MONO Cases: designing next-level gear for the professional musician and DJ
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Rated
ProductCart Case Study (11/2011): MONO Cases
About MONO Cases
Well... let's come clean right away: this truly is one of our favorite ProductCart-powered stores. So, this is not an objective case study. Among those that take our shopping carts and build awesome storefronts with it, MONO is up there with the very best.
MONO designs and produces incredibly good looking cases for all kinds of musical instruments, backpacks that take the definition of a cool backpack to the next level, and more. Read their compay history to get a feel for what they're all about.
General Store Information
- ProductCart version used: STANDARD
- ProductCart add-on’s used: APPAREL ADD-ON
- Other add-on’s used (partner add-on’s): None
- Hosted by: GoDaddy
- Designed by: Daniel Kushner
- Customized by: Jennifer Meller / Designmistress
Early Impact's first thoughts... The overall design is clean and professional: it conveys that sense of modernism and quality that's embedded in MONO's products. We also love the contrast between the colorful pictures and the grayscale elements of the design template.
What really catches your attention right away is how the musician is at the center of it all. MONO takes the the idea of a customer-oriented company and makes it an integral part of the Web site design. It's all about the musicians. Way to connect with your customers and make them feel at home!
How they customized ProductCart...
We asked MONO to provide us with a list of things that they had customized to make ProductCart look and work the way they wanted (which happens to be one of the great advantages of using ProductCart vs. a hosted ecommerce solution!). Here is what they sent us:
- Page layouts, look-and-feel, custom buttons, extensive CSS customizations
- Special "pre-order only" message shows when you select an item that is back-ordered (you can see if you select "steel gray" color for the 365 DJ Pack, for example)
- Customized drop shipper email to include shipping method in subject line
- Added custom "free shipping" box on right side of product pages
- Added "availability status" for back-ordered items to order confirmation emails – we use "N days" to read "N weeks"
- Custom store home page
Other interesting information
- Customer service system used, if any: none
- Email marketing system used, if any: Vertical Response
- Payment gateway(s): PayPal
- Shipping provider(s): FedEx
- Other interesting facts about this store:
"When I first saw Daniel's design ideas for the shopping cart some other people I worked with thought it wouldn't be possible. But I loved the design and thought it was worth fighting for! My main area of expertise is in html and CSS, I had limited ASP experience. I found the PC software is so well organized that with a little patience and perseverance even I was able to figure out how to make the cart look the way Daniel wanted it to. For some of the more code-heavy tweaks, we hired Product Cart expert Tim Douglas at www.copperpixel.com" - Jen Meller
Home Page
Early Impact's notes: We liked the big graphics and the simple, well-organized navigation.
Suggestion: Visitors are always looking for good bargains, so we would recommend adding a "On Sale" or "Specials" section under "New Arrivals".
Store's Home Page
Early Impact's notes: MONO's product line is all about good looks and good quality, and the design they chose for the store's home page conveys exactly that. Hard to think of a better way to invite the customer to click through for more details.
One suggestion: when we visited the store, the "Holiday Sale" graphic did not take us to a list of products on sale (or a page providing more information on the sale). We recommend that merchants always do so: store visitors are drawn to "on sale" signs: let them click and learn more (or quickly locate the products on sale).
By the way: the new Sales Manager in ProductCart v4.5 takes sales management to the next level.
Product Page
Early Impact's notes: MONO takes full advantage of ProductCart's support for multiple product images and built-in image gallery. And their products look so good, it makes perfect sense to put images at the center of the action. Nice, subtle modifications to the page design, such as the display of the "Next" and "Previous" buttons.
The color swatch functionality is provided by the Apparel Add-on for ProductCart, which is used by over 30% of all ProductCart users.
Final thoughts
Musicians have never looked so good carrying their gear around. And ProductCart is looking pretty good too powering this cool store!