Future-Proofing
Norwich Camping’s
Online Store

The goal

So, what did they recruit our help for? Well, their existing e-commerce site was actually facilitating their business fairly well… but it was thinking ahead that got alarm bells ringing for the director, Jordan. Though things were ticking along, Jordan recognised that the site had a looming expiry date for various reasons.

The main cause for concern was that the site was built a while ago, which meant it was built in Python code older than Gandhi. It was no longer supported and had limitations when it came to technical SEO. It was also incompatible with some of the new and exciting feature updates that Jordan wanted to secure for the online side of the business – features like till system integrations and pre-order functionality, to name just a couple.

So, getting to the crux of it: the goal? Propel Norwich Camping into the next generation with a sleek, scalable, and search-optimised website – strengthening their reputation, attracting new customers, and streamlining online sales.

What we did

The biggest game-changer? Moving Norwich Camping over to a WooCommerce platform. It’s our go-to for search performance and is built to handle the kind of operational and marketing growth Jordan and the team are pushing for.

WooCommerce gave us the flexibility to pack in a tonne of custom functionality along with a seriously massive product range without breaking a sweat. Plus, it ensures it’s favourable in search. It also delivers a clean, intuitive admin system that makes day-to-day operations easier. Since the NC team relies on their site as a central hub for sales (both online and over the phone), making the transition seamless was our biggest priority.

There’s a lot to talk about in terms of this build, so we’ll break it down. Here are some of the smart features we added to the site’s functionality:

• • Variable price functionality

• • Automatic packing slip generation

• • A bespoke returns form

• • Integrated Klarna and V12 finance options

• • Custom pre-order development

• • Phone orders (We integrated the capacity to run phone orders through their admin system, creating a more efficient process for the sales team)

“The new site delivers a significantly improved experience for customers! It offers a faster, more intuitive shopping journey, especially on mobile. I feel proud of the custom-built pre-ordering plugin we’ve developed, which allows customers to secure products with a deposit payment and streamlines operations for the NC guys too with automated email notifications for orders, restocks, and payment reminders.” – Kurt, Senior Developer

It’s worth mentioning too, that when it came to re-designing the structure of the site, we had to be sensitive to the progress they’d already made in terms of search optimisation. Thanks to their previous digital team and the solid efforts to keep product pages up to date and optimised, a lot of their pages ranked well in Google.

With a strong domain reputation behind norwichcamping.co.uk, it was essential that the site map re-structure leveraged their progress, rather than disrupted it. With careful planning and honest communication, we were able to transfer things over to our new systems ready to smash a new SEO strategy.

For the design, we needed something that maintained the family-friendly feel of Norwich Camping but gave it that modern lift. It was important that whatever we did, we didn’t stray too far from their existing branding. We wanted to stay true to their loyal customer base who were familiar with Norwich Camping and have been for the 50 years they’ve been operating.

We didn’t need to completely re-invent them; their reputation is strong, and they’re a local household name. To go too far with the design would have been jarring for both NC and their customers.

That being said, we refined the primary dark green and signature red, using them in a more minimal and balanced way. We used splashes of red for buttons and calls to action drawing the eye of visitors to guide them through a clear conversion journey. Working them in with the green on top of a white canvas made for a clean, simple modern look where products could stand out.

The outcome

One shiny, new, future-proof, search optimised e-commerce website!

This was a massive build, and we’re so grateful to Jordan and his team for instilling their trust in us. When they first came on board, we knew that this project would come with a lot of pressure for the client to get right, not just in terms of time scale, but ongoing operations, reputation, product data and SEO progress that they’d worked on for years. It wasn’t easy, but nothing worth doing ever is and we’re proud of the steps forward we have given the NC team.

Their new site only went live in September last year. With technical SEO at the very heart of the site and a new SEO strategy in tow, we’ve already seen the site shoot up in the SERPs, bringing with it a load of new juicy visitors.

Users coming to the site via organic search (this means people searching Norwich Camping-related stuff on search engines, like ‘family tents’, and clicking through the links to the site) have already increased by 26.7% when comparing Sept to Dec 2023 to the same period in 2024. On top of that, the overall traffic going to the website has increased by 35.66%. Now that’s what we like to see!

Like any website, this one is an ever-evolving project, and with our Senior Digital Marketing Exec, Ellie, at the helm of their marketing, we’re excited to see how much of a difference we can make for the NC team. After all, if we’re not bringing our clients a return, then we’re not doing our job.