C. C. Filson began as a small loggers' outfitting store in Seattle in the 1890’s providing gear to the thousands of fortune hunters heading north in the Great Klondike Gold Rush.Filson's philosophy has never changed: make sure it's the absolute best. Clinton Filson spent a lot of time talking to his customers and refining his designs to their specifications. So it's not surprising that the items that worked then still work today, over 100 years later. Comfort, protection and durability never go out of style.

When Filson asked ZaneRay for a proposal for their website needs, they were operating within the confines of a ‘boxed’ solution. And while it no longer met their needs, it was an appropriate solution for a period where Filson was unsure of it’s commitment to the “web business”.

Now, more than ever, factors have created a positive shift for ecommerce in an otherwise down economic climate. Advancements and efficiencies in the Web, consumer involvement with social networking and more aggressive promotional offerings have gained the trust and interest in the web consumer. It is an opportune time to be pro-active with retail web sales and capitalize on the power and flexibility a new custom site platform would offer. For these reasons, among others, Filson was planning to revamp and take ownership of their web efforts—by projecting their brand and products on a more open canvas, better serving their loyal customers with best-practice methods, and reaching out to new consumers as a primary driver for the company’s growth.

Filson came toThe ZaneRay Group to ask for assistance with these efforts. At ZaneRay, we appreciate and welcome this opportunity to collaborate with Filson in this important endeavor, as technology consultants and as passionate, thoughtful individuals.

The goals of the Filson 2.0 project were to increase sales effectiveness by improved site search and navigation, improving and increasing order values by cross-sell and add-on components, increasing buyer confidence and promotional triggers, thoughtfully developing a smooth checkout process to minimize cart abandonment and performing ongoing site analysis to measure consumer behavior and site performance. There was also a need to grow brand awareness by presenting a fresh, more progressive web presence that exudes the current branding styles, artwork and imagery used in other marketing vehicles. It was also necessary to project the Filson brand multi dimensionally, speaking to all of its market groups and paint a more visual and story based representation of the rich Filson history and brand, capitalizing on Filson’s rich, long heritage.

Another objective that Filson had was to grow their customer base, reduce acquisition costs and increase retention. The wanted to initiate better targeted and optimized SEM marketing as well as optimize the site for enhanced organic search visibility and ranking as well as gain customers through viral social networking. . Also, to accomplish this, it was agreed that it was important to present ongoing fresh content and product offerings to stimulate repeat visits, making it the ‘go to’ site for outdoor clothing, accessories and luggage.

Finally, Filson wanted to increase administrative control to reduce costs and increase responsiveness. They knew that they wanted to attain better in-house control over their site content and merchandising tools and make real-time changes on their site with minimal effort. These efficiencies allow them to manage a larger web presence without a proportional increase in staff.

ZaneRay specializes in creating custom websites for customers for whom brand and where a unique online presence is important and creates custom web sites but strives to do so in a routine manner. Filson is a perfect partner for ZaneRay as the new Filson 2.0 allows them a full ecommerce solution while retaining control over presentation and content management.