A New Shopify B2B eCommerce Store for a Leading Training Activities Provider
A modernised user experience with a fresh, brand-aligned design
Who are Northgate Training Activities?
Established in 1979 by Mike Lynch, Northgate Training Activities is a global leader in designing interactive team training activities and business simulations. Mike’s background as a trainer and former English teacher led him to create experiential learning resources where participants put theory into practice.
Northgate’s training activities focus on active participation. Their approach, inspired by Confucius’ saying, “I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand,” makes learning engaging, memorable, and effective.
With a library of over 80 activities and business simulations, Northgate supports Learning & Development professionals worldwide. Having supplied over 30,000 products to more than 60 countries, Northgate is a trusted source for enhancing training programs globally.
In this project we delivered:
The epic
Northgate Training had a custom-built website for over 15 years. However, with limited eCommerce capability and outdated technology, the original agency that built it could no longer provide support. Northgate Training saw this as an opportunity for a refresh, aiming to boost its digital presence and reach new customers.
The project objective was to build a new website that improved the ability of potential and existing customers to:
- Easily search the product range
- Understand pricing and benefits
- Check out with multiple products
- Present a more professional image
Requirements:
- Professional B2B eCommerce Website: Elevate Northgate Training’s business image while maintaining a familiar look and feel.
- Improved Customer Journey: Simplify navigation and product discovery.
- Low Maintenance: Ensure minimal upkeep.
The goal was to create a user-friendly, professional B2B eCommerce site that made it simple for users to find and purchase products, ultimately boosting sales and brand awareness.
This was translated into four key objectives
Deliver a B2B eCommerce website built to best practice standards to increase speed and integrate all key data flows into Orderwise to reduce manual input.
Increase the visibility of C & A Building Products in search engines by improving organic search rankings for key terms, aiming for a 20% increase in rankings in the first 12 months.
Increase conversion rate on the website by 15% through ongoing analysis using conversion rate optimisation techniques.
Integrate the website with third-party tools to improve marketing and SEO and effectively manage customer relationships. Automating these processes to reduce manual data entry errors and lighten the workload for the internal team.
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Our approach
For this project, Northgate Training completed our Foundations™ process, where we thoroughly analysed the business, identified the best solutions, and aligned them with their budget and goals.
Using MOSCOW principles to prioritise tasks, we chose Shopify for its low-maintenance, user-friendly features, and range of themes and integrations, which reduced custom development time.
We streamlined Northgate’s large product catalogue by re-categorising items and ensuring each product’s 12+ attributes were displayed. We also implemented advanced search, filterable categories, and clear product pages to enhance the user experience.
We integrated Mailchimp with custom forms to improve communication and support targeted marketing. The final site also featured comprehensive product information to boost SEO and help customers make informed choices.
Northgate Training is thrilled with the results. Their new site makes order management easier and provides a strong foundation for future growth, with technology that supports their business rather than complicates it.
Selecting the right platform: Magento 2
We guided C & A Building Products through our proven platform selection framework, ensuring they landed on a solution that would support their long-term ambitions. Magento emerged as the best fit, offering the flexibility, scalability, and B2B-focused features needed to future-proof their eCommerce operations
Magento 2 Build: Migrate the existing functionality of the eCommerce website to Magento to build a reliable base for the automation of processes and integration of platforms. The Orderwise integration was split into separate projects for budget transparency and development efficiency.
Systems Integration: Implement an Orderwise integration to sync products, stock, customers, companies, credit, and orders, ensuring Magento reflects the master data maintained in Orderwise.
Website Launch Strategy: Develop a detailed launch plan to ensure a smooth transition for customers from the previous eCommerce software to Magento, using email marketing to manage the process.
SEO and Marketing Tools: Develop a comprehensive SEO strategy to achieve growth objectives, implementing SEMRush and providing training to the C & A team.
eCommerce Transformation for a Leading Building Products Supplier
A modernised user experience with a fresh, brand-aligned design
