How Custom Neon Dramatically Updated its B2B Website Design

Custom Neon, a global manufacturer and retailer of custom-designed LED neon lights and signs, saw increased sales, conversions and a boost in Google search rankings thanks to a website redesign, according to Sruthi Krishna, the company’s web development manager.

“As an e-commerce business that relies on web traffic to drive sales, the functionality of our website is of paramount importance,” Krishna said.

“We redesigned our website in mid-2021, not only to keep up-to-date with SEO requirements and fresh design trends, but also to position ourselves as a true force in the B2B space – as opposed to a company that simply focused on signage for weddings and home decor. The custom neon signage market is a new and highly competitive space, one in which the aesthetics, usability and SEO of a website are vital to continued success.”

This redesign was started with user experience at the forefront, prompting us to ask questions related to the overall functionality of the website and the ways in which requested features would impact speed and usability for consumers, Krishna added.

“One element that we knew we had to add was video content demonstrating our products and showcasing them in the wild. We began adding business case studies and videos depicting our signage hung in a variety of business settings, something which we did with the intention of providing inspiration to businesses visiting our website and illustrating what our design tool in capable of. Given that online video consumption grew by 96% in 2020, we knew that was a feature we needed to add.”

Krishna said that the mot dramatic design shift for the website was seen through the changes made to the online custom design tool, which enables customers to create their own neon sign by choosing the text, font, color, size and backing.

Prior to the website redesign, the company only offered a limited number of options in each category, as well as non-specific sizing and pricing estimates that often clouded the purchasing process.

“After months of development and fine-tuning, our new design tool fixed these issues and provided more dynamic and accurate design proofs for regular consumers and businesses alike,” Krishna said.

“A recent feature is the ‘save my design” so users can save their creations and easily share with other business departments, partners etc., therefore speeding up the decision-making process.”

Alongside the shift towards our B2B offerings, the company also worked to improve its business quote forms, enabling businesses to upload their own logo, artwork or imagery, input a suggested budget and specify other unique requirements.

“We also focused on fully optimizing images and videos to ensure that they loaded efficiently without runtime error messages, in addition to making sure that fonts were sized correctly so that the product search function and product categories could be easily displayed,” Krishna added.

“This optimization extended to mobile usability, as the majority of our customers interact with our website using mobile phones rather than desktops. With this fact in mind, we adopted a mobile-first approach that featured highly responsive design elements, SEO friendly code, and the latest UI technologies that would deliver the fastest and most user-friendly results.”

Heavy emphasis was also placed on altering the grouping of products, according to Krishna, explaining that grouping products based on function, usage or color enhances user experience, not just aesthetically, but also by satisfying the need for instant accessibility.

“If a user struggles to find what they are looking for, they will simply go elsewhere,” Krishna said.

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“The use of ‘breadcrumbs’ allows efficient maneuverability between product groups, reducing the need for the back button and lowering bounce rates. Ultimately, visitors need to feel comfortable making a purchase, regardless of how they access our site.”

She added: “For us and any other e-commerce business, the most important step of the customer journey is the final point of purchase. This relates to shopping cart functionality, order customization, transaction integrity, payment processing, order confirmations, discount code input, and tracking. Any discrepancies at this stage and your prospective customers are likely to bounce and go elsewhere.”

The company endeavored to make the sales funnel very straightforward by offering:

• Multiple payment options (including BNPL) with clear statements of security for each
• Simplified forms that require as little information as possible

“Finally, we looked to update our website by making our offerings more visually attractive, authentic and trustworthy,” Krishna said.

“One way that we looked to gain the trust of B2B consumers was adding a ‘Brands That Chose Us’ section of the website, designed to illustrate our authenticity in the market and instill confidence in the buyer.

B2B website redesign brings results

The website changed to the new design and brand image at the start of November 2021.

Those positive results include:

Improved Google search rankings: There was an initial dip in the google rankings that lasted about 10 days, while the site was redesigned and reindexed, Krishna said. Since then, the company seen an improvement in our rankings and traffic from Google. Each of the five days Custom Neon appeared in the most top 3hree spots on Google were after the design update.

Sales value: The post-redesign sales value for Nov/Dec increased 32.2% compared to the two previous months and by 44.6% compared to the Nov/Dec period of the previous year.

Conversions: Custom Neon’s post-redesign conversions per visitor for Nov/Dec were up by 29% compared to the two previous months before, and up by 30.1% compared to the Nov/Dec period of the previous year.