A Custom Product Configurator On A Mobile-Friendly Site: Our Drupal Developers Show Their Skills
Our developers are amazing - especially when we really flex our muscle. For example: we recently built a new, custom Drupal site and storefront for Granite State Grave Markers, who have provided custom-engraved grave markers to customers across the country for decades by offering shoppers the chance to design their own unique stone using a simple online interface. But needing an upgrade to both their marketing site and their online ordering platform, they called on Altos to take on a custom design.
We built a custom site for Granite State on Drupal both to improve the user experience on the marketing end and, by using Drupal eCommerce, to simplify the ordering process for the business itself. We also took advantage of this custom development to create a mobile-responsive storefront and even integrate shipping options, making the entire sales process more accessible and user-friendly for both Granite State and their customers.
Drupal Ecommerce Storefront
Bringing Granite State Grave Markers onto the Drupal Content Management System (CMS) allowed us to build a custom storefront that can meet all of the client’s specific needs. Using Drupal’s custom eCommerce flexibility, we upgraded Granite State’s ordering system to an easy-to-use, custom grave marker designer.
Customers can insert their own text and upload their own images to drag and drop them into their choice of standard grave marker designs. This provides customers a fast and simple way to submit a highly customized design for laser etching and delivery.
And, in contrast to the prior storefront, customers can now save multiple grave markers in their shopping cart at the same time, allowing them to buy multiple markers in one easy order and eliminating the pain of having to repeat the process for each marker needed.
Canvas Tech For Improved Custom Designs
Providing customers with a way to design their own custom grave marker is Granite State’s specialty craft - one of three grave marker design options, along with laser-etched and sandblasted. But providing a custom design that’s functional for both the customer and the craftsperson called for a new solution, and HTML Canvas elements helped make that a reality.
Rather than relying on an unstable stack of images and text boxes which could not be easily saved or transferred, we utilized Canvas’s ability to actually draw on top of images using javascript, and to render those final creations for reference by the engraver later on.
This rendered image could then be carried through the design process, all the way to the packing slip. This help Granite State to ensure accuracy right through delivery, something that just wasn’t possible before.
Mobile-Friendly Upgrade
While a custom storefront and shopping cart can make ordering a custom-designed grave marker much easier, making that process easily accessible on mobile devices gives Granite State access to customers who might otherwise have been overlooked. Knowing the sheer volume of mobile traffic, we made Granite State’s custom ordering system mobile-friendly.
Customers can still design custom markers just as they would on a desktop, using a simple four-step mobile process that makes navigation on the small screen easy. Mobile customers can create the same custom designs as on a desktop, and can even import photos directly from their phones.
Not only will this mobile functionality help reach a specific (and yet untapped) market, but it will also likely help boost Granite State’s overall organic search rankings in the long run.
A Streamlined Shipping Process
As critical as it is to improve user experience from a marketing perspective, the flexibility of drupal to build custom solutions allowed us to smooth out Granite State’s ordering and delivery process as well.
Granite State has always offered free shipping on its grave markers. On the old site, only one marker could be ordered at a time. And, the address was not validated at the time the order was placed, only when the order was shipped; usually 2-3 weeks later. This created potential problems if the address was not correct by the carrier’s standards.
Since shipping is free to customers in the 48 contiguous United States anyway, this new storefront utilizes complex bit of code to simply validate the customer’s address during the sale without requesting a cost estimate from FedEx.
And since the shipping address for each stone can now be quickly and separately validated by FedEx, it’s easier to send markers. That’s why this new shopping cart allows customers to print each shipping label separately, with an image of the marker to improve shipping accuracy! This expedites the validation process and reduces errors.
The benefits to Granite State in speeding up workflows and expediting the shipping process include saved time and improved accuracy for each and every order - and it’s all possible with the custom power of Drupal.
A Site Built To Take On The Future
Built to vastly improve on the prior systems in place for Granite State Grave Markers, this new custom-developed Drupal site provides an improved user experience and an easier way for customers to get exactly the grave marker they’re looking for.
Plus, our custom storefront design helps Granite State improve order accuracy while simultaneously extending to a wider variety of consumers. The goal for this site is to improve the flow of sales and drive more shoppers into paying customers - and we think it will prove to do just that.
Whether your site or online storefront is in need of some custom development or you’re simply curious about how Altos can improve your site’s user experience, give us a shout and we’ll be happy to show you just what we can do - we think you’ll be pretty impressed with the results.
