Ecommerce website for supplier in the creative crafting sector

Polysil Website

The Brief: Create a website that serves both our B2B and B2C customers

Polysil originated as a specialist distributor to the replication and mould making industries, providing high quality RTV silicone rubber, polyurethanes, polyester resins and jesmonite to industry and creators in a B2B capacity. When they approached us they had started to expand and gain traction in the growing consumer market for resins and jesmonite, driven by creators and makers who were producing and selling their creations from home.

To facilitate their growth into this market, Polysil needed to create a website platform that would speak to both the B2B and B2C markets in an efficient manner, driving leads, sales and brand awareness. At the time they had two separate websites – a brochure site primarily aimed at their B2B clients and an online shop that enabled their B2C customers to order products for home delivery. The requirement was to merge these two sites in to one central platform that would serve both audiences without alienating either audience.

The Solution

A multi audience website with distinct branding for B2B and B2C

The foundation of the solution to this client’s brief was the split of the website into two distinct halves – one labelled Commercial and the other Home. Navigation to each was via a sub-menu to the top left hand corner of the website. As the commercial and home audiences were so different for this client, we felt it was important to have a totally distinct look and feel for the two halves of the website and this overall structure freed us up to be able to do this. The web design we created for the commercial side of the website was very industrial and professional in appearance with an almost architectural feel, whilst the consumer side featured an altogether more fun and playful style. Despite on the surface being very different, with totally different imagery and colours, there were underlying elements which made sure that the branding was consistent throughout. The Polysil logo, font and turquoise colourway were used as anchor points across the designs to give a unified feel.

With the core user journeys in place we were able to turn our attention to the ecommerce elements of the website and the creation of a detailed WooCommerce shop. This was an extensive task with over 150 different products and numerous product derivations such as sizes and colourways. The ability to add individual images of each product and also related products was essential, as well as a simple and easy to use checkout process. With so many diverse products on offer, categorisation was also key and the online shop needed to dovetail with the stock control system back at the warehouse so that customers could be kept informed of availability.

The resulting website looks stunning and has moved Polysil into a different league when it comes to the capacity to deliver an online shopping experience at speed and with minimal customer interaction. And most importantly Polysil’s core B2B customers don’t feel neglected as they are still able to access all the technical documentation they need via the Commercial side of the website.