CASE STUDY

Gama Sonic

By creating several custom WordPress plugins and integrating those into WooCommerce, the team was able to improve the client’s sales and support workflows. This led to reduced long term costs associated with handling customer support and improving their customer’s online experience.

CASE STUDY

Gama Sonic

THE CLIENT

Gama Sonic’s Expanding Market

As Gama Sonic Solar Lighting’s president, Itay Parsons, is an expert in upscale solar lighting solutions. Gama Sonic’s commitment to sophisticated technology and reliability attracts loyal customers and paves the way for future innovation in product development and e-commerce.

With a product line including solar floodlights, spotlights, and landscape lighting, Gama Sonic’s target market had long been residential customers—via big-box stores and wholesale distributors. Gama Sonic’s solar light tech capabilities have since grown, and increasing the power of their products opens them up to new applications, making their commercial solar power lights popular on running trails, campgrounds, and city parks.

THE BUSINESS CHALLENGE

eCommerce Evolution

Growth in both markets, plus the opportunity to flourish as a direct-to-consumer product, influenced Itay to take the next step with Gama Sonic’s website. But as a company that had historically sold products B2B, the Gama Sonic site wasn’t set up for eCommerce.

“The website was more like a catalog,” described Parson. But, with more retail stores carrying the Gama Sonic product line, it became clear that the website needed to do more than showcase products.

“It was part of our agreement with Home Depot Canada,” Parson explained, “To do business with them, we needed to process direct-to-consumer orders. If their customer needs an accessory, battery, or replacement, they wanted to make sure they could come to our website to buy it.”

Although Parson has experience in web development, he knew he needed a team who could help him achieve his eCommerce goals. Despite his background, he says, “I needed someone to keep me up to date on today’s technologies and solutions.”

THE PROCESS

Connecting with Inspry

Gama Sonic was already on WordPress, a platform Itay was familiar with, but Gama Sonic’s needs were outpacing his experience. He needed to partner with a reliable agency that could handle his business’s growth. One with multiple developers and a dedicated project manager to maintain momentum and drive each initiative forward.

Itay explained. “I’m still a believer in meeting face-to-face.”

Itay knew he had found the right web development partner after meeting Inspry CEO Matt Schwartz and his team in their Midtown, Atlanta office. From that point forward, the Inspry team took the lead on Itay’s Gama Sonic eCommerce website.

THE CLIENT'S VERDICT

“They’re so flexible for us as we manage our capabilities, whether we’re doing stuff ourselves with some guidance or just asking them to handle it.”

“I wanted a local boutique company that I could speak with and meet with if needed.”

Itay Parsons
President, Gama Sonic

OUR SOLUTION

Technical Audit

Every new business relationship with Inspry begins with an audit of the existing website. “It was a relatively large website audit due to the complexity of the existing site,” recollected Matt. But, regardless of the scale, it is standard practice for the Inspry team to review the audit report with every client. “We want people to understand and know the details. We always strive for transparency and education with our clients,” says Matt.

During the audit, Inspry discovered that Gama Sonic’s customization usage and updating needs were the most pressing. “Some of the WooCommerce customizations weren’t the best,” Matt recalled. “We had to redo some because they were either broken, buggy, or just plain coded inefficiently. All sorts of enhancements had to happen before we could even get to the point of doing maintenance and helping them through their new eCommerce feature requests.”

For Itay, the audit report helped direct Inspry and Gama Sonic’s course of action. Within two weeks, Inspry implemented solutions to resolve the main pain points identified in the audit. From that point forward, Inspry focused on developing a robust WooCommerce site for Gama Sonic.

Site Speed & Design

First, Inspry needed to improve Gama Sonic’s website load time. A long site load time negatively impacts SEO rankings, user experience, and a site’s ability to generate sales. Page speed influences 70% of online shoppers’ buying decisions, and eCommerce conversion rates are highest when pages load within 0-2 seconds.

Gama Sonic’s conversion rates increased after Inspry implemented post-audit speed enhancements, reducing onload site loading time from 5 seconds down to 1.5 seconds.

Inspry also focused on Gama Sonic’s site design, determining that their current proprietary WordPress layout builder could not accommodate the changes and features they were adding to Gama Sonic’s site. The solution was clear—so Inspry completely customized the site’s new layout using a more robust and modern WordPress website builder.

Customizations & Integrations

“We’ve done a massive amount of customizations,” says Matt. “Their site hooks into all their sales cycles through their CRM, help desk, warranty registration system, product information and inventory management platform, marketing review system, and phone ordering capabilities. They have a lot of integrations, and they really care about their end customer experience.”

Itay’s experience in web development helps him bring integration insights to Inspry. “I’ve got some background, so sometimes when we pick a tool, I know it will be an easy integration.” For example, Itay chose FreshDesk as Gama Sonic’s CRM and FreshSales for lead integrations, support tickets, and warranty management, knowing each program has an API that integrates seamlessly with Gama Sonic’s WooCommerce site, albeit with API customizations by Inspry.

Itay explains that “sometimes I need suggestions from Inspry about what tools to use to solve the problem.” Fortunately, Inspry has partnered with many WooCommerce-friendly options to keep Gama Sonic’s site running smoothly.

One of these partnerships is with Zonos, a cross-border technology that brings a landed cost solution to eCommerce retailers. Using the technology, Inspry tailored the technology to fit Gama Sonic’s specific needs. By customizing shipping rates and rules, Inspry streamlined Gama Sonic’s international UX while providing accurate quotes, duty fees, taxes, and landed costs to International customers using their WooCommerce platform.

Inspry’s Collaborative Approach

Through his partnership with Inspry and subscription to the Inspry Care Plan, Itay enjoys the benefits of a web development department. Matt explains, “We are integrated into their process. We talk to everyone on their team—to customer service, to the sales team, the marketing team, the executives—everyone.”

As part of this process, Inspry connects with related agencies, including Gama Sonic’s SEO agency. “We make sure we’re implementing their campaigns properly and love collaborating with our clients’ SEM agencies to combine forces and maximize the client’s campaign success,” Matt states.

THE RESULTS

Planning and Managing Projects Intentionally

Gama Sonic’s eCommerce expansion goals require ongoing effort. The Inspry team serves as the company’s de facto web department, meeting with Itay and his team weekly, providing support, project management, and collaboration with everyone involved in advancing Gama Sonic’s business.

Inspry and Gama Sonic have a standing weekly meeting to discuss all initiatives. For Itay, “It’s really about project management. Together we work on promotions, manage ongoing projects, updates, and collaborate.” He continues,

Matt and the Inspry team appreciate the opportunity to discuss tasks in the queue and new opportunities to increase Gama Sonic’s sales, integrate newly added systems, and make the overall experience better for everyone. “We’re adding new functionality and tweaking the site design every week to provide the best customer experience possible” Matt adds.

A recent integration with BazaarVoice was created and customized by the Inspry team. This software collects Gama Sonic product reviews and syncs them with retailers who carry the products. Now, every review on the Gama Sonic website also appears on the retailer’s website, enhancing customer satisfaction and Gama Sonic’s search engine optimization.

The Benefits of an on-going Partnership

Gama Sonic’s WooCommerce site improves weekly, and for Itay, that makes Inspry’s partnership invaluable. Working together every week gives both companies ample opportunity to discover solutions.

Itay is looking forward to building out the Gama Sonic site’s commercial section, paying attention to specific products and their markets, improving SEO, providing excellent customer support, and discovering ways to optimize his WooCommerce site’s sales in collaboration with Inspry.

As for the benefits of working with Inspry, Itay says, “I think the main benefit for me is peace of mind. I know the website is taken care of. We continue to make changes, updates, and upgrades, and If we have a challenge, Inspry will immediately step up and give us options of tackling it.”