The fruits of a long-time collaboration
Since 2013, VentureWeb has been the digital partner of Santa Cruz Bicycles (SCB), one of the most iconic mountain bike brands in the world. From a complete build of SCB’s website in 2013 to many substantial upgrades and revamps since, VentureWeb is proud of the work we’ve created with this world-class brand.
View Live SiteThe objectives of the website build
As with any website build, SCB’s goals were multi-faceted. Their key objectives for the user interface were providing information cleanly and in a way that speaks directly to their users, building upon their strong fanbase and heritage. SCB also had certain functional requirements, including multi-region and multilingual intelligence and a user-friendly content management system. The look of the website was defined by their rigorous brand standards.
Since the initial build, we have worked to make the website ever more efficient, engaging, and future-proof.
Our Process
Discovery & planning: going in deep
Our first step was to learn as much as possible about SCB, their audience, and their specific goals for this project. This is a critical step for all of our work: the better we know and understand a client, the better the outcome.
Strategy & planning: nailing it down
For the initial website build, we broke down SCB’s needs into four distinct categories - dreaming, researching buying, demo-ing the bike, and brand evangelizing - and we developed strategies to ensure that the look, content, and technical features of the site met each of those needs.
Envision, customize and build brand loyalty
The VW team broke down Santa Cruz’s needs into four distinct categories - Dreaming, Researching Buying, Demo, and Evangelizing - and developed strategies to ensure that the look, content, and technical features of the site met those needs. The design leaned on sharp imagery and aspirational content that captivated the visitor and built upon Santa Cruz’s strong heritage and fan base. We developed tools and features that ensured users could easily and effectively research and evaluate the Santa Cruz line up. Of particular significance was our development of a proprietary bike builder that enables users to custom build their dream bike, share it with friends and other users via social media channels, and then find a nearby dealer where they could purchase that bike. The site intuitively presents options for visitors to share content, which helps to engage users and build brand evangelists. This is all presented using web best practices on a mobile responsive site and in five languages.
Implementation: making it happen
With SCB, as we do with most of our other clients, we executed the frontend (user-facing part of the website) and backend development (the data access/foundation layer) simultaneously so that form and function fit together seamlessly but are independent of each other. This approach results in a more flexible and future-proofed product.
In the summer of 2017 we implemented a proprietary bike builder that enables users to configure and compare up to three versions of their dream bike and find a nearby dealer where they can purchase it. The backend of the builder was developed so that it can service numerous user-facing systems and multiple configurations beyond its current applications. It also has the capability to be embedded on third party websites.
Close collaboration
VentureWeb has worked closely with SCB’s in-house designers to translate their strong brand identity to the interactive digital realm. We developed a comprehensive online style guide, which helps ensure ongoing brand consistency in development and design.
SCB led the content creation process, with their in-house team writing copy and selecting images. We worked with them throughout to ensure technical and design specifications were met and the content loading process was as smooth as possible.
Tech Specs
- Website platform: Drupal 7
- Ecommerce platform: Magento 1.9
- Proprietary API for a seamless interaction between the website and online store
- The bike builder is built using ReactJS (JavaScript)
