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Burkes Cycles

UpShift and Burkes Cycles go way back. Not quite as far as Burkes itself, which first opened its doors in the 1920s, but far enough that we’ve played a proud part in getting them online and out to the world. 

Burkes is something of a Wellington legend, a family business that grew in leaps and bounds and is actively involved in the whole of New Zealand’s cycling community – which is pretty darn big! Around half of NZ households have a bike, and approximately 73 million cycling trips are made every year. The New Zealand Cycle Trail covers 2,500km of trails across the country, which doesn’t include extensive wilderness parks. It’s an industry that shows no signs of slowing down. 

After a century in the game, Burkes could see where this train was headed – and UpShift were the right people to help them jump onboard. 

Shane Hooper, Online Administrator at Burkes remembers approaching UpShift close to ten years ago to build a robust  e-commerce website. They wanted to be able to serve as much of the community as possible – which means selling online. 

Like any part of a business, websites and brands need TLC, maintenance and updates to avoid being as useful as yesterday’s fish’n’chips paper.  

Over 80% of people are visiting websites from their smart devices, and 4 out of 5 people use their device to shop. While Burkes’ original site was adaptive – looking and functioning as well on mobile as it does on PC – they had yet to purpose-build a mobile app. They were ready to make shopping online with Burkes as accessible as possible.

 

This was the obvious next step for Burkes, and UpShift were the right choice to guide us. They have the expertise, and they listened to what we wanted. From that, they provided us with different options and many useful suggestions, and that first site served us very well. Of course, that was ten years ago – which can be more like 100 years in ‘internet time.’
Shane Hooper / Burkes Cycles

So in 2020, UpShift kicked off the process of updating the Burkes world with a brand new mobile app. 

Creative Director Matt Robinson and Software Developer Sheldon Mazzola worked together to design and build the app, using additional tools to plug it directly into the main Burkes site. That means the two can easily “talk,” and any updates to content or product listings will be automatically replicated. The app was also the first opportunity to showcase a redesigned Burkes logo and was launched for iOS and Google Play. 

So, Burkes had no hesitation engaging UpShift to work on a major refresh in 2021. 

 

This was our first build on the newly minted Shopify 2.0 e-commerce platform, it was a chance for us to be creative, to test out the platform’s capabilities. We presented Burkes with a range of ideas and options for visual changes to the brand that offered a contemporary spin, while honouring their history and integrating the technical requirements.
Matt Robinson / Creative Director

This also kicked off the next phase of updating the look of the Burkes brand. Building or refreshing a website is the perfect time to evaluate your existing design, including colours, fonts, and images. 

Before UpShift started building the new website, we conducted extensive market research amongst Burkes Cycles's customer base to help tailor the best solution.

We then combined the research with our team’s experience to plan a website architecture that would efficiently house the 4,000+ products in the Burkes Cycles inventory. 

This resulted in a total redesign of the website’s main navigation, as well as a clean, clutter-free look, making it easy as pie for customers to find the right products and information. UpShift also created a flexible tile template Burkes could change and update themselves to highlight news, promotions, brands and products.

The team really exceeded expectations, UpShift listened to what we needed, provided helpful suggestions and different options, and there was always quick turnaround. They answered questions efficiently and usefully. We really couldn’t be happier with the process or the result
Shane Hooper / Burkes Cycles

Shane Hooper says not only did UpShift deliver exactly what Burkes wanted, the proof is in the pudding - sales and conversions have increased since the new site launched.

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