Nine Yards
Getting "cans in hands" for the UK summer!
Quick ability to leverage Shopify's ecosystem and spin up an on brand, mobile first, beautiful site
THE OVERVIEW
9 Yards go to market launch
With the European summer fast approaching, COVID vaccination strong in the UK and residents emerging from a long and dark winter Accolade Wines needed a vibrant and functional eCommerce solution to launch their latest new product - Nine Yards hard seltzer.
Off the back of lockdowns, consumers have become more health conscious than ever before and looking for low calorie and easy drinking options for picnics and outdoor gatherings; Accolade were keen to capitalise on this rising trend of the “the summer of seltzer” already seen in 2020.
THE CHALLENGE
Getting cans in hands
Not wanting to miss out on this huge consumer opportunity Accolade Wines set out to develop, produce and launch their own Hard Seltzer range “Nine Yards” with a plan to hit the market with a "cans in hands" sampling campaign. The quick turn around presented us with the challenge to produce a functional, brand appropriate eCommerce solution within a matter of weeks.
THE PROCESS
Effervescent immersion & collaboration
With a plan to sell directly to consumers in the first instance, Accolade Wines required a vibrant and mobile first website that not only ticked the boxes from an engagement and brand awareness point of view but also has the capability to integrate with Shopify for direct selling.
Inlight and Accolade Wines had to begin development before brand guidelines and the product itself had been finalised. Our key focus was to find an adaptable solution that continued to fit the brief over the course of the project.
THE SOLUTION
Creating a Shopify beautiful and on brand functional site
Inlight identified that Shopify was the best solution for the model required. This worked within the budget constraints but also allowed us to spin up an eCommerce solution in a matter of days rather than weeks.
Inlight's design team began to work through wireframes with Accolade immediately, to understand and work through their must haves. Once it was understood what was important for the brand, Inlight researched Shopify Templates; with the concept that a template that did most of the heavy lifting and spoke to the wireframes was the best approach.
The development team then teamed up with Accolade in restructuring and customised the template to suit the designs approved. This required a strong understanding of Shopify system, their coding language and how to quickly manoeuvre through customisation of prefabbed templates to ensure the brand felt unique.
THE Design approach
Enhancing the product
Working within the constraints of a Shopify template one of our key challenges was to distinctively hero the products and maintain brand visual identity. To do so, we kept it simple and focused on the main brand key aspects; the curve based in the logo shape, the 3 corporate colours; adding in some fun sparkling bubbles. Playing with these 3 key elements gave us plenty of room to create a clean, fresh and impactful design that enhances the product and communicates its personality.
THE RESULT
Develop, produce and launch
To achieve the result of the Nine yards website, Inlight and Accolade Wines had to work quickly and collaboratively in a very ad-hoc manner. Both teams were required to trust each other, working rapidly towards the challenge of an immovable deadline with the brand at the forefront of all thinking.
The time difference of working with the UK was quickly turned into a positive as we handed over work at the end of the day for review which would see Inlight tuning in the morning with feedback and work ahead of us for the day creating a great asynchronous dynamic.
