Tessuti – an online evolution

Posted by Ken Davis - under Case Study No Comments

Like most businesses, Tessuti Fabrics started its online evolution by carefully crawling up to the edge of the Internet, and sticking a big toe into the unknown. Its first foray into online representation was a small static site. In just over 12 months, we’ve helped transition Tessuti from that simple, under performing website, to a well respected, dynamic online presence.

Tessuti Fabrics – Humble beginnings.

Tessuti Fabrics, founded by Colette Guanta and Greg Spirou, first opened its fabric stores in Sydney nearly 20 years ago and has become well known in Australia as the home to some of the world’s most beautiful designer fabrics. Its customers appreciate the quality of the product and personal, caring service from the staff, who all have a great knowledge and understanding of sewing and fabrics.

A little over 12 months ago, we were approached by the team at Tessuti to redesign their original 10-15 page website. We designed the website to reflect the beauty of the natural, earthy fabrics for which Tessuti has become so well known.

Natural organic growth.

The Tessuti Fabrics name was already well known within the Australian sewing community, so being found on search engines was one of the most important features of the redesign. The website was designed with Search Engine Optimization in mind, to allow gradually over time, good natural organic growth in all major search engines. Tessuti currently experience first page results for many keywords, search in www.google.com.au for -

• ‘Tessuti fabrics’ – Tessuti shows up currently in the first position.
• ‘fabrics’ Tessuti – Tessuti shows up currently in third place.
• ‘Sydney fabrics’ – Tessuti shows up currently in first place.

Connecting through the online community.

Sew Tessuti.

Colette Guanta started the ‘Sew Tessuti‘ blog a little over 12 months ago which has become without a doubt, Tessuti’s greatest online asset. The blog is Colette’s personal creation, examining whats new in store, fashion trends, pattern reviews and sewing tips. Colette has managed to create a sense of community around the Tessuti brand by inviting visitors to send in photos of their own creations.

There are so many reasons why the Sew Tessuti blog works so well for Tessuti Fabrics. The choice to host the blog away from the main Tessuti website creates a sense of community around a personal blog, rather than appearing to be a corporate/company presence. It also allows page rank to flow between both sites (great for search engine optimization). Colette also writes about a wide variety of subjects, not just Tessuti propaganda, so it is genuinely interesting to visitors. The blog receives a large amount of return visitors because of this.

The Tessuti Awards.

In 2007 Tessuti created a home sewing / fashion competition, to engage the sewing community and generate brand awareness. In 2008 we were hired to create the Tessuti Awards website, a portal to information about the upcoming event. The site was a fantastic success, both before and after the event, driving traffic to all of the Tessuti websites.

Global Growth.

The next step in Tessuti’s online evolution was the creation of the Tessuti Online Fabric Shop. It was often suggested in Sew Tessuti that the fabric be sold online, so that people from beyond Sydney could buy fabric from Tessuti, that they were reading about in the blog. We initially weren’t sure if Tessuti’s customers would buy fabric online, as its a product that is best seen and felt before a purchasing decision is made. However, with good photography and descriptions, we (both Tessuti and the web development team) were positively surprised at just how successful the online shop has become.

Tessuti now sells fabric worldwide through its online shop, reaching customers who have heard of the Tessuti name, but were unable to get to one of the Tessuti shops. Tessuti’s growth is now potentially unlimited, reaching customers well beyond the city limits.

And to think it all started with a simple redesign of their original website!