
The Fireclay Tile site offers much more than just an online shop. We built several interactive, custom areas to showcase the company’s dedication to providing their customers with the exact type of tile they want. The site includes a gallery where customers can seek out design inspiration, containing images of Fireclay Tile’s products in various rooms and settings. Customers can browse by room, style, pattern, or color and can buy the tile featured in the images directly from the gallery.
Another unique, interactive feature we built was the “Color-It! Paint Your Own Tile” feature. This allows users to select a pattern and then paint the tile with their personal choice of colors. Customers can paint the tile section by section, or use the randomize feature to paint the tile automatically based on their selection of colors. The custom painted tile can then be viewed in both a kitchen and bathroom setting, allowing customers to see what their tile would look like in context. The Paint Your Own Tile feature also allows customers to add their custom painted tile to their cart so they can eventually purchase it. The site keeps track of users’ designs by allowing them to create an account on the site where their designs and order history are saved.
It was important to our client that they be able to access all of their order and customer information in one place, so we implemented Salesforce syncing. Fireclay’s sales team uses Salesforce to manage all the incoming sales information from the website. Our integration with the Salesforce APIs immediately syncs order information in real-time, which keeps Fireclay Tile’s sales team informed and up-to-date.
RESULT
A Long-Term Successful Partnership
Our partnership with Fireclay Tile is continuous; they’ve remained a long-term client of ours. Our team integrates with their internal development team and company resources in order to maintain a collaborative retainer relationship. We hold weekly phone meetings with the company CTO where we conduct a status check and discuss our next steps in our on-going process to improve their site. Our partnership has been successful because of the high level of trust that has developed between our teams. Fireclay Tile knows we have their best interests in mind, and allows us to help them make decisions about everything -- from how to improve user experience, to how to deploy new features. Our collaborative approach allows ideas to develop organically; we are able to experiment to see what works and what doesn’t and then implement the right solution.
We work with Fireclay Tile to transform their ideas into impressive results. Our work has helped them grow their site into an increasingly central part of their business. Not only do they rely on it for online sales, but they also use it as an internal sales tool at their showroom in San Francisco. This multipurpose aspect of the site makes it even more versatile, useful, and functional.
