New Web Platform Dramatically Increases Gift Retailer's Sales

July 22, 2009 - PRLog -- LONG ISLAND, NY - JackiesBaskets.com, a leading retailer of Gourmet Gift Baskets recorded significant market growth after launching their new website and advanced gift-ordering portal on September 17, 2007. In an 18 month period, starting from the launch
date of the new web platform, sales have grown over 35% with customer satisfaction up as well, according to follow-up surveys. "We simply outgrew the former website and needed a much more advanced system to further grow the business and increase customer satisfaction," said Linley Laurencon, co-owner and director of e-commerce of http://www.JackiesBaskets.com.

Early in 2006, company owners Linley and Jacqueline Laurencon wanted to better understand shopping cart abandonment across retail shopping sites. To accomplish this, the Laurencons examined market research reports from various firms and considered factors unique to Gift Shopping. Over 62% of online shoppers factored in ease of navigation, ease of registration, fast-page loading time, and assurances of security as contingent to shopping site loyalty. Over 54 percent gave importance to rapid checkout, product details, and an easy to read site as additional factors. The majority of customers are sending gift baskets to celebrate important occasions such as birthdays, anniversaries and holidays which are date specific.

As the results of the research showed a need for a new site infrastructure, the company decided to design and build the new site in-house. The entire process took over 1 1/2 years of manpower to develop, implement and test but Jackie's Baskets customers are really impressed with the new ordering system and upgrades. Some of the
improvements and features the Laurencons added to their website are:

- The ability to ship to multiple recipients from the same order.
- Delivery date calculation for all available shipping methods.
- Order tracking in real time.
- The ability to view past orders.
- Address Book functionality that allows customers to save their
recipients' information into the database.
- Shopping cart automatically inserts the City and State upon
entering the zip code, which assists in verifying the
recipients address.
- Rapid checkout with "Guest Shopper" status option (One Time Shopper).
- Editing options allow for last minute changes to card messages,
delivery dates and allocation of gifts.
- Easy site Navigation.

"Along with the new technology, we felt we needed a more attractive, user-friendly site that would enhance our product offerings. We brought in new colors, made the site more pleasing to the eye and enhanced the rapid checkout process," stated Jacqueline.

Jackie's Baskets believes that by giving the customer all the pertinent information about a product, without the need to register or feel forced to commit to an order, increases customer satisfaction. Jackie's Baskets has grown into one of the leading gift companies attaining a reputation of exceptional customer service coupled with outstanding products. Based in Long Island, New York the company has been providing unique and innovate gift solutions to its clients since 2001. For more information or to view our website, please
vist us at:
http://www.JackiesBaskets.com