About the Customer

Lay’s Western Wear & Feed is a 3rd-generation, family-owned, and operated local business located in Lakeland, Florida. The company offers a variety of pet and livestock feeds such as Purina, Triple Crown, Taste of the Wild, Mazuri, Victor, Blue Ridge Beef, amongst others. They also sell a wide range of products, including farm supplies, fencing materials, pet supplies, livestock tack, and western apparel. Lay’s Western Wear & Feed, launched in 1978, has been serving the South Lakeland and Medulla area for more than 40 years. They pride themselves on their personal touch and superior customer service. Along with their retail offerings, Lay’s Western Wear & Feed provides Feed Delivery, Hat Shaping, Boot Stretch, and Curbside Pickup.

Business Challenges

Since its debut in 1978, Lay’s Western Wear & Feed has done a tremendous job making a name for itself in the Lakeland community and surrounding area. Their wide array of products and commitment to exceptional customer service has brought them a loyal customer base.

Still, store manager Savannah Lay and her team knew they needed to have a more substantial presence in the digital channels if the business would continue to thrive in this age of online commerce. She envisioned a more active eCommerce operation to drive in-store traffic and sales. She needed a vendor to build an online product catalog of their products that ranked well in local Google searches.

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent hit to the retail sector made the need for the eCommerce section of the business even more critical.

“The hope was that an online presence would help us reach a younger generation of customers and allow us to reach beyond our direct radius,” Lay said.

Solution

After consulting with Lays Western Wear & Feed, it became clear that their top priority was improving their ranking in Google for the products they sell and services they offer in their local market.

Their new online product catalog helped them rank high in Google and allowed local customers to checkout online for store pickup or local delivery.

Representatives from New Media Retailer helped Lay and her team improve their online search rankings. They would be more likely to reach people within and outside their local market with better local SEO.

“We worked with the NMR specialist to use SEO tools to make eCommerce our products easy to find and so that they would appear higher in a Google search and drive traffic to the website and our store,” Lay said. “The process was smooth and simple and was completed relatively quickly.”

Outcome

Shortly after taking this new approach, it became clear it had a significant impact on the business. Lay and her management team immediately saw a noticeable increase in in-store and online traffic.

“We were able to reach customers all over our local market simply because they could browse products online easily,” Lay said. “It made people aware of who we are and where we are.”

The enhanced eCommerce operation also helped create brand awareness, leading to an uptick in other services such as curbside pickup and delivery.

Lay credits the NMR team for making the transition fast and hassle-free. “NMR made it all so easy for us. The design quality is excellent, the solution was simple and user-friendly, and they completed everything within a timely manner.”

Conclusion

Lay’s Western Wear & Feed is a feed supply and western store that has built a loyal customer base over the years but needed help in taking the next step to creating a powerful online presence. They partnered with New Media Retailer to transition launch a new e-commerce platform. This new approach immediately made a massive difference in the business. Lay’s Western Wear & Feed increased local store traffic and broadened its market by reaching online customers around the country.