About Fin & Game

Located in Kelso, right by the River Tweed, Fin & Game is a go-to destination for fly fishing and field sports enthusiasts. They’re not just another outdoor store; they’re passionate about high-quality gear and giving customers expert advice, whether they’re casting a line locally or heading off on an international fishing trip.

Their carefully chosen product selection includes premium brands like Orvis, Patagonia, Yeti, and Guideline, ensuring customers have the best equipment for every adventure. However, as great as their in-store experience was, their website needed a little extra polish to provide the same level of service online.

Objectives

Giving Their Website a Refresh

The Fin & Game team used a WordPress website with WooCommerce, but their theme wasn’t quite hitting the mark. They wanted to update it while keeping the look and feel consistent with their brand.

Boosting SEO

Getting found on Google was a priority. The website needed better search engine optimisation (SEO) to ensure that fishing enthusiasts could find them online as easily as they could find a good fishing spot.

Optimising for Google Performance

Having a great website is one thing; making sure Google recognises it as a great website is another. We needed to tweak their site to improve performance, speed, and search rankings.

Seamless Inventory Management

They wanted their online store to sync with their Lightspeed Retail system so stock levels and product details were always up to date. That meant integrating the two platforms smoothly.

Creating an Easy, Enjoyable Shopping Experience

Above all, the website needed to be easy to use. Customers should be able to browse products, find what they need, and complete purchases without any hassle.

Approach

  1. Collaborating with the Fin & Game Team

    From the start, we worked closely with Fin & Game’s marketing and back-office teams. Their input was crucial to ensuring the website met their needs and worked well for their customers.

  2. Understanding What Users Wanted

    We didn’t just look at the technical side; we also considered what Fin & Game’s customers needed. This helped shape the site’s functionality and overall design.

  3. Data Migration Without the Headaches

    Moving product and customer data from their legacy system to the new site was a big task, but we ensured a smooth transition, keeping all the essential details intact.

  4. Testing, Testing, and More Testing

    Before launch, we ran extensive tests to make sure everything worked flawlessly—checking everything from product pages to checkout processes to ensure a seamless shopping experience.

Fin & Game Website Screenshot

Challenges

Working with a Pre-Built Theme

Fin & Game had already chosen a third-party WordPress theme, so we had to work within its limitations while customising it to meet their specific needs. We dived into the code to ensure the website functioned exactly as required without compromising future updates.

Improving Site Performance

Search engines love fast, well-optimised sites, and we made sure Fin & Game’s website met Google’s performance standards by optimising images, improving load times, and ensuring everything ran smoothly.

Results

A More Powerful WooCommerce Site

We refined their existing WooCommerce setup, making it more user-friendly and optimised for performance.

A Fresh Look and Smoother Functionality

We updated the site using the client’s chosen theme, tweaking and optimising it to ensure it looked great and worked even better.

Better Search Engine Rankings

With a focus on SEO, we worked alongside the excellent team at Wiser SEO and implemented strategies that improved their visibility on Google, helping more customers find their site.

  • A tool that automatically adds missing alt tags to images for better SEO.

  • A custom Facebook product feed to enhance social media marketing.

  • A custom XML product feed that excludes child variations, ensuring clean and accurate product listings.

  • An auto-drafting feature for new products created by external applications, streamlining the inventory process.

Seamless Lightspeed Retail Integration

We successfully connected their WooCommerce store with Lightspeed Retail, ensuring stock levels, product updates, and orders stayed perfectly in sync.

A Great User Experience

With an intuitive design and easy navigation, customers can now shop effortlessly, whether they’re looking for high-end fishing gear or premium country clothing.