CeramicSpeed
From Umbraco 4 to Umbraco Cloud
An amazing solution with even more amazing results 📈
Before we start coding…
While the coding part of any digital project we take upon is very important, we also use a lot of energy and resources in first understanding what the client and their clients need.
CeramicSpeed makes ceramic bearings and components for bikes. That includes wheel upgrade kits, bottom brackets, pulley wheels, single bearings, headsets and optimized racing chains.
And for us it’s not just about showing these products, it is about grasping the connecting parts of it all, to understand how it works and what info should be provided for the users to give the best experience possible.
That means staying up-to-date with the user behaviour on the internet and using that data to make the right navigation on the website. Thus, we did a lot of research before the coding part of the project actually began.
It is very important to us to build a friendly interface so the editors feel secure and able to create content without breaking anything. Which is why we fully agree with the core values of Umbraco and built the new website using the Umbraco Cloud.
What CeramicSpeed needed
We took over this project from another agency. CeramicSpeed knew that they needed a new visual site and new webshop. They chose us to do it.
Their previous website was built on an old Umbraco version (version 4) together with an old uCommerce solution. It was a website that lacked information, had no integrations to ERPs and a mess when it came to products and orders.
Instead of trying to upgrade the outdated systems, we decided to start from scratch and build the new CeramicSpeed website on the newest Umbraco and uCommerce versions.
We worked closely with the client on the solution as we see a lot of value in having real-life conversations and instant feedback. That made our work faster and much more efficient.
The boxes to tick
Among the main goals for the new website were:
🚴 Implementing new design (created by CeramicSpeed designers)
🚴 Integrations with ERP, meaning that orders would actually be pushed to the ERP and be automatically ready for the users
🚴 The new website had to be both B2B and B2C friendly
🚴 The whole user experience needed to reflect the modern trends of today and be as intuitive as possible
🚴 The multilingual languages option
How we ticked them
The content blocks are key to the whole solution. It’s how most of the pages are built.
The pages are long and heavy on visuals. We put a lot of focus into the whole imagery controlling, that includes having the source set with different image sizes.
We integrated image compression with Tinifier, so each time the editor chooses the images, we send it to Tinifier to get it compressed.
We have also made it easy to adjust the focal point, making sure that the focus is on the right spot on an image regardless on which device or screensize the site is viewed on.
In general, we are always impressed with how easy it is to install packages in Umbraco. We installed uCommerce without a hassle, simply with a click of a button. That’s not something that we are actually used to. And having that ecosystem - that’s a whole different experience from any other platforms we have used.
We made room for the dealers with the deeper technical knowledge that shop on the website to make sure they don’t need to fill out unnecessary fields if they know exactly what they’re looking for. So the new website is friendly to both B2B and B2C users.
The solution is based on Umbraco Cloud. It’s quick to get started and set up environments, the automatic updates are seamless - it all simply made our job easier.
Umbraco Cloud also means that the new CeramicSpeed website is equipped with Umbraco Latch, which saved us time and money as we didn’t need to purchase the SSL certificate on our own.
“We’re a very ambitious organization and we value high quality design, both in terms of products and in terms of communication. We needed a site that would enable us to showcase that ambition and the visuals of our brand without compromising on performance. The new Umbraco Cloud solution delivers on this well.”
The magic post-launch
Just two weeks after the launch of the new site, CeramicSpeed launched a new prototype of a drivetrain, which took the media by storm. It is estimated that their video has been watched more than 50 million times across various news sites.
This also drove quite a lot of traffic to the new CeramicSpeed site. Luckily, thanks to Umbraco Cloud, it all went smooth - without any performance issues.
What did CeramicSpeed have to say?
Ben Powell, Chief Marketing Officer, CeramicSpeed: “It’s been reassuring to work with Oxygen. They’ve really committed to understanding our company, the way in which we do business and what makes CeramicSpeed tick. This matters to us. A web agency is essentially a business partner and in our case, we were in search of a partner that could not only help us develop and implement a new website but also scale the site to something truly industry-leading over the coming years.
We’ve been a long time Umbraco users with our previous site utilizing Umbraco 4. So we’re familiar with Umbraco’s layout and structure. The performance and functionality of the new cloud solution are great.
The weeks post-launch were incredible for us as an organization. One week after launching the new site we unveiled the biggest revolution in cycling for at least the last decade. This had a huge impact on web traffic, at its peak hitting 17, 5 thousand daily visitors. To compare - prior to the launch we averaged around 1,1 thousand daily visitors.
Now, whilst Oxygen has done a good job on implementing the new site, it would be wrong to say the increase in web traffic was because of the new site but it is fair to say that on the whole site performance is up. Web traffic is now stable at a 200% increase in daily visitors. The site’s overall performance has been flawless and we only feel like we’re getting started!