CHALLENGE

When P.C. Richard & Son, an electronics retailer, approached Fry for the redesign and replatform of its e-commerce web site, their goal was two-fold: substantially increase their online revenue and drive more traffic to their showrooms. Having managed www.pcrichard.com themselves for many years, the retailer realized they needed a professional agency to build a state-of-the-art platform that would drive them towards achieving that goal. However, once the site would be built and operating as desired, P.C. Richard & Son wanted to own the site and manage it with internal resources.

SOLUTION

The site was rebuilt and redesigned using Fry’s Open Commerce PlatformTM (OCP), a J2EE-compliant, license-free framework that can run on a number of application servers and integrates into multiple systems and databases. Some of the unique features developed for P.C. Richard & Son on the platform include a real-time interface to the P.C. Richard & Son mainframe, a delivery scheduler, the ability to track service and delivery calls, and a filtering feature on the product browsing pages.

A year after the initial site launch, PCR launched two online tools that would enhance the customer experience. First, to help the organization increase air conditioner sales as well as reduce call center costs, P.C. Richard & Son asked for a guided application that would allow customers to find the air conditioner that best meets their needs.  P.C. Richard & Son anticipated that by recommending air conditioners based on certain requirements, it would give customers more confidence in their orders, encouraging sales and reducing the necessity for costly call center support. Fry designed and built the A/C Advisor application which asks the user a few simple questions, analyzes the data, and delivers product results that are appropriate for the customer’s specifications.

A few months later in the same year, multi-channel integration was introduced with an in-store pickup feature. The P.C. Richard & Son In-Store Pickup allows shoppers to select products from the PCRichard.com web site and pick up the product at a local store without a shipping charge. Having the sales channels work together in this way increases revenue and enhances the overall customer experience.

In accordance with one of the requirements of P.C. Richard & Son, Fry engineers trained P.C. Richard & Son’s internal staff to take over the management and maintenance of the OCP platform. Today, because of the license-free model and flexibility that OCP offers, P.C. Richard & Son manages design and engineering of the site almost completely in house.

RESULTS

The results of the redesigned site have been stunning. In its first year, www.pcrichard.com realized an enormous increase in annual revenue. Traffic has increased as well, and shoppers are staying on the site longer. The new design makes the customer experience more efficient and the new platform supports the increased traffic and transactions. Fry and P.C. Richard & Son continue to work together to make PCRichard.com remain the strong revenue generator it has become.