Metakinetic offers a full service to its clients, from build and design through to marketing. We found out just how it does it.
Please tell me about your business
Metakinetic is a full service ecommerce agency which provides website design, build and marketing services to online retailers.
We were founded in 2005 by Darren Bull and David Mash, who were previously responsible for the mammoth European internet and ecommerce operation at Creative Labs – arguably the most successful of its time.
Realising that there was very little choice of ecommerce solution for medium-sized retailers beyond the inflexible ‘out-of-the-box’ solutions offered to small & start-up retailers, Metakinetic developed MetaCommerce, its own advanced ecommerce solution.
With investment of more than £750k in developers’ salaries alone, Metakinetic uses MetaCommerce to deliver highly functional, tailored ecommerce solutions to a wide range of online retailers, with arguably one of the fastest tailored solution implementation times in the industry.
Who is the product aimed at?
Metakinetic provides ecommerce website solutions to retailers from a wide range of industries. Typically, our clients have online turnover of between £500k and £20M, are based in the UK and have a desire to grow their ecommerce business.
Often, they have a unique functional or integration requirement that cannot be met by out-of-the-box ecommerce solutions or by a typical ‘creative’ agency that uses an Open Source development platform. We have customers that are pure-play ecommerce retailers and others that are multi-channel retailers.
What are the benefits of using it to an eCommerce business?
Having built our technology from the ground up with our own UK in-house development team, we know our code line-by-line. This gives us the unique advantage of being able to tailor our solution in any way required by our clients and means that our clients get support directly from the people that wrote the code.
This, coupled with our experienced team of ecommerce specialists, means that we have an unrivalled combination of technical, strategic and marketing professionals, all in-house and working together to ensure our clients’ success.
How much does it cost?
An ecommerce solution from Metakinetic costs from £5k for design and build, with a monthly fee starting at £250 which includes technical & user support via both phone and ticketing system, technology upgrades and enterprise-level hosting.
How does it work?
MetaCommerce has been developed using robust Microsoft .NET technology. It is hosted in a secure, enterprise-level hosting environment and is accessible via a web-based administration system from anywhere in the world with internet access.
Take me step-by-step through how I buy and install it
Initially you would get in touch with one of our ecommerce consultants, who will show you how our solution works and would explore your specific requirements. We would produce a series of recommendations for your business, along with a detailed quotation and implementation plan.
You would be assigned a project manager, training & support specialist and graphic designer. The first steps would be to provide our design team with a creative brief – don’t worry if you haven’t done one before – we have a set of questions that will help you tell us all about your business, branding and messaging.
Whilst the creative team are working on your ecommerce website designs, our technical team will be setting up your website ready for content input. We’ll advise you on the best way to structure your site to optimise product discovery, increase basket values and of course, conversion rates.
Once your site is ready, we’ll provide you with three separate in-depth training sessions – these are one-to-one and so highly tailored to your business.
We provide complete hand-holding through the set-up and launch stages of your new website and so during this period you’ll probably have a lot of contact with your project Manager and your training & support specialist. They’re always happy to help and most of our customers find this invaluable when getting to grips with their new solution.
What do I need to do once it is set up?
Once your new ecommerce website is up and running you will have lots to do, and of course, we will be there to advise and assist. Following launch we’ll keep a close eye on your website metrics to make sure everything is running smoothly.
You will need to ensure your site is full of great product-related content, descriptions and images, we also recommend that you tackle your marketing strategy if you don’t already have one.
It’s a competitive world in retail and so you need to focus on driving meaningful traffic that converts to sales. Our in-house ecommerce marketing team will be on-hand to discuss the best way to help you achieve this.
Is there anything else I should know?
Our customers as a community benefit from feature developments to our ecommerce solution, but with the added reassurance that you are fully supported by the people that actually wrote the code. All of our team is in-house – we don’t outsource any element of our service.
We can integrate with any third-party solution providing there is an API available. We already have integrations with many service providers, including Khaos Control, MetaPack, Postcode Anywhere, Feefo, Lengow and SagePay.
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