PECO Website Design

The Briefing

Having been appointed as Web Design and Project Management lead on the latest project from PECO, a global model railway manufacturer based in Beer, we were briefed to bring the two defined areas of the PECO brand – Products and Publications – together as one easily-accessible, combined solution. The goal of this project was to allow end consumers and retail traders alike to be inspired, find, browse and select items from the full PECO portfolio, whilst using the website as the industry’s ‘go-to’ information hub. Working closely with the client in collaboration with Shopify Developers Swanky Agency, it was determined that the Shopify CMS would provide the most intuitive and flexible platform to achieve the requirements of this brief.

The Challenge

The main challenge we faced with this extensive project was to meet the requirements of all in-house departments, from sales and publications, to finance and marketing, seamlessly integrating and improving the efficiency of their current processes, whilst meeting the needs of PECO’s long-standing customers. With an inventory of over 2,000 products and two major publications, this required a high level of project management to orchestrate all necessary stakeholders, systems and project requirements.

The Solution

• Optimised content to be consumed on any portable or desktop device
• A clean and flexible design, allowing sub-brand identities to stand out under the PECO brand umbrella, such as Railway Modeller
• Highly accessible navigation with standalone brand and product pages within the Product section allows clear representation of independent, non-PECO brands
• Well organised, easily searchable and illustrated product and publication listings with recommended retail prices
• Ability to add related items or downloadable documents to products, such as IFUs and track plans, gives users quick access to highly relevant content
• ‘Wishlist‘ functionality enables lists to be built and printed/emailed to local, dedicated stockists for end-consumers to purchase in-store
• Railway Modeller and Continental Modeller subscription purchase/renewal
• Searchable publication back catalogue allows users to browse and purchase past editions
• Technical advice hub including FAQs, videos, guides and how-to’s to help illustrate PECO’s extensive knowledge and highly-regarded authority in the model railway industry
• User-centric stockist search based on postcode look-up
• Latest news with seamless integration of Twitter and Facebook social feeds
• Project approached as a phased launch with new, exciting features scheduled over the next year, including a Trade Portal and EPOS integration