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"We count on Warp 9 to drive our e-commerce, and
they deliver. Their service is excellent!" Doug Smith - Wind & Weather |
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| Customer Profile |
Founded in 1989, Magellan's is America's leading source of travel supplies, offering everything to make travel more comfortable, safe and rewarding. From luggage and wrinkle-free clothing to electrical adapters and travel appliances, Magellan's has everything for the traveler. Magellan's has been praised as: "The nation's most respected source of travel products by mail (Forbes)."
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| The Challenge |
In early 2001, Magellan's brought their e-commerce system in-house by purchasing software, hardware and custom programming from a well known web development firm. Since then, Magellan's web revenues have grown to 50% of total revenue. This success pushed the limits of Magellan's e-commerce system. On top of technical limitations, the web development firm was not responsive. Magellan's realized that without better technology and service, they were impeding their overall growth as a company.
But there was a BIG problem! Magellan's had invested heavily in a number of online marketing programs such as affiliate networks, search engine optimization, search engine ad words and private partnerships. All of these programs are tied to unique URLs for directing and tracking traffic. These URLs are embedded in search engines as well as partner sites. Switching e-commerce platforms meant a potentially large loss of revenue due to these URLs changing. For Bob Manning, Chief Operating Officer, this quantifiable concern was quite significant from a revenue perspective alone and needed to be directly addressed.
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| The Solution |
Magellan's visited the Warp 9 team and explained their need for a new platform, risk concerns about transitioning and frustrations with their current e-commerce provider. The Warp 9 team listened and provided a complete solution, addressing all these concerns. They first demonstrated their robust Internet Commerce System (ICS) which impressed Magellan's a great deal - eyes were open and smiles were wide. At first, Magellan's was a little skeptical about the confidence Warp 9 displayed with regards to a smooth transition. But, they believed that Warp 9's e-commerce expertise runs very deep and decided to proceed with the switch.
The transferring of content and templates onto the new Warp 9 platform was very smooth. Within 45 days, a new and more powerful version of www.magellans.com was released for testing. The Warp 9 e-commerce site had many features that Magellan's had been asking for from their previous provider for months and years. Features such as dynamic discount promotions, real-time integration to their backend system, self-serviced content and store management came straight out of the box.
In preparation for cutover, Warp 9 displayed a level of expertise that only experts can really claim. All the technology components were set up properly awaiting cutover. A URL mapping system was created to map ALL old URLs into new URLs, so that all search engine and referring partner links will still work. As a result, no revenue was lost and no links were broken.
At the flip of a switch, traffic from the Internet started flowing into the Warp 9 powered site.
Warp 9 has delivered another ZERO downtime transition from a different platform.
"Switching is only as risky as your e-commerce partner is. Take no risk, go Warp 9!"
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