Client Successes:  Kitchen Etc. 

The Client

KitchenEtc.com is the world's largest on-line kitchen store, offering more kitchen and cooking related products than any other web site. But with 14 retail locations in 5 states, their roots are in bricks and mortar. Today, the majority of Kitchen Etc's stores are in New England, but they recently established a presence in Virginia and their plans call for continued expansion across the country. 

From the smallest gadget to the best in cooking and bakeware, to fine china and exquisite glassware and crystal. It's all there at prices that are hard to beat. And most of their stores include real demonstration kitchens where celebrity chefs share their secrets.

The Problem

Kitchen Etc. needed an on-line store to complement their retail locations - and they needed it fast! They contacted us just after Thanksgiving, and their short-term goal was to go live immediately with a 22,000 SKU e-commerce site that could be up in time for Christmas. After launch they wanted to move quickly to get a first-class e-commerce solution that met all of their requirements:

• a multi-level product catalog with
  • over 30,000 regular SKUs
  • over 30,000 special order SKUs
  • inventory status
• automatically generated, content-based links to a new partner, ucook.com
• powerful search functions
• on-line gift registry, fully integrated with their existing retail-store gift registry
  • givers could access registries and make purchases on-line or in stores
  • receivers could create and maintain their registries both on-line and in stores
• entire site fully integrated into existing AS400 retail information systems
• real-time credit card processing that could be used by both the website and their existing catalog sales staff
• A comprehensive shopping cart and checkout process that would allow shoppers to purchase for multiple recipients and/or against multiple gift registries, all with one transaction.

The Solution

Blue Note Technology got Kitchen Etc. up and running in 10 days! We built a site that included the 22,000 SKUs displayed in a multi-level product catalog, complete with thumbnails, large photos, detailed product information, and a robust search facility. We linked the site to their new partner, ucook.com, by dynamically generating thousands of links between products at Kitchen Etc. and recipes at ucook. Read the Press Releasefor more information about the launch.

Once the site launched, Blue Note moved quickly to include Kitchen Etc's entire catalog of over 60,000 SKUs, fully integrating the web catalog into their existing AS400 information and product management systems.

We added a gift registry that is fully integrated into Kitchen Etc's retail store gift registries, enabling givers and receivers to access all the functions of the registry both in the stores and on-line.

Blue Note also upgraded the site's shopping cart, giving KitchenEtc.com the most comprehensive shopping cart on the web. The cart is intuitive and easy to use, yet enables customers to purchase for multiple recipients and/or against multiple gift registries and then ship to any number of locations, all with one transaction. And registered users can complete checkout with just 3 clicks. The Success

Kitchen Etc's new web site has made them a major e-commerce player in their industry. The addition of this on-line channel has allowed Kitchen Etc. to more effectively reach parts of the country (indeed the world) remote from their stores.  There has been a steady ramp-up of orders, including orders for gift registries, placed on the site with order dollars increasing at an annual rate of 300%.  In addition, there has been steady growth in gift and bridal registries created on-line. This has been key to attracting new registry business from areas remote to Kitchen Etc. stores.

The KitchenEtc.com now attracts partners in the food and cooking industry. For example, a heavily subscribed west coast recipe/cooking site now directs its users to Kitchen Etc's on-line store under a co-brand arrangement.

KitchenEtc.com has won several awards:

2001 Best E-commerce Experience

KitchenEtc.com won the Best E-commerce Experience award at the 2001 New England Web Design(NEWD&##153;) Awards. These awards recognize cutting-edge creativity from the best interactive design talent in New England. Winners were chosen in 11 categories from over 700 entries.

2000 Best E-Commerce Site

The site also won the Best E-Commerce Site award at the 2000 New Hampshire Internet AwardsThe Judges had lots of praise for this site. Some of the their comments:

• Concept: "Definitely would buy products from this site. It is like having the store or catalog right on your screen. Even looks like the store. You feel like you are shopping at one of their locations."
• Navigation: "The navigation is consistent and very easy to use. Even has a search of 30,000 products. Search by brands and products is helpful. Very usable and easy to find what you are looking for."
• Design: "Very modern and organized, hip... Clean, crisp, nice colors, nice layout, like a magazine. Very professional, classy and intuitive. A+ design."
• Functionality: "Very easy and intuitive. Don't have to guess where anything is, it is all mapped out in an orderly way... Nothing to deter from actually buying."