KER eCommerce Replatform and Redesign

KER – an international leader in equine nutrition – faced a digital bottleneck in 2012: its old web store was holding the business back. The site ran on an antiquated platform that no longer reflected KER’s innovative brand or met customers’ needs.

Key pain points included:

• Outdated UX: Navigation was clunky and not mobile-friendly, frustrating users and causing high bounce rates. Many horse owners were beginning to shop from barns via smartphones, so long as they had internet access in a rural area, but the old site couldn’t serve them effectively. The dated UI made it hard for customers to find products or trust the checkout process.
• Maintenance Headaches: Every update (like adding products or changing prices) required excessive manual work or developer help. The platform’s limitations also made it difficult to run new promotions or integrate fresh content.

• Lost Opportunities: With e-commerce booming in the equine industry, KER’s sluggish site was missing out on growth. Competitors were moving to modern platforms. KER needed to upgrade quickly to attract and retain online customers and convert increased web traffic into sales, without overwhelming current customers used to the sub-par experience that was currently being provided. In short, the old store’s poor UX and tech constraints led to drop-offs and operational inefficiency, directly impacting revenue.

While the overhead of updating products was manageable due to efficient oversight, the e-commerce platform itself posed significant challenges. Its outdated infrastructure failed to reflect KER’s innovative brand and was unable to meet the dynamic needs of customers, ultimately stifling growth potential. Maintenance tasks, which should have been streamlined, often required disproportionate effort—hindering the ability to focus on strategic initiatives such as marketing and promotions.

Recognizing these shortcomings became a pivotal moment. By transitioning to a more versatile and user-centric platform, KER not only enhanced the user experience but also unlocked new market opportunities. The improved system allowed for smoother inventory updates, better integration of fresh content, and the ability to run impactful promotions without operational bottlenecks. This evolution marked a step forward, aligning KER’s online presence with its innovative identity and customer-centric philosophy.

These challenges made it clear that a strategic replatform was a high-impact “low-hanging fruit” solution to improve the customer experience and support the company’s growth goals.