Tie Rack

who is the client?

Tie Rack is a highly recognised and long established seller of apparel and accessories. The business began nearly 20 years ago, in 1981 and very quickly established itself as a success, cornering the travel hub retail niche, with stores in airports and major rail terminals around the world.

Although famous for this travel niche, Tie Rack maintains a solid presence on high streets and as we move deeper into the 21st Century they have made the leap into Internet Retail.

what is the project brief?

Tie Rack's Product line is a rapidly evolving collection, maintaining old favourites alongside the cutting edge of fashion. The rapidly changing product catalogue meant that the Ecommerce CMS must be easily managed and as this is the company’s first eCommerce site had to scalable, to allow for expansion of the site’s capabilities based on the feedback that we have no doubt will be forthcoming from TieRack’s customers.

As an added layer of complexity the product data and images were to be hosted offsite and drawn in via an API to the CMS. For Tie Rack this feature means that they only need to update their data once to change multiple channels, opening the door for intelligent catalogue printing and future EPOS integration with their new CMS.

project evolution

An early agreement of the project was that Advansys would be responsible for much of the copywriting duties associated with creating a company’s first eCommerce website, with 1000 products requiring compelling and Search Friendly descriptions.

The Ecommerce site will also be functioning as a Brand platform for Tie Rack and so the site has some very nicely designed features, like a flash Timeline of Tie Rack’s 20 year history.

our final solution

Advansys are extremely proud of the Tie Rack eCommerce site, it features a fresh design that is very clear and understandable but with some nice design features for Tie rack to use to keep the site up to date. As an example, the background image can be completely replaced allowing changing seasons or special events to be promoted without requiring major code changes.

Another feature of the site is the search refinements available on the left hand edge of the site which allow customers to home in on the products they desire simply and without extra typing.
Overall we feel that the site will allow Tie Rack not just to jump into online selling, but also to make a big impact within the online market and open up their business to a massive number of new companies. We also look forward to hearing the suggestions from Tie Rack customers on new features and new challenges for us to develop for Tie Rack’s website to help drive their business forward.