Despite not requiring a fully-fledged ecommerce site (as they weren’t directly selling online), a Magento 2 site seemed the obvious website platform to opt for. This was primarily due to the wealth of product data that was required to be imported and processed for the ‘product selectors’, along with built in functionality to accommodate the other desired aspects such as customer group logins etc. It also gave scope for future upgrades and flexibility as needed.

We initially began the project with the UK store view, so we could get an exemplar ‘site’ together while working closely alongside the Arconic UK team. The initial design and build placed a heavy focus on the differing brands and their product offerings, along with the markets they operate in. The ultimate aim of the site was to provide information to the user, as well as drive product enquiries. The ‘product selectors’ – which are essentially complex enquiry-only ecommerce configurable products – formed a heavy base for this; allowing users to easily identify a product part they require, without having to trawl through copious amounts of data!

Once we got the UK store view up and running, we again worked with the UK team to launch the FR and DE sites. These mirrored the UK site - re-instating the global image – and were updated to have the correct national languages.

When moving onto the US store view, it became clear they required a heavier focus on the ‘marketing’ side of things for their audience, as opposed to the information-driven store views Europe required. We then worked with them to update the site’s build to accommodate this.

But that’s not all! We’re now moving onto later phases of the project. From further regional sites (such as AU and China), to distributor portals and resource download centers. A key to a good website – constant evolution and adaptation.