Some of Southern Swallow’s favorite work is with website redesigns. Most recently, we helped technology startup Mt. Merchant relaunch its website by providing a complete redesign, along with a set of newly-produced client case studies (embedded below). The company is now ready to zoom ahead with its planned sales push, knowing it has a beautifully-designed site to back up its reputation.
Southern Swallow was incredibly excited to work with Mt. Merchant on re-imagining its website, particularly given its impact on the retail sector. The startup uses its toolkit of data-powered solutions — including a SaaS platform and a mobile app — to help retailers understand and act upon their customer, product, and sales data. The company powers more than 4 billion product recommendations and 200 million emails on a weekly basis, and its platform has analyzed more than 100 trillion data points for customers that include Sears and Kmart, as well as a suite of brands such as Lands’ End, Kenmore, Craftsman, and La-Z-Boy.
Through a complete site copy refresh, a new site design, the creation of custom explainer graphics, and the addition of a downloadable set of case studies, Southern Swallow has boosted Mt. Merchant to a new level of digital savvy.
“We were looking for a clean, simple look that provides relevant information about our consulting services. We were also in need of a professional site that we could build on to get our message out. From day one, Southern Swallow was a great company to work with. We needed a cross between design, product dev, marketing, and content development, and Erica brings all of those skills and more to the table. We love the new site! The look and feel, the design, but most of all the content — what I liked most about working with Southern Swallow is they help you steer to a clear message.”
— Joe Cashman, Mt. Merchant co-founder and CEO
Cashman says Mt. Merchant is looking forward to building on its SEO strategy through blogging and social media. The site is a great baseline for bolstering that vision.
Crafting a Clean, Informative Site Design
The new Mt. Merchant site utilizes a one-page layout, but also includes a few standalone pages for Team, Tech, Blog, and “Request a Demo.” Southern Swallow pulled in web developer and designer Dan Ndombe to perfect the design and site architecture.
“We were going for a clean, simple, but informative look.” says Ndombe. “It’s important that when someone gets on the website for the first time, they know exactly what Mt. Merchant does, without being overwhelmed with information. With a company like Mt. Merchant that offers a range of services and customized options, it’s easy to either be too vague or completely overwhelming. We worked with Mt. Merchant’s team to simplify the message and design, and I think we’ve achieved a great aesthetic along the way.”
Check out the website yourself at mtmerchant.com.
Elevating Mt. Merchant with Case Studies
If there’s one thing we wanted to highlight on the new Mt. Merchant website, it’s the company’s impressive roster of clients.
“On the old site, there was very little mention of Mt. Merchant’s list of Fortune 500 clients. Sears, Kmart, Craftsman… they’ve worked with so many great brands and retailers. That was one of the company’s strengths we wanted to emphasize. So, we pitched them on creating a downloadable pack of case studies. They loved it, and I’m very impressed with the work our team did putting them together!”
— Erica Swallow, Southern Swallow founder and CEO
After interviewing Mt. Merchant’s team about the work they did with each of these clients, Southern Swallow found and CEO Erica Swallow crafted each case study and pulled together a list of overarching client success metrics. To make the case studies a reality, we brought in freelance graphic design artist and professor Li Zeng to add the graphical touch the packet needed. The resulting case studies are absolutely stunning and showcase real success metrics that should have any retail client jumping out of their seats to call Mt. Merchant:
“With the case study packet, I used a professional, concise, and modern style to depict Mt. Merchant’s client stories,” says designer Li Zeng. “I hope this new case study packet and the look and feel of it can help showcase the exceptional successes Mt. Merchant’s vast list of previous clients have experienced. Hopefully, it entices future clients, as well.”
Personalizing the Site with Team Portraits
One of the final, fun touches we added to the project was commissioning a number of headshots of co-founders Joe Cashman and Don Yao to use on the Mt. Merchant “Team” page.
Given the fast pace of the business and that Cashman and Yao are based in different offices, finding time to coordinate coordinated headshots just wasn’t in the plan. Since the team wanted to add a personal, friendly touch to the website, but didn’t have team photos, Southern Swallow got creative and commissioned three styles of headshots for them to choose from:
In the end, we chose the flat, cartoon style, which fit the color scheme and look/feel of the new site design quite well.
We look forward to seeing how Mt. Merchant uses its new website. We hope it bolsters the Mt. Merchant’s mission and brings lots of great business its way!
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