Coastal Farm & Ranch Optimized the Development of Their Ecommerce Site with the Wireframe Audit

The Overview

Coastal Farm & Ranch is a chain of farm and ranch stores that employs over 750 people across 17 retail locations in Oregon and Washington. They’ve been a part of the farm and ranch community since 1963, and believe in giving time to the community where they live.

Coastal Farm & Ranch initially reached out to The Good because they were seeking a dedicated conversion rate optimization (CRO) expert to assist in the launch of their ecommerce site.

The Challenge

Coastal Farm & Ranch had previously consulted with a design agency for a Discovery Phase, but were seeking a partner that could review their site wireframes and make conversion-focused recommendations that would be incorporated in the Design Phase.

Coastal Farm & Ranch wanted to ensure that the framework and structure of their site were completed properly from the start to avoid complications and roadblocks further along in the site development process. Getting a conversion-focused review this early in the design process is an effective way to reduce the risk of a surprise drop in conversions immediately after a site launch, and the following costly rework to resolve.

“The Good did an excellent job – they were easy to work with during the scoping phase, and presented a clear proposal within our budget.”

Steve Gehlen, Director of Digital Commerce, Coastal Farm & Ranch

The Process

Because Coastal Farm & Ranch’s primary goal was identifying areas of opportunity and improvement with their in-progress site, The Good performed a wireframe audit. The purpose of the audit was to ensure that the wireframe templates were optimized to provide the best possible customer experience. For Coastal Farm & Ranch, that meant not only serving up key product details and value propositions but successfully translating the warmth of the in-store experience to the digital ecommerce environment.

As part of the data-backed wireframe audit, the team also conducted research on the company’s target audience, popular products, and even arranged a store visit to ensure that the advice we were giving aligned with their core values and audience needs.

“The Good uncovered new ideas and opportunities that we hadn’t thought of before, even after we completed a very comprehensive Discovery Phase.”

The Solution

At the end of the audit process, The Good delivered a comprehensive report of their findings in a detailed strategy session. The Good provided specific recommendations for improvements, and also included in-depth research on competing ecommerce sites that could be referenced later in the Design Phase.

“The audit report we received was full of fantastic insights that we hadn’t thought of yet, and also identified some problem areas that we hadn’t observed in our Discovery Phase”

The wireframe audit helped Coastal Farm & Ranch identify opportunity gaps and actionable insights to improve the overall design and functionality of their site wireframes.

“We were able to incorporate the wireframe input from The Good as a natural part of our Discovery Phase.  Their notes and input were very clear and made it easy to make the appropriate adjustments to our wireframes.”

The Results

After the wireframe audit, Coastal Farm & Ranch incorporated the ideas and recommendations into their ecommerce website development process. The wireframe audit was a pivotal exercise that helped Coastal Farm & Ranch identify key problem areas early-on in the planning stage so they’d be better equipped moving forward in the Design Phase.

“I believe our new eCommerce website will be better off and result in higher conversion rates from Day 1 than it would’ve been without the consultation from The Good.”

How They Got There

• Wireframe Audit