PictureStore goes responsive in response to customer behaviour

One of Australia’s longest running online retailers, PictureStore, has just launched their new responsive website, replacing their long-serving custom built site which, amazingly, has served them well since 2006. “It’s hard to believe that this is just the third iteration of our website in 14 years” said PictureStore’s Managing Director, Richard Tarrant.

The new responsive site was necessary to service the ever growing mobile and tablet user demand. “We were watching our analytics and seeing an increasing number of customers visiting our site on mobile phones and tablets”, Richard said. “Our site just didn’t suit mobile devices, given its older style and desktop focused design.”

PictureStore is one of Australia’s earliest adopters of e-commerce, launching back in October 2000. Started by brothers, Richard and Michael Tarrant, it evolved out of their small picture framing business. They regularly had customers looking for wall art who would come in-store, but they had little stock and showing them catalogues was very time consuming and limiting. The answer seemed obvious; to create Australia’s first poster and art print on-line store with a picture-framing gallery. They custom built a powerful and flexible site to manage the complexities of cataloguing up to 150,000 posters and prints, customising products via the online framing gallery and transacting securely. This pioneering approach (remember Amazon only started in 1996) served the company well for 14 years but technological advance and changes in consumer behaviour necessitated an upgrade to a responsive design.

Richard says the key benefits of the new responsive site, co-created with a boutique web graphic designer, and utilising neuromarketing techniques, are that customers can now browse and shop on-the-go and easily share art ideas with friends. Browsing from the comfort of their couch or purchasing while commuting to work is now easier than ever. The new site really suits the mobility and convenience needs of the modern consumer.

Visitors can still browse within a number of categories, including Artist, Subject, Style or keyword. Searches of the large catalogue can be refined, allowing home decorators to find exactly what they want to fill that space on the wall. The framing gallery means they can visualise and custom build their wall decor to suit their space.

“We’re really satisfied with the look, feel and functionality of the new site, and we’re excited about future enhancements and refinements”, Richard said.

PictureStore appears committed to being adaptive in a very competitive online market, and with their major competitors being giant US-based e-retailers, they will have to keep on their toes. This latest site launch is certainly part of that.

To visit the new website go to www.picturestore.com.au