Creative work
Homestead
Two of Ashburton’s beloved homewares stores combine, to continue their legacy in a new era.
Kitchen Kapers and The China Shop have been part of Ashburton’s retail fabric for over 40 years. The China Shop was established to sell some of the world’s finest brands, such as Royal Scot Crystal and Moorcroft Pottery, exclusively in New Zealand. Kitchen Kapers followed soon after on the same mission, to bring the best quality products to Mid Canterbury, stocking brands like Le Creuset, Emma Bridgewater, WMF and KitchenAid.
Fast forward to 2020, Kitchen Kapers and The China Shop became one store, but still two separate brands. These stores had no digital point-of-sale system (only pen and paper) and a poorly functioning e-commerce experience for over 7,000 SKUs.
Photo: Hazel Redmond Photography
Client
Homestead
Capabilities
Digital Project Management
Website Design & Development
Brand Strategy
Brand Design
E-Commerce Marketing Set-Up
Google AdWords
Merchandise
Industry
Retail
What we learnt
How to bring a 40-year-old brand and its 7,000 products into a new era.
Stage One — Paper to screen
Recreational was approached to help bring the stores into the digital space and future-proof the business for years to come.
As all the product records only existed on paper, our first task was to get everything catalogued digitally.
To begin, we built a mobile app that enabled staff to catalogue products on their smartphones while conducting a stocktake. The app converted the data into a spreadsheet, which we imported into the new point-of-sale (POS) system — Lightspeed Retail (X-Series) (formerly known as Vend).
We combined the use of a digital project management system with hands-on training in the store, resulting in the successful implementation of the new system, complete with new computers and fully trained staff.
Stage Two — Two brands become one
As we began mapping out the website experience, it became clear to the Recreational team that these two brands would create a confusing experience for online shoppers outside Ashburton. The legacy of the names wasn’t translating to this new era.
Recreational took to the drawing board to go outside the original project scope and present a concept for a new brand under a single banner.
Homestead is a name that references many of the historical homes on stations around Mid Canterbury. It evokes a sense of tradition, warmth and hospitality. These are all guiding principles for how Rachael and her team in the store choose and sell their wares.
Stage Three — Take the in-store experience, online
Homestead’s in-store experience is curated, friendly, knowledgable and delightful.
We wanted to bring all of those attributes into the online experience so no matter where you are, it always feels like Homestead.
Once the new Vend POS system was up and running we built a Shopify store to connect it to. This means the products are always synced and up to date.
The online store works seamlessly across both desktop and mobile, making browsing and purchasing a delightful experience.
We also connected Shopify with Homestead’s social media channels like Instagram to make their posts “shopable”, as well as setting up Google Ad Campaigns and email marketing templates.
Rachael and the team now have full access to reports and insights across their in-store, online and marketing channels to get a birds-eye view of how their tracking. A big leap from combing through paper records and annual statements.
