Our world was outside-in. From 2020 into 2021…
A near-fatal economic crash seemed certain in Covid-19’s early days. Fortunately, eCommerce and online engagement have bent the curve for many smaller businesses.
In the summer of 2020–21, it became clear that Australia had managed the pandemic better than most of the world. As a consequence, the outside world needed to shrink as health measures limited socialisation. We needed to bring the outside in. This meant more screen time on all our devices. A lot more time.
Recently the United Nations published a fascinating global report on how Covid-19 has ‘triggered the digital and e-commerce turning point’. In many developed economies, eCommerce saw unprecedented growth across almost every commercial and service category. While the benefit hasn’t been evenly shared, the movement of shopping and other activity online helped bend the curve away from the revenue nosedives of mid-2020.
Some small businesses took the opportunity to diversify and simplify what they had to offer. Here are just a few.
This is the third in our three-part blog series that explores how human-centred digital has connected people through a most peculiar time
Cormie: inspiring confidence with a customised experience
Cormie is a very special company that provides and retails some of the best continence products in the world. Founder Jim Cormie looked to Atomix to collaborate and demonstrate that ‘re-inventing incontinence starts with a customised service’.
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It isn’t easy for anyone to deal with incontinence. It’s an issue that affects more than one-third of Australians.
Our digital strategy workshops and user testing considered digital technology access and knowledge gaps. We looked at shopping behaviours, accessibility, security, privacy and dignity at every stage of the customer journey. Older people had to take extra precautions when it came to leaving the home, so we took this into account. Our user-centred approach ensured people experiencing incontinence were reassured from the first Cormie website visit, right through to discreet home delivery of free samples and packaged liners and pants.
The bespoke website’s innovative features and functionality don’t compromise speed or user experience. The custom Craft CMS helps website administrators to add new products, enable a sales or alert banner and position a site-wide ‘free sample’ offering. The product selector quiz and filtering functionality simplifies the sales process for customers and carers, while custom freight management integrations streamline the supply-chain.
This end-to-end solution places Cormie at the top of their industry in digital innovation and customer experience. In fact, the project was just announced a finalist in the 2021 Australian Web Awards in the eCommerce category.
Atomix inspired confidence with: strategy and design thinking workshops, user experience (UX) research, information architecture design and testing, qualitative testing and UI design, custom web development, headless Craft CMS, eCommerce conversion tracking, paid search and social media advertising.
Continence care and customer service reimagined: read our case study.
Footsteps: home-based dance schooling… online
Few families escaped major disruption to school-based learning in 2020. Before Covid-19 changed our lives, it would have been hard to believe that something as socially and physically defined as dance education could work from home.
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In 2020, streamed or pre-recorded personal training and yoga were defining movements of an era now characterised by Zoom. School closures created a new type of parenting for many, with home-schooling at its core. While schools struggled with their own limitations with content and technology, Footsteps dance academy adapted its in-school experience to create a remote learning program in term two of 2020. Success wasn’t guaranteed, so Atomix developed a pilot to ensure Footsteps could stay in business (and kids could keep active with their teachers and peers).
The pilot went brilliantly, so we embraced the opportunity to be what this dance school calls ‘active, creative risk-takers’. We built a user-friendly online experience for schools and students that was easy for the client to manage as things continued to change (and indeed they have!).
We could never have predicted that school closures could be a good thing for a dance teaching company, but now Footsteps delivers online programs matched to the curriculum in Australia, New Zealand and the USA. And now with many schools back to normal, it’s clear that remote and rural schools now have far better options than they ever have before.
Atomix busted some moves with: information architecture design and testing, qualitative testing and UI design, custom web development and design, payment gateway configuration, learning management system research and roll-out.
From rehearsals into flawless performances: visit Footsteps online
James Williams: coaching without bricks and mortar
The Australian real estate market has long relied on web-based search, with realestate.com.au often ranking in the nation’s top 20 websites. The limitations imposed by Covid-19, including interstate and intra-city travel, brought new challenges to a sector that many thought would collapse during the pandemic.
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James Williams understands the challenges of the real estate sector. He coaches agents across Australia to get better at helping people buy and sell property. James’s clients wanted an opportunity to tap into his knowledge, but didn’t have the time to do so in person. In short, location, location, location couldn’t be a factor – so James does it all online!
Atomix actively collaborated with James to expand the services he offered. We developed a website that distributes video as well as audio coaching content. As an extra challenge, we came up with a custom reporting tool for James’s clients to track their progress. The addition of blog and podcast sections brought everything together into a compelling offering, with the website hosting a mix of free and premium content.
Within the first month of launching, James recruited 20 new clients, with an average session duration extending to over six minutes. It was an investment that really delivered a return.
Atomix got James selling with: video and audio distribution, custom design, custom reporting tool, client accounts, email automation and holistic platform configuration.
NRG Solar: making home-made energy easy
One hour in late October 2020, all of South Australia’s electricity needs were met by solar panels, with almost 80% provided by rooftop solar. Given the size of the state and the number of people working from home, this is an extraordinary milestone.
In their time as leaders in the solar sector, NRG Solar have seen the trends emerging well beyond buying and installing solar panels. Battery storage, demand management, electric transport and equipment, and the need for monitoring, repairs and maintenance are define this growing industry.
Covid-19 changed the way we work, live and play and with the website relaunch in 2021, NRG Solar moved on from an information-laden website of more than 200 pages to a modernised site built with a fresh framework known as Webflow. Now with a little scrolling and a few clicks, any curious home-owner or business operator can learn all there is to know. People can also book a visit for installation or maintenance from the comfort of work, home, or the go.
Atomix re-energised NRG Solar with: content strategy, keyword research, strategy workshop, competitor analysis, Webflow development.
Time to click with new customers?
The whole team at Atomix is committed to bringing small businesses and their customers closer together online. We’ll work alongside you and help you rethink how to do business in a new era. It’s something we’ve perfected with small-to-medium enterprises as varied as a continence products retailer, a dance school, a coach for real estate agents, and a renewable energy leader.
Whatever is on your mind, when it comes to people and digital working well together, we’ll find a way to make this a reality for you. Why not get in touch today? Email us at hello@atomix.com.au to get started.
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