GardenSite, one of the UK’s leading online garden supplies retailers, is celebrating its 18th birthday this year.
Starting trading in 1999, when buying products over the internet was in its infancy, the site grew out of a garden centre established in 1952 that realised the internet offered a great opportunity to expand the business through online shopping.
Robert Hall, senior partner, recalls the site’s early days and recently commented:??GardenSite was set up to take advantage of brand new technology (the internet) and we were learning important lessons everyday. We were pioneers and had to quickly acquaint ourselves with the unfamiliar demands of online retailing?.
After 18 successful years, GardenSite is still a family run independent business that emphasises excellent customer service and the site’s success has much to do with retaining these traditional values in a modern environment, on top of providing a 5* service to their customers.
It is apparent that the online store?s reputation is preferred by its customers through the thousands of public reviews which can be found online, including a 9/10 TrustScore rating on TrustPilot and a 4.4/5 score on Reviews.co.uk.
Robert Hall added: ?We strive hard to always stock a wide selection of quality products at the keenest prices with fast and free UK delivery.? GardenSite sources product ranges from throughout the world and is constantly expanding its offering, with a current record of 10,000 products available for sale through its website.
This quest for the best products at outstanding prices is clearly shown by winning the ?Best Online Buying Team? award for the past two years at GLEE Birmingham, the garden industry’s annual show, and again being nominated this year for 2017.
According to its Senior Partner, part of the long standing success is due to the marketing efforts conducted in-house, whereby GardenSite recently produced and aired a regional TV advertising campaign with the strapline ‘Create Your Perfect Space’ in order to improve its brand awareness within the UK. While other methods include the use of social media to keep in contact with customers and inform them about new products and gardening news, while hosting regular competitions to give their followers the chance to win free products.
On top of online marketing, GardenSite take part in donating products to local and nationwide causes. Most recently it donated products to aid with the makeover of a garden in one of this years Love Your Garden TV episodes on ITV. Meanwhile earlier in the year, plant specialist David Hall worked closely with one of their nursery suppliers in order to develop the ‘Time To Live’ potted rose, helping to raise money for the ?Breast Cancer Now? charity.
Over the last 18 years and with the advancement in technology, web browsers and ever increasing internet speeds, GardenSite?s development team have been heavily involved in updating and improving the website as a whole, while creating an improved experience for its users.
Amongst the latest website improvements including a mobile friendly and user UI overhaul in April 2015, along with improving the website?s security for its users by enforcing SSL Https Encryption in January 2017. The evolution of the GardenSite.co.uk website has been recorded on the WayBack Archive and collated below in an infographic.
