Week 2

For this week’s assignment I had to find a business owner and ask them what they want from a website, what their business strategy is and how the website would fit into it. After writing a detailed document about it, I should create the website architecture. Last, I was to create the website design strategy and justify all the major decisions I make on domain registration and hosting, design, target audience and programming.

ABOUT THE BUSINESS

Name
Flores Marta (fictitious client)

Product or service
Flores Marta is a small local florist’s located in Valladolid, Spain. We offer flower arrangements for events, interior decoration, funeral flowers and gifts. We receive part of our flowers and plants directly from Holland, one of the world’s biggest producers. Besides, we have our own nursery in the town’s outskirts, where we grow the rest of our products. This way, we guarantee the freshness of our plants and flowers, so they last longer.

BUSINESS STRATEGY

Business’ Name 
Flores Marta

Mission Statement
Normalise flowers and plants’ use in day-to-day life by offering fresh, durable and affordable arrangements and solutions.

Objectives
1 – Sell flowers and plants
2 – Offer a wide variety of floral arrangements
3 – Grow a trust relationship with the community

Value Proposition
1 – Fresh and long-lasting products
2 – Personalised arrangements
3 – Support local commerce and community

Elevator Pitch
Flores Marta guarantees fresher, longer-lasting cut flowers in your home or event.

How the website would fit into your business strategy
I want my website to showcase the work we do, showing photos of the bouquets and arrangements we prepare. Initially, we will not sell online because we prefer to create a relationship with the clients first and offer them personalised assistance. We want to use the web as a catalogue for our customers, where they can also find the contact details and address for them to contact or visit us. In the future, when the community has grown, we would like to introduce online shopping. The web should clearly state the origin of our products and our involvement in the local community. I want the website to reflect our brand with a fresh, clean design. It must be easy to navigate. 

WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE

WEBDESIGN STRATEGY

Domain and hosting
The domain name suggested to my client is the business’ name, which is relevant, memorable and usable. For the suffix, we chose .com since it is available. We also decided to purchase .es, the specific suffix in Spain, and redirect it to http://www.floresmarta.com. For hosting, I recommended BlueHost, as it is currently ranked as one of the best services for small businesses, ideal for WooCommerce and very popular for WordPress sites.

Design
The website design will be clean and fresh, intuitive and user-friendly with a focus on visual content. It will display correctly in all browsers and be responsive on mobile. A picture carousel in the website header will show the florists’ most relevant work. The web will only be updated occasionally on special dates. The business’ Instagram feed will be displayed on the site to show pictures of the latest orders and work.

Target Audience
My client wants to target local women between 25 and 55 who enjoy shopping in their town and support local businesses.

Programming
The web will be built in WordPress, as it is easier for my client to manage the occasional updates they might need. Some features can be customised with additional CSS and modifying the PHP files. Once they are ready to add online orders, it will be easy to add WooCommerce to the web to create the shop.