Website development in London & Leeds from Hitura: UK web development, content management & online marketing. “/> <meta name="description" content="Web development & web design from Hitura UK. We offer a range of website design, ecommerce, content management & online marketing solutions & have offices in Leeds and London, UK.“ / > <meta name="keywords" content="web design leeds, web development leeds, ecommerce leeds, online marketing leeds, web design london, web development london, ecommerce london, online marketing london. ecommerce development, online marketing, content management solutions, website design, website designers, internet development" /> <meta name="copyright" content="Hitura UK: Web design, ecommerce development, content management solutions and online marketing. Based in Leeds and London " /> <meta name="robots" content="index, follow" /> <link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/access.css" type="text/css" /> </head> <body> <a href="/"><img src="/images/access_logo.gif" width="376" height="63" alt="Link to Hitura Access Site Home. Digital services for business." /></a> <p> <a href="#content">Skip Navigation</a> | <a href="/access/">Home</a> | <a href="/access/services.asp">Services</a> | <a href="/access/about_us.asp">About Us</a> | <a href="/access/case_studies.asp">Case Studies</a> | <a href="/access/news.asp">News</a> | <a href="/access/contact_us.asp">Contact Us</a> </p> <a name="content"></a> <p> <b>News</b> <br /> Please click on the links below to read our News stories: <br /> <a href="#workshop">Hitura's E-Commerce Workshops</a> <br /> <a href="#maplin">Maplin Electronics launches new consumer site in bid to continue its rapid growth</a> <br /> <a href="#chiltern">Chiltern's Online Knockout</a> <br /><br /> <a name="workshop"></a> <b>Hitura's E-Commerce Workshops</b> <br /> Hitura are presenting a series of e-commerce workshops in November and December. The workshop will be attended by up to 10 people and Hitura will ensure that no companies from the same industry will attend on the same day. <br /><br /> <b>Workshop 1- New to e-commerce</b> <br /> One workshop will be for companies new to e-commerce and will explain how a successful e-commerce venture is planned and implemented .In non technical language, the attendees will be taken through all the steps that a company will have to face when setting up an e-commerce venture from developing the online business strategy and sales plan, security, getting paid and automating the business processes. <br /><br /> <b>Workshop 2- Improving your online sales</b> <br /> With online sales now becoming an integral part of many businesses, are you still concerned that your online presence is just not up to scratch or feel that it could be improved? If so then Hitura's second workshop could be for you. <br /><br /> The Workshop will demonstrate </p> <ul> <li>12 keys tools to use to increase sales online</li> <li>How to benchmark your site and marketing spend with other e-commerce sites</li> <li>How to put together an integrated online marketing campaign</li> <li>The skill sets needed to develop an e-commerce team</li> </ul> <br /> <a href="#content">Back to the News menu</a> <br /><br /> <a name="maplin"></a> <b>Maplin Electronics launches new consumer site in bid to continue its rapid growth</b> <br /> Maplin Electronics, is one of the UK's largest online electronics retailers and is embarking on its biggest e-commerce drive yet with the redesign of its website - www.maplin.co.uk. The .net site, redesigned by new media agency Hitura, aims to increase Maplin Electronics' current turnover of ?10 million by 25% through an improved shopping experience and usability. <br /><br /> "Maplin's old site worked well for them but failed to put the user's needs first" said Ryan Kliszat, director at Hitura. The new site features excellent product display with extensive technical information and simple to understand product cross-selling and bundling functions. The large volume of information associated with each product is broken down and presented to the user in a digestible format, with multiple purchase, product comparisons and personal account management seamlessly integrated into the shopping process. Furthermore, additional elements such as the product wish list and monthly newsletter enrich the e-commerce experience and form part of Maplin's long-term customer retention strategy. <br /><br /> "Maplin has grown rapidly with a very small team of 5 people since 2001 by adding new features each month and being very sales focused whilst managing costs. However we reached a point where we could no longer keep adding new functionality and needed to spend the time building a new platform. The new .net frameless site will provide us with many years of growth as we plan to release more improvements over the next 2 years. Hitura were able to take our wire frame designs and give them an attractive skin. Their process of graphic design followed by the delivery of html pages, which we could then incorporate into our systems, was ideal. Along the way, they helped us solve many design issues and usability problems. Our new design has already increased our daily visits by 50% and usability is better than ever before. Hitura did a great job winning the contract and we shall continue to use them in the future," said the Internet Channel Manager, Chris West <br /><br /> Maplin Electronics went live on Sunday the 31st of October and will see its true test through the Christmas months. <br /> <a href="#content">Back to the News menu</a> <br /><br /> <a name="chiltern"></a> <b>Chiltern's Online Knockout</b> <br /> Chiltern Mills, the Leeds based discount retailer, have proudly announced the launch of their new website alongside the opening of their new store in Sutton in Ashfield. <br /><br /> Chiltern Mills expansion plans continue unabated with the opening of a new store in Sutton together with the launch of an e-commerce site designed to extend and promote their ever-growing brand. <br /><br /> Chiltern Mills, Managing Director, Merlin Treymaine adds: "This year alone we have had store openings in Redcar and Sutton, and with another shop coming soon in Worksop to take the total number of Chiltern stores to nine. Future openings are being marked to service the existing catchment areas of Yorkshire, the North East and Derbyshire. To extend our offering beyond these existing catchment areas we have launched an e-commerce site. <br /><br /> Chiltern felt that we needed hands on experience to develop the e-commerce site so we have partnered with Hitura who act as our in-house e-commerce team. They have provided us with sound advice on the business strategy, the best online sales channels as well as building and maintaining the site. This long term partnership is exceptionally beneficial to us with the site being launched quicker, running costs are lower but most importantly the ongoing ideas they have given us for developing the online business. Within the first few days of the launch, orders were received from the site many from outside our current catchment areas" <br /><br /> The partnership developed after a chance meeting between Merlin Treymaine, and Hitura Managing Director, David Oxley. David had been heavily involved in launching Furniture 123, the leading UK 's online furniture store based in Leeds. He formed Hitura three years ago with two directors, Josh Tenser and Ryan Kliszat. <br /><br /> David Oxley explains: "Even in our start up years, we have built e-commerce sites that have proved successful. Now we have extended our services to provide all the key areas of expertise for e-commerce implementation. In effect we say to clients let's marry your retailing skills with our e-commerce skills. So as well as building and maintaining the site, we now implement sales initiatives, offer storage space, pick and pack the goods and deliver the final product to the customer. By providing the client with this one point of contact we make it so much easier for them to implement their online presence as we take care of the areas that they do not understand and this give them great peace of mind. <br /><br /> Chiltern Mills are a successful family company who had the vision and desire to extend their brand online whilst maintaining the same core values they have established in their stores. We feel that our partnership with Chiltern is based on a great deal of trust and we clearly set out all the tasks that we both undertake so there is no confusion over roles." <br /><br /> Barrington Treymaine, Marketing Director of Chiltern, adds <br /><br /> "Chiltern had a high level of input throughout the site's development in order to ensure that our core values, which have proved to make the brand such a success with our out of town sites, was extended online. <br /><br /> "Not only will the site make it easier for those inside of the current catchment areas to purchase quality homewares at their convenience but it will also open up Chilterns doors to the rest of mainland UK offering the same great value nationwide. We have used a number of marketing channels to promote the site both online and offline and we are pleased with the initial sales results that are showing a very good upward trend. Over 40% of the initial sales have come from the London area which is absolutely fantastic for us" <br /><br /> Ryan Kliszat, Project Director of Hitura: "Any bricks and mortar brand poses unique challenges when trying to translate online. With Chiltern we needed to create an online catalogue which, could present the customer with thousands of variations on colours, size and material for Chiltern bestsellers like curtains in a user friendly way. To make life easier for the customer we programmed the site to suggest complimentary products based on what they had bought just as someone in the store would do! <br /><br /> Behind the scenes Chiltern have an online system, which allows them to manage their products, customers and orders easily and quickly leading to internal efficiencies and a satisfying experience for the customer. The Chiltern Mills brand is being introduced to a new national audience through online marketing who are choosing their great prices in comparison to the online competition" <br /><br /> And as for the future? Whilst plans for the opening of a ninth store appear to be well under way, Chiltern and Hitura remain closely involved in the marketing and development of the website in order to promote ongoing and future popularity. Chiltern look forward to the continuing success and wish to invite existing customers and potential customers to log on and see for themselves. <br /> <a href="#content">Back to the News menu</a> </p> <p> <br /> <a href="/access/site_map.asp">Site Map</a> | <a href="/access/terms.asp">Terms and Conditions</a> | <a href="/">High Graphics Website</a> </p> </body> </html>