Powerful Web Solutions

Brothers Rickesh and Ajeet Kundi have over 30 years experience between them in the world of tennis. Their dream was to bring good quality, high performance sports equipment and clothing to tennis and sports players of any level. Not only this, but the brothers envisaged a foreword-thinking company which actually helped to improve player performance by utilising the immense knowledge that they both have about the game because of their passion for tennis.

In the summer of 2007, pro-tennis player and trainer Rick approached Web Sight for a shopping cart with which to sell his specialized sports and tennis equipment on-line. Rick and Ajeet already had a successful retail shop as a physical presence for their company and wanted to extend the boundaries of the business into the global marketplace through the internet.

Sourcing a Web Company: As would be expected for all new and emerging businesses, Web Sight was not the only company that Rick and Ajeet had approached for their on-line shop. The brothers decided not to use Web Sight initially because they were advised and believed that they would be receiving the same level of service from a competing web company. On the surface it looked like Web Sight and the competing company were both offering a similar package and, as their cost came out slightly lower, Rick and Ajeet understandably went with the contending developers.

The First Attempt: During the build of the Racket Sports Direct initial site, Rick has advised us that he received sparse communication from the developers and had barely any input as to how the final website would appear or navigate because the service was not available to him. When the site was delivered to Ajeet and Rick they populated and uploaded all the initial product descriptions and images themselves and were not at all satisfied with the appearance of it, as they had been delivered a site that had seemingly been produced from a generic-styled template. After one month and with little business generated from his new shopping cart, Rick contacted Web Sight again.

Choosing Web Sight: Rick was so unimpressed with his site and the level of service that he had reportedly received, he instructed us to re-design and re-skin the original version. The brothers feared a loss of business due to a concern that the web presence they had may have made them look inexperienced, which given both their professional accomplishments, was simply not the case. Because of their discomfort with the site, a two-phase approach was offered and through this initial discovery process Web Sight found out how easy and amenable Rick was to work with and, how much passion he has for his sport, which inevitably ended up being transferred enthusiastically into the design of the site.

Phase One: Phase One of the Racket Sports Direct development included both the improvement and application of the re-skin and a new corporate logo design along with a print-ready stationery suite.

Phase Two: Phase Two consisted of developing and building the site in Open Source software, Zen Cart. The original site had been created in OS Commerce, which although it appears as an acceptable shopping cart, has not been updated to modern web standards. Zen Cart also offered Rick a much more user-friendly back-end and faster page-loading times. In addition to this, Web Sight involved Rick in every aspect of the design and build and even invited him up to our studio for a day to teach him how to use the site and offer tips on everything from product manipulation to photography. We have also optimised and uploaded over 200 product images, ready for when the site went live, as Rick felt uncomfortable with the responsibility of processing the images in the initial stages.

Conclusion: Not all web companies offer the same level of service, even if the initial package appears the same. Those new to the on-line marketplace are often exploited for this purpose. Unfortunately Rick and Ajeet have found this to their financial cost, yet thankfully they eventually discovered Web Sight and in turn, we found out how great it was to work with them.