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How Prebilt Hosting Created An Innovative Website For Discount Jewelry

Discount Jewelry

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The Customer

More than 12 million results come back in an online search for "discount jewelry," but only one site has the name www.discountjewelry.com – a name that provides an immediate edge in the competitive online market.

The online jewelry retailer offers "the largest selection of jewelry anywhere," including bracelets, themed charms, earrings, rings and virtually every type of chain.

After several years in business, the site needed an update. The design had begun to look outdated. Also, anticipating the thousands of items to be added, the site had to be able to handle searches on the much larger inventory.

The Challenge

Discount Jewelry engaged Prebilt Hosting to give the site a facelift and a stronger technical foundation. The basic look of the site needed to evolve for a more engaging experience, inspiring trust in customers and evoking more of an emotional response.

Discount Jewelry planned to bring their total inventory from about 26,000 items to 1.7 million. The technical backend had to be built for speed in order to sort through that many products and show results quickly.

"The previous site wasn't working very well and was clumsy at times," said Scott Wolpow of Prebilt. "It needed to be more user friendly. We want people to find what they're looking for easily."

The Solution

Prebilt Hosting listened to the client, and researched the industry to understand the competitive climate, as well as the look of other sites. The new design is significantly more visually engaging and pleasing.

The main header features a woman wearing a pearl necklace and matching earrings on a background that includes a large diamond ring and a city skyline. Top and left-side navigation provide an attractive frame for the home page.

For ecommerce, Prebilt uses CRE LoadedTM – a PCI-compliant, open source shopping cart that's easy to manage. The site makes it easy to find what you're looking for, and even goes an extra step in providing information to shoppers. For example, if someone searches for religious charms or crosses, they can read detailed information about types of saints or the history of certain crosses.

For search engine optimization (SEO), Prebilt ensured that keywords, descriptions and titles carefully matched items. Descriptions for each of the 1.7 million products must be different to improve SEO rankings.

The Results

Bart Habib, a partner in Discount Jewelry, feels strongly that the new site will generate more sales. "It's a lot cleaner, sharper and easier to navigate," he said. "I'm completely pleased. They did a great job."

He anticipates that will translate to more completed transactions, reducing cart abandonment rates.

With the new site live, the next step will be tying in social media efforts – such as Facebook and Twitter – to drive traffic.

Site Screenshot

Prebilt Hosting's Approach

The firm's clean design and navigation on www.discountjewelry.com is more in line with the expectations of today's savvy online shoppers. Buyers can find what they're looking for more quickly, and read details to help them make their decisions. This gives Discount Jewelry an edge over competitors with less information.

To speed searches and transactions, Prebilt optimizes its servers by eliminating non-critical processes, allowing pages to load as quickly as possible. With 1.7 million items in the database, that optimization is paying off.

"The site feels better from the user's experience," Wolpow said.