The Case of E-Commerce

So what did president Joe Ahern hope to gain by updating Evergreen’s admittedly amateurish Web site? Better service for existing customers—and potentially new revenue streams.

In 2004, Ahern contracted with St. Paul–based Voyageur I.T., a Web site strategy, branding, design, and development firm. Voyageur has the capability to create highly automated, extremely glossy sites. But this particular contract was an exercise in restraint. Ahern needed to see results before he was prepared to commit a big chunk of his budget.

“The first thing we did was simply make a better-looking Web site—one that was still brochureware, but professional-looking,” says Voyageur President Suzanne McGann. “A year after that, he was able to quantify, through some of his metrics, how much new business he had gotten through the Web site. It was something like a third of his business revenue for the year. It was definitely a year where he really saw the value of his professional Web presence. So when he and I met to discuss that information, we started to think about some new business angles.”

McGann set out to redesign the site as a true e-commerce site. However, she still proceeded slowly. Initially, Web customers were asked to print out pdf files and fax them in. (In fact, in the off season, that’s still the way the fundraising sales are handled.) Eventually, they were given the option to use a basic online shopping cart.

“We still allowed for pdf files and faxing, but this really simplified it,” McGann says. “He now has a person on staff who sees all the e-mails come in, and that person can [advance the sale] accordingly. He’s tried to make it a pretty painless integration. You place an order, you get some sort of feedback, and they’re on it within just an hour or so.”

In the third year, the site was redesigned again to address not only the fundraising market, but also corporate and retail sales. And in the fourth—the 2007 holiday season—Evergreen enthusiastically agreed to venture into the brave new world of search engine marketing. Voyageur closely watches Web site analytics and formulates search engine optimization and pay-per-click programs designed to maximize selling cycles.

“We’re heavily involved in the Internet and search engines,” Ahern says. “As a result, we’ve developed new customers and sources of revenue. We’ve seen a substantial increase in new customers, and conversion rates are higher than we had in prior years.”

Twice a year, the Voyageur team sits down with Ahern’s staff to tweak the site based on its metrics. “We’ll evaluate which search engines are bringing orders in, which generate the most leads, and then devise a strategy,” Ahern says. “We may decide to add a few items to our product base, or simply change pictures and update our Web site.”

“It’s not that he just has an [online] store,” explains McGann. “It’s that he has a business that has radically changed to include another 10 to 20 percent more revenue through some new channels. He was able to bring in some substantial business in some areas that would have previously been unnoticed.”