Race Gear

Your Guy @ EY:
Hi, Diane! Thanks for joining us today. Get everybody up to speed on Racegear!

Diane LaMorte:
Our website, www.racegear.com, has been in business for about a year now. The site is a NASCAR news site and shopping cart. The principals in the company have 10 years of internet retail experience and run multiple websites. This is our first website that uses a Yahoo! platform along with a news-driven database on the front end of the store.

Your Guy @ EY:
What brought you and EYStudios together?

Diane:
We were shopping around for a site designer and programmer, and Eric really stood out. We could tell he was talented after checking out other websites he designed. The only remaining question was whether he had the personality and stamina to share our vision and make it happen. We knew this was going to be a monster of a website and it was not going to be an easy or straightforward project. After consulting with Eric by phone, we knew he was the person to take on the project. Eric is energetic and a visionary. Initially we were determined to hire a one-size-fits-all company to provide design and programming for us. But Eric is a designer who thinks like a programmer. He’s also an expert in conversion. The design he created for us was fully compatible with Yahoo’s RTML programming language. And as far as our news site, which uses PHP/MySQL, Eric’s design was also right on target. He knows how to talk to programmers and has developed a great rapport with off-site programmers. If design is important to you – and it should be – then there should be no hesitation to use EYStudios for the design. You can easily hire another company for the programming. Success online is about pulling in as many experts as you can; Eric and his team are the experts on visuals.

Your Guy @ EY:
Diane, you sound like someone that knows what she wants. What did you initially dream up for Racegear.com?

Diane:
We envisioned a news site on the front end and a shopping cart on the backend. We wanted the store to really stand out; we wanted a design that was far from the typical Yahoo! store design. People tend to think your design options are limited with Yahoo! RTML; that’s not the case at all. We had a few website examples from other merchandise categories. Eric managed to put it all together and develop a completely different look. Even the logo he created for us is outstanding. You wouldn’t believe how many people have commented on it. We’ve manufactured shirts and caps with our logo; people who don’t even like NASCAR have asked us for a cap with the logo on it.

Your Guy @ EY:
Racegear had a pretty extensive design process, but I think all the work shows throughout the site. Looking back, what do you remember about the experience?

Diane:
I honestly remember the entire experience as a positive one. Of course there were challenges and issues to work through. But I recall that every time there was an issue to address, Eric always had one or two immediate solutions that we could choose from. And his ideas were always presented as options. We never felt backed into a corner or pressured to make a decision one way or another. We were always free to come up with an idea and Eric would execute it.

Your Guy @ EY:
So did we treat you right with customer service?

Diane:
Eric and his staff truly went above and beyond. They have a knack for making you feel as if you are their only client. Since Eric is such a popular designer, there was a bit of a wait to start the whole process. But when it came time to start the project, he and his staff were there 100% for us to make changes and updates and get the job done on time and as promised.

Your Guy @ EY:
We have a good feeling about this site, Diane. It has the potential for LOTS of people to come across it. So far, what have those people communicated back to you?

Diane:
We work with a consultant who’s an expert in SEO and conversion. He said the design was so delicious that he was tempted to lick the computer screen. Honestly. We’ve even had customer say they love shopping on our site because the design is so pleasing and it’s easy to get around the site. To me, that’s the biggest compliment of all because customers aren’t busy analyzing your website design; they’re just there to shop. We credit Eric’s design for the ease of use. We all know that internet retailers have less than 8 seconds to grab a visitor’s attention. Our conversion rate and the # of pages viewed per visitor are higher than average, no doubt about it.

Your Guy @ EY:
Racegear was a big project. What advice can you give to EYStudios prospects considering a new site, big or small?

Diane:
Sometimes the simplest solution is the best. But you usually have to be willing to work harder than the next guy to stand out online. I never felt like EYStudios wanted to take a shortcut just to finish the project. When the simplest solution was the best way to go, we took it. Other times, we tried multiple solutions and then picked the best one. The money and time we invested in Eric and his company were well worth it. We continue to use EYStudios for updates to our site. If we had to do it all over again, I would hire Eric and his team to create a new website, without hesitation.

Your Guy @ EY:
Thanks for your time, Diane! Good luck with Racegear!

Click Here to Visit Racegear!