Getting saucy with eCommerce

Stokes Sauces

Getting saucy online

Stokes Sauce has developed into a leading player in its sector in the UK, exporting to 43 countries, with sales through various channels ranging from main supermarkets to independent retailers.

With this in mind, Stokes Sauces wanted to fuel the same commercial desire for their products online, opting for a more fluid, fully accessible, and more manageable system than they had previously.

A-dressing a wider audience

The main commercial objective for the new website was to allow trade customers account access with greater control for bulk ordering, whilst catering for the retail consumer and increasing sales overall. Naturally, having a mobile device-friendly website is a given necessity these days, but this was a new and welcome prospect for Stokes online presence, which in turn encourages greater accessibility for their customers on-the-go.

Reliable sauces

Together with a new website, Stokes Sauces were also working on some new sustainable packaging. The new packaging design took a subtle, refreshed approach to the brand’s visual language, which naturally needed to flow through onto the website, including new colours, typography, illustrations and messaging.

When designing the website’s User Interface this proved challenging at first, given some of the brand’s visuals were in a state of flux. Firebrand Creative led the new packaging design, and as Stoke Sauces’ brand guardians, they supported our efforts with the website design to overcome these uncertainties and allowed us plenty of creative freedom whilst staying faithful to the core visual identity.

With great taste comes great responsibility

The complete product suite is split over 6 distinct types including Pickles & Chutneys, Dressings, Jams and Preserves, and of course condiment royalty; Mayonnaise, with Ketchup and the like. Each sauce with its own distinctive flavour, we wanted to replicate their specialness in the design whilst maintaining a consistent flow. To do this we went bold and brave with typography, product images size and colour, combined with friendly informal descriptions and detailed product information made for an engaging page.

Sticky integrations & technical jams

A website e-commerce project can come with its fair share of technical challenges, especially when integrating with third-party systems. Luckily, our experienced team of developers helped to facilitate a fluid SAP integration with Stokes Sauces stock system and automated marketing platforms, providing them with options to expand and modify in the future.

Thank you for helping us achieve a website we can all be proud of. The project was challenging and required the input of multiple service providers and experts. The brief was tough, calling for design, brand, SAP integration and ease of use across a multitude of customer types. You did a great job.

Chris Reeve – Commercial Director

Relish the thought

The Stokes website has already gained huge momentum with new and existing customers, and despite being in its infancy, trade customers are relishing the new format for ordering. What’s more, it’s allowing the folks at Stokes to easily create and manage content for the website, keeping it fresh and on-brand.

Contact us if you have a similar project we can help you with.

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