Our client, Waterside Nursery, saw an increase in revenue on one day of almost 700% and a 370% rise in clicks from organic search throughout the lockdown. Towards the end of 2019 our team of developers completed a website migration to a dedicated Magento 2 environment. This has meant that Waterside Nursery’s eCommerce offering is fully reliable and optimised and has performed exceptionally well with the increase in traffic and transactions.

The Client: 

Waterside Nursery is a seven-time RHS Chelsea Flower Show Gold medal winner that holds the market for online pond plant sales and has a great reputation across the industry.

Unlike many of their competitors Waterside Nursery grows and produces their plants in a private nursery in the Midlands. A self-sustaining business, which proved to be to their advantage during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Challenge:

As an aquatic plant specialist, their business is seasonal, focusing on stock preparation in the Winter months and maximising on increased online demand throughout Spring and Summer. This year the pandemic added intensity to both processes with customer demand. With the UK in lockdown, coupled with warm weather the country turned to occupying themselves in their homes and gardens.

The Results:

Comparing 2020 revenue (blue) to 2019 (orange) the website delivered, at its peak, an increase in revenue of almost 700%. All website traffic was from organic search with “pond plants” seeing a 370% rise in clicks throughout April.

The Thoughts:

Peter Hough, JGM Digital Director, commented “In the Winter of 2019 we completed a redesign and migration of the Waterside Nursery website to a dedicated Magento 2 environment. We also ensured the website was updated and optimised ready for the upcoming season. This work proved itself invaluable during the demands of the pandemic. It meant the website was 100% reliable and performed exceptionally with no major issues.”

Linda Smith, Waterside Nursery Director, explained some of the logistical issues the business faced with increased demand whilst maintaining social distancing measures, “Reacting to the situation we adopted a shift pattern to minimise contact between staff. Working hours on the Nursery were 8am to 7pm Sunday to Wednesday picking and packing. We dedicated Thursday to Saturday to making more plants to meet the demand. As a family run team, we have needed to adapt the business alongside home schooling and taking care of each other. JGM have helped add automated emails to keep our customers informed of delivery times and my partner, Phil, commented how speedy the new site was in processing orders with all the changes we made last time. Getting the plant ticket production automated has made a huge difference.

Could it work for you?

As lockdown eases and businesses return to the new ‘normal’ we expect to see a rise in ecommerce and UK manufacturing. We can show you a proven track record in creating a website that can both attract a customer and handle a massive increase in traffic.