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Connecting a Luxury Brand with their Audience
The Client
This sustainable, forward-thinking fashion company creates luxury apparel using premium, Rambouillet Merino Wool. Originally called Ramblers Way Farm, the brand was conceived by Tom Chappell and his family, the creators of Tom’s of Maine. They worked tirelessly to create a line of apparel that was not only environmentally mindful, but supportive of local economies, including the economy in their own town of Portland, Maine.
Every product is made in America with a fully transparent supply chain, from farm, to fabric, to fashion. Taking this ideology a step further, they ensure all of their superfine, worsted wool yarns meet the Global Organic Textile Standards for environmental, social, and animal welfare.
THE PROJECT
Smart ecommerce web design, a proper database, and search engine optimization are imperatives for any growing brand in the retail sphere. Although Ramblers Way’s CMS had served them well in the beginning, it had become dated and no longer fit their growing needs. We were tasked with updating the underlying Drupal while setting up a successful migration of every existing bit of site collateral, including product descriptions, details, SKUs, prices, and sizes. One challenge lay in the company’s focus on very detailed nuances of their fabrics, down to weight within half ounces. That detail and the need to retain customer order histories, in the context of all the site changes and redesigns, meant going beyond just implementing a fresh CMS. In essence, it was a full platform redesign.
A key goal of redesigning their CMS was to create a sustainable platform going forward so the Ramblers Way team could be empowered to integrate changes and updates with every season. We had to figure out how to structure data so it could offer greater flexibility and customization to the client, without requiring them to adjust technical underpinnings.
THE APPROACH
We developed the CMS based not only on the visitor experience, but also on effortless administration. True to our collaborative nature, we partnered with the Ramblers Way team through every step of the process, ensuring that the end result would be user friendly, intuitive to navigate, and effortless to maintain. When the launch date moved up, our team proved light and agile with tight turnarounds, collaborating seamlessly with our Ramblers Way contacts to craft an appealing and optimized final product.
THE RESULT
We rolled out a fully developed, scalable CMS at the same time we launched the company’s brand new website (see our Brand & Marketing Case Study here). Since that time, the company has seen measurable success in three key areas: organic traffic, overall profits, and new customer acquisition, with return customers providing the same share of revenue.
One of our biggest accomplishments was collaborative in nature: setting Ramblers Way up for autonomous success. Through a few unforeseen timing obstacles, development challenges, the quick decisions, we were honored to maintain a solid and powerful partnership with our clients and co-creators throughout the course of the project.
With Ramblers Way, I wanted to create a business where the environment and people made a difference in the marketplace. We take what we do seriously—everything, from the fiber to the buttons, are all thoughtfully chosen, and that includes the way we show up to our customer. We found to our surprise and delight that the High Seas team are as honest and hard-working as our Maine community. They listened to our ideas and conditions with intent, and set forth those intentions into a website and brand that reflects our vision for American-made clothing. I couldn't be happier with the way they worked with us to create the Ramblers Way you see today.
Tom Chappell
Founder & CEO Ramblers Way
