Case study for: Website redesign
Parcel Chief
Redesigned a website for a leading international courier company in Mumbai
ABOUT THE CLIENT
Parcel Chief is one of the leading international courier delivery service in India. Launched in the year 2015, it has become one of the most loved and trustworthy international courier company.
OBJECTIVE
The client started their operations in 2015, and was using a pre-built theme purchased from Themeforest - a theme marketplace. Although the theme itself was very popular during its days, it was holding the client back from creating something unique, modern and fresh. With an integrated page builder that was clunky at best and bloated at worst, the client requested WP Adventure for a complete website makeover in July 2021.
CHALLENGES & SOLUTIONS
One of the biggest concern we had when doing the website redesign was to keep the rankings consistent. Website redesigns can inadvertently create chaos and cause SEO rankings to drop, if not handled with caution. Since WP Adventure provides SEO service to Parcel Chief, they have been ranking extremely well on the search engine for very competitive and highly profitable keywords. It is obvious that we did not want to hurt the rankings (or at the very least – keep the damage reigned to a minimum) when the website was redesigned and launched.
We thus ensured that the URL of the majority of the pages were kept exactly the same. For those that did change, we implemented 301 redirect so as to not lose any possible SEO authority the pages may have garnered over the years.
WEBSITE REDESIGN IN ACTION
One of the first things we wanted to do with Parcel Chief was to bring a fresh new look to its UI. We focused primarily on colours, typography and images to change the way the new site should look.
1) COLOURS
The former website had an extremely drab and generic look to it. The colours did not stand out and it wasn’t very pleasing to the eyes. We decided to turn the tables and let colours breathe life in the whole design. For this purpose, we chose 3 colours - as seen majorly throughout the new website:
Once implemented, the website went from a generic, lackadaisical looking website to one that has its own character.
2) TYPOGRAPHY
Next, we wanted to tackle typography. The former website used Open Sans. Since our purpose was to bring uniqueness to the website and make it look modern, we opted for a typeface called Graphik during our redesign process. It’s a very popular neo-grotesque sans-serif typeface that emerged recently in 2009, and lends a clean, modern outlook to the typographical use on the website. It is used throughout Parcel Chief’s website for headings and copy.
3) IMAGES
Since the client is in the courier space and delivers parcels internationally, the website has around 200 pages – each dedicated to a country. So, for instance – USA has a dedicated page detailing everything about couriering to it, UK has a dedicated page and so on.
The former website had just 2 images on the entire website – one for the hero section of the page and the other one to explain the calculation of the volumetric weight of the parcel. Boring!
However, with the new design we had in mind for the client, we add a number of images to really spruce up the site. The hero section of the homepage now has a nice image of an Indian girl receiving a parcel. We wanted an Indian face as the client operates in India and it keeps things real (rather than using a stock photograph depicting foreign individuals).
For each of the dedicated country pages, we initially thought of having an image that’ll represent the country well. For example, the UK page will have an image of the Big Ben; the page for Australia will have an image of a kangaroo, UAE will sport an image of the Burj Khalifa etc. But we shot down that idea as it seemed to be an overkill for each of the 200 country pages. Instead, we chose the country flag to be displayed on each of those pages – as that brings uniqueness for that country, while keeping the design consistent and classy.
UX ENHANCEMENTS
In an attempt to provide the site visitors a pleasant user experience, we changed quite a few things during site redesign. The former design had a submission form either at the bottom of the page or below the fold. Since it is crucial for visitors to fill in the form in order to receive a quick quotation, we pulled it up right at the top of the page – so that it is not missed at all.
Another enhancement was the incorporation of a ‘help & advice’ section at the bottom of the country specific pages. We understand that a visitor may require additional help understanding the content of the parcel to be sent, or customs information, KYC documents etc. Having a dedicated section gives them an easier access to any of these pages from any of the country specific page they are on.
RESULT
The change in colour, typography and imagery used on the website helped it metamorphose from a dull looking website to one that tells its own story. The generous use of icons, and wall of text broken into easily consumable boxes, provides a much needed appeal to the overall design of the site. It is now far easier to navigate and leaves visitors with a richer web experience.
