From fixing checkout to supporting business growth

Getting the foundations right

For independent coffee and tea retailer Peaberry & Leaf, the website is central to the business. It needs to attract customers, help them discover the right products and, above all, make buying straightforward.
When Akriga became involved, there were several obstacles to achieving that. Checkout was unreliable, some links and redirects weren’t working correctly, and interruptions to
website availability risked wasting valuable publicity.
We also identified opportunities to make the shopping experience clearer and more intuitive.
Our first priority was straightforward: address the immediate problems, make purchasing reliable and give the business a sound foundation for future development.

“I am so grateful to have found Akriga. They have done a phenomenal job in turning things around.
The website is now streamlined, functions the way it needs to, facilitating a great customer experience and the positive impact on sales growth really says it all.”

Cara — Owner, Peaberry & Leaf

Removing the obstacles to buying

We began with a review of the customer’s journey, looking at the website through the eyes of someone trying to discover and buy coffee or tea.
Some problems were technical. Shipping countries were offered even when delivery wasn’t available, and broken links or redirects interrupted shopping.
Others were about usability and commercial common sense.
The main Shop Now button led to a catalogue where customers had to navigate past unrelated products before reaching the coffee and tea they were looking for. Product
listings emphasised prices rather than helping customers understand what they were buying. A promotional pop-up appeared too early, interrupted cookie consent and was
awkward to dismiss.
Individually, some of these might have seemed like small irritations. Together, they made the website harder to use and undermined customer confidence.
We addressed these problems, restoring a more reliable purchasing journey and removing unnecessary obstacles between customers and checkout.
With the purchasing problems resolved, the website began generating regular online sales, providing a foundation for further growth.

Making the business easier to run

With the immediate problems resolved, we could turn our attention to how the website supported the business behind the scenes.
One important development was an automated data feed to the logistics operation, reducing the need for manual intervention in order fulfilment.
That had a very practical benefit: Cara, the owner, could spend less time managing orders and more time running the business — including taking a holiday without worrying about the website’s day-to-day operation.
We also developed new functionality to support the business’s growing range of activities.
An events system helps promote activities and keep information current. A producer feature tells the stories of the people behind the coffee, connecting products with their
origins and giving customers more reasons to explore.
These weren’t features added simply because the technology made them possible. Each had a role in helping the business operate more effectively or communicate what makes its products distinctive.

Knowing when to question the brief

Good technical advice isn’t always about how to implement an idea. Sometimes it’s about whether the idea makes commercial sense in the first place.
While exploring new subscription offerings, we identified a proposal that could have created commercial commitments that might prove difficult to sustain as the business
evolved.
It was technically achievable, but its longer-term implications deserved closer examination.
We raised the concern, discussed the implications and helped ensure that the business’s longer-term interests were considered before committing to a particular approach.
That’s an important part of our relationship with clients. We don’t simply take a brief and start coding. We ask searching questions, challenge assumptions where appropriate and
consider the wider consequences of technical decisions.
Building for what comes next
Our work with Peaberry & Leaf continues.
A new coffee quiz is nearing launch, helping customers discover products suited to their tastes. We’re also developing a subscription offering that takes account of the product
range, pricing differences and the practical realities of the business.
The emphasis is on useful improvements rather than technology for its own sake.
What began as a relationship focused on fixing problems has developed into an ongoing collaboration, combining technical expertise with commercial judgement.
More than a working website

A reliable checkout, a clearer shopping experience and smoother operations are essential foundations. But the real value comes from having a technical partner who understands
the business those systems are there to serve.
For Peaberry & Leaf, that means having someone who can fix what isn’t working, develop what comes next and ask the occasional awkward question when it matters.
Commercial judgement backed by deep WordPress and WooCommerce expertise.