Blackberry Farm empowered their brand through ease of use of technology, partnering with Imagination Media, and leading the way for women in technology.
Digital presence for hospitality brands is quickly becoming one of the most important and differentiating parts of the overall experience for luxury travelers. Blackberry had a vision for their future-state of operations that included customized content, personalized experiences, and the ability to rapidly innovate to keep up with shifting consumer expectations.
Looking for partners that would empower their digital team to realize their aspirations, Blackberry turned to Imagination Media and BigCommerce. Together, we streamlined their operations and built a luxurious world-class shopping experience.
As the sun rises over the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains, the morning mist fades to unveil one of America's greatest hidden treasures, Blackberry Farm.
Its 4,200 acres have been a mountain haven and tranquil escape for family, friends and guests for more than 80 years as it evolved into a luxurious resort of breathtaking scenery, decadent cuisine and pleasurable pastimes. Today, as one of America's most celebrated intimate luxury hotels Blackberry beckons discerning guests who aspire to escape modern-day frenzy and slip into a Blackberry state of mind.
With products that range from preserves and jams, to jewelry, and a $5,000 mattress set, nearly the entire Blackberry experience is packaged and sold online for customers to enjoy at home.
The broad range of products challenged the team with building a design and aesthetic that would match the physical experience and speak to selling each product individually.
While the team had high hopes for innovation, they found themselves dealing with maintenance and compliance issues.
Burdened with ever-growing technical overhead and development costs on a legacy open-source platform, the Blackberry team began to re-think the entire ecommerce infrastructure in order to achieve their vision.
For a unique eCommerce experience, we customized the theme to align with the ideal customer journey, which includes Blackberry Farm recipes and product display pages that integrate with Kraft CMS.
Blackberry Farm is really excited to have the ability to easily customize and share more content. The design, aesthetic, and functionality of the new site all lend itself to sharing the product mix and story very well whether it is a $15 jar of preserves they make and serve, or a $5,000 mattress with the same sheets that are used at the resort. It can be challenging to present such a broad product mix and the new site’s ease of use and functionality empowers them to represent their brand their way.
Next, we updated the entire User Interface and User Experience. (UI/UE) We corrected some common mistakes as it related to the user interface. By integrating tools, like Page Builder, they were able to edit and publish content in a few hours that had taken over a week in their legacy system. Overall, we built a much more stable feed that was faster and better for their Google vitals.
- Michelle Midnight, IT Systems Manager, Blackberry Farm
The product catalog import was challenging because of how it was set up in the legacy system. Imagination Media and Blackberry Farm worked diligently together to resolve the issues.
Imagination Media provided a stable platform to build an intuitive user experience and provide Blackberry Farm with a suite of tools that enabled them to do what the previous implementation held them back from achieving, getting them to market faster.
After a successful implementation that cohesively integrated e-Commerce into their current systems, Blackberry Farm now has an eCommerce solution that delivers the luxurious experience they can be proud of.
By cleaning up the front-end browser and cross browser issues, implementing UI/UX and completing a complex upgrade lifecycle, Blackberry Farm was able to quickly and effectively move their business forward with a lowered TCO that positively contributed to their top line and bottom-line revenue.
