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We’d been several years between redesigns. When we finally took the step, we not only got a new look, we ended up with a completely new store.
- John Di Siena, CountryToys.com

CountryToys.com specializes in wooden toys and games for children. They have more than 300 products including arts and crafts, baby gifts, plush animals, rocking horses and ride-ons. Their toys are old-fashioned, meaning they require children to use their imaginations instead of batteries. John and Melissa Di Siena started the company in 2003 and right away they knew they needed help. “Our store design was a mess,” John recalls. “We found Solid Cactus in 2004 and had them redesign our site. We made a hundred grand the first year and we thought that was great for us. It also began our on-going relationship with Solid Cactus.”

Fast forward three years and while CountryToys.com had grown, the site was undeniably stale. “The problem is, e-commerce changes so fast,” John says. “Two months in this business is like a year in brick-and-mortar. We knew we needed to change and improve to keep up with the times. So we called Solid Cactus for a major overhaul. There were several suggestions they made that we weren’t sure we were ready to incorporate, but we trusted them not to sell us on ideas that wouldn’t help our business. We were right to trust them.”

Solid Cactus gave CountryToys.com a fresh site with better looking graphics, but they also increased the concentration on e-commerce basics like search engine optimization. The redesign also included adding such features as Recently Viewed Items, Cross-Selling, Shipping Calculator, Customer Reviews and a blog. “Most of the new additions were Solid Cactus ideas, of course,” says John. “It’s hard to know which single one made the greatest impact, but they each added to our bottom line and they all made our business better.”

On the front end, CountryToys.com customers appreciated Recently Viewed Items. “It shows where they were,” says John. “It’s easier for them to retrace their steps and not get lost as they shop.”

In checkout, Shipping Calculator became a valuable tool for encouraging customers to spend. “They could see how much they’d spent,” says John. “They could see that if they’d spent $39 and we give free shipping over $50 that they were pretty close. We noticed an increase in orders above the threshold level.”

The blog was a Solid Cactus idea, but John Di Siena says it fit perfectly with the CountryToys.com mission statement. “At a strictly business level we’re able to add inbound and outbound links, which are important in SEO, especially with Google,” says John. “But more than that, the blog gives my wife Melissa a forum where she can talk with others about what’s new in the industry and new in the field of educational toys. This is an issue that is very important to us and the blog is a fantastic way to help get the word out.”

Since the redesign was completed in mid-2007 the differences have been apparent. “We’ve had more optimization and much better search results,” says John. “But the one place where people count progress in business is the bottom line and our bottom line has been healthy. Our sales are up 50% to 70% since the redesign.”

Another thing which has changed is the Di Siena’s view of their business future. “Every single addition we made has helped our business, either directly or, like the blog, in a very important overall sense,” says John. “Without giving too much away, we’re considering some serious expansions, both with CountryToys.com and with several new sites we have in planning. We’re getting close to opening a warehouse for our current business. We feel as if the sky is the limit for CountryToys.com and for our future endeavors. We don’t see a boundary.”

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