October 23, 2013

SCOUT Debuts New Enterprise-Level Website, Designed And Built By Blue Acorn

Blue Acorn

Blue Acorn Streamlines SCOUT's Sales Channels With a Single Site

CHARLESTON, SC - SCOUT by Bungalow, a leading supplier of fashion and lifestyle bags, bins, insulated totes, and travel accessories has just launched its new enterprise-level website, which was designed and built by their eCommerce partner, Blue Acorn, on the Magento Enterprise Edition (EE) platform. The new site produces higher functionality for both SCOUT's B2C customers (consumers) and their B2B customers (resellers), as well as for SCOUT's own marketing and customer service teams.

"Strategically, our objective is for our web presence and platform to serve as the cornerstone of our sales, marketing and servicing efforts," says Tabitha Bowling, COO at SCOUT. "Since 2009, we've been maintaining two completely separate commerce sites for our B2C and B2B customers. With Magento's enterprise-level platform, we can power multiple sales channels through a single site, SCOUTbags.com, which provides a consistent brand message and caters to the specific needs of our customers. Whether a specialty retailer needs to replenish their SCOUT display or a mother needs some durable and stylish bags to pack up her daughter for summer camp or college, they both will be treated to a colorfully stimulating, highly intuitive and extremely efficient online shopping experience."

The most significant change that both SCOUT's B2C and B2B customers will notice is the look and feel of the site. It's been redesigned to provide a better user experience with a clean, methodical layout. The site navigation features filter options that are more prominent, and the ability for visitors to find what they want has never been easier.

"SCOUT is a really fun brand, so it's important that their shopping experience be as clear and easy as possible," notes Blue Acorn Founder & CEO, Kevin Eichelberger. "At the same time, they had a long list of goals they wanted to accomplish with this site: a B2C side, a B2B side, live product personalization, customer segmentation, etc. I'm extremely proud of our team members who worked on this site. They were able to give SCOUT everything they asked for, including a simple, playful experience."

Visitors now have the option to shop according to a specific color. Upon clicking the color swatch of their choice, visitors can view every product that features the color, which can then be cross-referenced with patterns that also feature the selected color. Similarly, they can shop according to a specific pattern in the line by clicking on the pattern's swatch and filtering the resulting products by color. The new site will also include advanced filter options, where customers can narrow a search down to the specific features of a product, such as the number of pockets.

Another new feature added for both B2C and B2B customers is a live chat option fromOlark. These live chats will occur with actual SCOUT team members who can assist customers in numerous ways, including gift suggestions, consultation on best sellers, advice on merchandising and display, and more.

Consumers will enjoy the new site's expansion of SCOUT's personalization service, which now offers a live preview of a specified personalization with Greek letters, uppercase letters, and lowercase letters, all with a variety of font style and color options.

In addition to having the ability to apply to be a SCOUT reseller directly on the site, SCOUT's approved resellers will also be able to log into their own custom homepage that includes, among other things, YTD sales, their account manager's information, last invoice date, and tracking details for shipments. SCOUT will also be able to create custom segments within their resellers, in order to best tailor their experience on the site.

"SCOUT represents a fast-growing segment of Blue Acorn's brand name clients who need a better way to manage both their B2B and B2C channels," says Eichelberger. "With Magento EE, we can enable our clients to manage both channels of revenue on the same platform, using the same administration panel. The efficiencies created by such a setup are undeniable."

"After we decided that Magento EE was the right platform for us, we faced the daunting task of choosing the right solution partner," says Bowling. "That turned out to be the easiest part of the project as we connected with Blue Acorn's work style and approach from the very beginning. Not only are they exceptionally skilled developers, certified in every way imaginable on the Magento platform, but they are also very seasoned, process-driven eCommerce specialists who, through exhaustive research, testing and analysis, determined how best to monetize our brand's value proposition throughout the online shopping experience."

About Blue Acorn
Blue Acorn is a premium eCommerce agency helping retailers and brands achieve revenue growth through a comprehensive, data-driven approach. In order to best support this approach, they have become the first and only agency in the world to hold certified partnerships with Magento, Google, and Optimizely. They are committed to delivering Intelligent eCommerce solutions rooted in data and driven by their best-in-class design, development, marketing, and optimization capabilities.

**About SCOUT by Bungalow
**SCOUT by Bungalow was founded in 2004 by co-owners Ben & Deb Johns who saw a need in the marketplace for affordable totes that were both highly durable and fashionable. Since then, the brand has grown to include additional product categories such as storage, insulated totes and travel. Each year, the company introduces over 500 new bags, bins, coolers, and accessories in its national showroom in Atlanta. SCOUT is headquartered in Georgetown, Washington DC with a fulfillment center in Virginia. The brand is currently sold in over 1,700 independent retail stores nationwide.

URL LINK: http://www.scoutbags.com

YOUTUBE VIDEO LINK: http://bit.ly/NewSCOUT

BLUE ACORN MEDIA CONTACT:

Justin Poole

Marketing Manager, Blue Acorn

justin@blueacorn.com

877-944-2583 x215

BLUE ACORN SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS:

Twitter: http://twitter.com/blueacorn

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/blue-acorn

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/BlueAcorn

SCOUT MEDIA CONTACT:

Sally Wiebe

202-944-9590 x102

Sally@bungalowco.com

Alternate Contact: Tabitha Bowling

Email: Tabitha@bungalowco.com

SCOUT SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS:

Twitter: http://twitter.com/scoutbybungalow

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/scoutbybungalow

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/scoutbybungalow/