Buying designer swimwear is an intimate experience for a woman, and a complex one, with varied body types, a myriad of designers, and the end result of the purchase will likely be shown in public. Canyon Beachwear helps the customers in its stores by having swim fit experts to assist with the purchase, as a result of this, they have developed customer relationships lasting many years, and many swimsuits. But, how can this translate into an online experience, serving and supporting customers in the real world, and having a profitable business in the digital world? The realities of this multi-million dollar business suggest that the web and store experiences need to be as seamless as possible, and supportive of each other. What follows is Canyon Beachwear's recipe for 35% y-o-y visitor growth, 40% improvement in conversion rate, 30% basket value, and 250% increase in profitability.

SEO: Critical - the site has to appear for people looking for designer swimwear, while avoiding competition from lower end swimwear retailers.

Site Design: Critical - the user has to be able to see a large number of items related to their interests, whether that be a designer, a style, a body type, a magazine article, or seeing Kim Kardashian on TMZ.

Checkout Process: Critical - With a small percentage of users comfortable with buying swimwear without trying it on, every online sale has to be as easy as possible.

E-mail Marketing: Critical - Communicating with customers over a multi year relationship is vital to keeping mindspace.

Social Media: Critical - Canyon Beachwear gets most new customers by referral, social media is increasingly the mechanism that this is achieved with, plus it acts an contact point leading to browsing, and engaging with customers, especially when the new collections are released.

Budget: Critical - The macro-economic outlook has hit designer swimwear hard (high cost, discretionary spend), it is crucial to make progress without breaking the bank.

SEM: Not Critical - Because of the low propensity for online purchase, and high cost of specific keywords, this is not cost effective in an online context alone.

Malibu Shirts' challenge is an interesting one, they have transitioned as a business from primarilly selling surf apparel in their retail stores, towards being focused on exploiting classic brands, with a Hawaii theme (Pan Am, Primo Beer, Endless Summer etc). While there is some common ground in these approaches the transition has involved significant, in fact an almost complete turnover of stock lines.

How does this transition relate to their online presence, where sales are broadly split 3 ways between the US, Japan and Australia (in common with their store visitors in Hawaii). The website has evolved significantly, being both re-designed and re-implemented using the Magento online retail product set. The site has also been integrated with the inventory management system, and been made secure and PCI compliant. Blog, Facebook and Twitter activity has been established, and an on/off-line marketing plan has been developed to be executed in the near future.

Of course the business is looking for some success from the site even before the marketing plan commences, results so far include a 60% increase in the number of visitors, 80% improvement in revenue, and 50% reduction in online costs. Here is Malibu Shirts recipe:

SEO: Critical - the site has to compete with large well funded players in the T-shirt space.

Site Design: Critical - the refocus of the business meant that the site design had to change significantly to align with the new brand identity.

Technology: Critical - The implementation of the Magento platform allows the use of functionality not available in the old shopping process, as well as the configurability of the system allowing a nuch more efficient check out proces.

E-mail Marketing: Critical - Communicating with new customers is crucial to developing a long term relationship with the brands, t-shirts and hoodies are highly maketable products in an online environment, and make excellent presents, the key is getting to consumers with an appropriate message at an appropriate time.

Social Media: Critical - Because of the classic nature of Malibu Shirts brands the potential for viral growth in the social media space is high, this social conversation is key to the continued growth of the business. The new Pan Am TV series on ABC has allowed us to deploy a Pan Am Apparel specific microsite tio drive sales

Budget: Important - The key in budget terms is short term Return on Investment, after a significant period of change, evolve the online presence to increase performance, and continuously measure the results.

SEM: Jury Out - With a high propensity to purchase online, but a fiercely competitive cost environment, continual monitoring is required to take advantage of opportunities.

Launched in 1999, Answer Financial was the first full service online insurance agent. By late 2004 it was obvious that the life insurance line of business was underperforming with very low deal flow (less than 1% completions) despite significant numbers of visitors to the site. H7 interactive carried out a competitive and heuristic analysis, and reached the conclusion that the sites performance could be significantly improved, and move ahead of the competition. We agreed a challenge statement with Answer Financial as follows:

Following arrival at a landing page, that 50% proceed to starting a quote (currently 40%).

Following Starting a Quote, 75% are presented with a quote (currently being achieved).

Following Quote Presented, 20% complete Application Process (currently 7%).

Therefore, of those arriving at the Life Insurance landing page, 7.5% complete the Application Process (versus 2.1% currently).

The improvements were intended to come from an improved landing page, an improved Q&A process (reducing a total flow of 11 screens to 5, and reducing the number of questions from 43 to 18), and better calls to action throughout the sales funnel. The performance objectives were all exceeded. Here is Answer Financial's recipe:

Competitive and Heuristic Analysis: Critical - A key advantage for the client was the site being easier to use than competitors sites. Our usability expertise defined where the competitors were and what best practice from other industries was, giving the client clear information on which to base future design decisions.

Application Process: Critical - The process had to be significantly revised, and the number of questions reduced to improve the usability of the system without compromizing the quality of information being submitted to the quoting engine.

Technology: Not Critical - A key driver for the client was to not change the back end system.

Budget: Critical - The line of business was not achieving its business objectives, and significant further investment would not have been appropriate.

SEM: Critical - Deal flow was substantially coming from a client SEM program, profitability of the liine of business was dependent on effective use of SEM.

Prop Funds is a private investment firm in the real estate industry, specifically looking for high returns based on macro and localized economic opportunities. The business needed a simple professional looking web presence to promote the credibility of the firm, and act as a reference point for prospective investors. Being a samll firm, simplicity to maintain, and budget were key issues, H7 interactive worked with the client to meed their goals, we devivered our design based on the wordpress toolkit, within the constrained budget. Here is Prop Funds' recipe:

Competitive Analysis: Critical - Key to understanding whatother players were doing in the market, and understand functional requirements.

Design: Critical - A professional look and feel aimed at a specific client profile.

Technology: Critical - Had to be simple to use, for a technically unspophisticated firm.

Budget: Critical - A small newly formed business, where costs were significantly constrained.

Ayazuta is the only accurate source of Indian Child welfare Act (ICWA) contact information available to Social Workers. Since its launch in 2009 the site has been used in over 50% of US States, Child Welfare Agencies, and has grown from zero to over 3000 visitors per month. The site is recognized by multiple states Superior Courts and by the national Indian Child Welfare Association. The site needs to balance respect for Native American heritage with usability in the modern Social Services environment.