Case Study

Online retailers contemplating replacement of their ecommerce platform often hesitate due to the cost, disruption and uncertainty involved.

Many implementation projects dramatically exceed budget, are never launched or fail to deliver as promised. The consequences to a midsize etailer can be extreme. The Kalio Commerce platform and implementation team have been carefully honed to address these risks. Kalio recently launched a new site for Schneiders Saddlery (www.sstack.com), a 71-year old equestrian retailer in northern Ohio with a rapidly growing online business.

The site was completed in 10 weeks with no post-live fire drills. The accelerated project timeline was critical for the business due to the increasing instability of their previous site. By industry standards, successful projects of this scale typically take 6 months or longer and often experience instability for several months. Schneiders didn’t have that kind of time.

This was not a templated site constraining Schneiders choices, but included a custom design and user experience, a first-in-kind ERP integration, integrated 3rd party solutions, well-planned SEO transition and features they had long wanted but couldn’t get on their old platform.

There were several key factors leading to this successful outcome.

• The right partner team – Schneiders realized from their previous platform projects that success would depend on the expertise and trustworthiness of the implementation consultants, as much or more than the technology used. Lorelle Carpenter, Schneider’s President, added, “The Kalio team’s technology expertise is a perfect complement to our team’s marketing skills and merchandising knowledge. We made it a priority to find a company and individuals we could count on as an extension of our team. Looking back on the smooth implementation of our intensely accelerated re-platforming project, it’s clear that Kalio’s team was the right choice. We’re looking forward to working together for many years to come as Kalio’s platform adapts to the ever-changing demands of our growing business.”
• The right internal team – While the project was intense, there were some clear advantages to the accelerated approach. All Schneiders team members stayed focus on the project. Key stakeholders, including company executives, were actively engaged, making key decisions quickly. Scope was carefully managed to protect the schedule and budget. Critically, the Schneiders team understood their data and how it could drive dynamic user experience on the site.
• The right platform – While the team saw other platforms with nice user interfaces and interesting features, their experience had them look under the hood more carefully at the architecture and capabilities that would impact their daily lives the most: ease of changing the design and user experience over time; ease of getting any data in and out of the system; the platform’s stability, performance and scalability that would not restrict growth.

“We didn’t need to change a template or get off the upgrade path to make modifications to our new website”, stated Jessica Adcock, Schneider’s Senior Project Manager. “There are no user experience constraints imposed by the platform. We now have a great foundation with freedom and flexibility to make design changes as we want them, quickly and easily.”

The implementation is just the beginning of a long-term journey. With the Kalio Commerce platform and Kalio’s services team acting as an ongoing extension of their team, Schneiders now has a foundation for long-term growth.