Visit the Octopus Books website
Background
The Octopus Publishing Group (OPG) wanted to develop a new website to consolidate the independent brand websites such as Mitchell Beazley and Hamlyns, into one, with the aim of providing customers with the ability to search across all their titles. Other primary objectives are to improve company representation in the market and build relationships with customers via improved usability.
Solution
Imaginet created a highly attractive and easy to use website that integrates the Group’s brands into a single design framework. Key features of the site include:
- Whilst the whole site follows an agreed design framework, Imaginet differentiated brand gateway pages that are shown when a person inputs a specific URL
- Navigation is very clear ensuring customers can find books of interest quickly and books from all imprints will be available via a comprehensive search facility
- Content is inter-related throughout the site so that if a visitor is viewing a particular book, they could be presented with links to other books of interest and also content such as About the Author, Reviews and News
- Imaginet built a bespoke product catalogue for OPG that allows certain books to be highlighted on the homepage and brand gateway pages
- Updates to the catalogue will be made remotely by a data feed from OPG's distributors (LBS) and bibliographical data supplier (Nielsen)
- An easy to use shopping basket allows visitors to amend their order during a shop and once they have finalised their basket it interfaces directly to the distributor LBS to enable fast and simplified order processing systems. A special offers discounting system is also included
- A full site wide CMS using i-edit allows control over all core content and menu options in the site promptly and without need of HTML knowledge
- The site captures visitors’ details, which will be stored in a website based eCRM system, allowing the site managers to communicate via email newsletters with users
- Competitions and special offers encourage repeat visits and build relationships with customers
