About the Customer

BCI International is a family-owned and operated company based in Hazelton, Pennsylvania, which features over 22,000 items in multiple categories including pet, wild bird, equine, poultry, livestock, small animal, bird, fish and pond, reptile, lawn and garden, farm and home and apparel & footwear. The location was created for use as a training center for the Bradley Caldwell, Inc. wholesale distribution staff and dealers, but was later converted to a retail store that is open to the public.

Business Challenges

BCI Retail store manager, Charlene Kennedy, and her team recognized a change in consumer buying habits and the way they were responding to advertising. They knew that to keep up with this changing landscape in the retail space, they would have to revamp the way they approached marketing, specifically, they needed to bolster their online presence.

“We wanted to attract a new local demographic and drive in-store sales with a user-friendly website, and we knew we needed help in building and managing a site that could provide that type of impact,” Kennedy said.

Central to the revamp was creating a robust website for local customers to visit after seeing advertisements for the store. Knowing that today’s consumer often likes to research online before visiting the store, Kennedy knew it was vitally important that customers can see up-to-date product information on the store website.

The updated website would also help BCI retail access a younger demographic which is critically important in retail today.

“Up until this point, we relied on old school methods when it came to advertising,” Kennedy said. “This resulted in reaching a predominantly older demographic so we wanted to go with an approach that would bring our products to a new generation.”

Solution

After consulting with New Media Retailer (NMR), the team got to work building a new website for the BCI Retail store. New Media Retailer worked closely with BCI Retail’s Point of Sale system vendor, Integra, to connect the store’s POS system to NMR’s product database and the website platform Shopify. This approach provides a consistently up-to-date online presence that reflects BCI Retail’s product availability in the store.

This solution was designed to:

• Reach more customers by integrating with Shopify
• Appeal to a younger demographic
• Have all store and product information in one place

The consultations between BCI retail and NMR began in November 2020 and the new system went live on April 1, 2021.

Outcome

The transition to the new web presence immediately paid off for the business. Within the first few weeks in operation, the BCI team noticed:

• An uptick in foot traffic to the retail store
• An increase in phone calls to the store
• Growth in local Google rankings for pet products searches
• Employees could now get all the information they need in one place

The team at BCI retail was delighted with the new website and impressed with how fast the results came shortly after going live.

“The site has only been live for two weeks and already it’s made a tremendous difference in our business,” Kennedy said. “Before the website revamp, if people called with questions, they had to use Bradley Caldwell to get information. Now they can get all the information they need on our website.”

Kennedy points to the expertise and service as reasons she recommends working with NMR.

“They (NMR) were so easy to work with, they listened to our questions and concerns and reacted quickly to them.”

Conclusion

BCI Retail needed a way to attract a younger demographic and upgrade their website to be interoperable with online platforms such as Shopify. As well, they wanted to create a one-stop-shopping platform where customers can find out more about BCI’s product line and services. After consulting with the NMR team, they agreed on an updated website that would connect with, Integra, the store’s POS vendor system as well as to the website platform Shopify. This ensured a consistently up-to-date online presence that reflects BCI Retail’s product availability in the store. Immediately after the new system went live, the BCI team noticed benefits that include an uptick in foot traffic to the retail store, an increase in phone calls to the store, and growth in local Google rankings for pet products searches.