Wicked Uncle

wickeduncle.co.uk

The founder of Wicked Uncle, like most successful business leaders, is deeply passionate about how his business should run.  After a long and distinguished career of setting up successful companies, he has crafted a philosophy; it's insufficient if a system or process works - it needs to be designed and built to work in a way that precisely matches his vision.  Any "grit" in a process must be removed.

Our journey with Wicked Uncle started with solving this kind of a problem for them.  They needed to move on from the supplier they had at that time, who couldn't deliver the quality of work or customer service that the founder thought was necessary for his business to thrive.  The website experience at that time was poor, and the rate of conversion from visitor to purchaser was below the industry average of 2%.  The systems surrounding the management of data and how that interacted with his team in the warehouse was also substandard.

This was all the way back in 2010.  Wicked Uncle had a small budget, a unique and complex checkout process and big aspirations.  That made a rebuild of the site a challenge, but Sound in Theory also had big aspirations, recognised the opportunity of winning the work, and as is our way, we figured out how to deliver what was needed with a budget that the client could manage.

The initial launch of the website was a success - it was a huge technical challenge for us at that time, but even with the complexity required we produced a modern, fast, easily controllable site with a clean UI.  And it moved the needle - the conversion rate jumped and Wicked Uncle's data processes were hugely improved.  And that first process built a good foundation of trust between us and Wicked Uncle - they were insightful and decisive and really believed in the importance of the details and care taken with the website, whilst we had demonstrated our technical and design prowess, ability to innovate, and an ability to deliver on time and within budget.

A front end rebuild followed, hugely modernising the design once again, with a particular emphasis on the user journey and experience, and this resulted in another jump in conversion rate.

For many agency-client relationships, that may have been the end of the story, or at least it may have become a dormant account until the next big redesign.  But instead, in 2013 we encouraged the client to change the way they worked with us, and along with Situ, they became our foundational clients for the way we now work with almost all our clients - on a retainer basis.

This produced success after success, and over the decade since then we've seen that monthly spend increase to over 40 times its initial value.  We've continuously enhanced and modernised the bespoke systems powering the website and the platform it uses.  We've managed the need for the systems to speed up even though the load has increased.  We’ve created the systems required to expand their business into new regions.  We've implemented solutions across the full scope of their business - creating and maintaining the software that runs the client's warehouse, and integrating with all the various required systems including complex integrations with postage systems.  We've advised on all the processes that operate with the client's business and we are a true partner in their business, including providing the initial thoughts on the fact that with their SEO profile, a US based business could be fruitful.

Almost all of this has been achieved using an agile delivery method, meaning the client is billed on a time and materials basis.  This has made the trust element between Sound in Theory and Wicked Uncle overwhelmingly important.  But the success of our relationship with Wicked Uncle isn't only about trust, it's also about loyalty; the ability to make sacrifices when required, about a genuine passion for the quality of the work being undertaken, and about valuing the success of the other party as much as the success of our own business.  Over the course of our 14 year relationship we've had both ups and downs, and the longevity of the partnership has been just as much about weathering the storms as celebrating the successes.  Successes such as:

• Wicked Uncle has achieved a turnover which is more than 28 times the turnover they had when they became our client.
  
  
• The conversion rate of the website has changed from under the industry average to more than 2.5 times the industry average.
  
  
• The reviews of the service are almost universally positive, with many specifically mentioning the ease of use of the website.
  
  
• The website is faster (as measured by Google) than any of their competitors, including Amazon.  The website can, when required at peak times, handle 1000s of simultaneous users placing orders without perceivably slowing down.
  
  
• Their warehouse systems are incredibly efficient and built for purpose, with zero yearly licensing fees for the software.
  
  
• Their US business is now a multi-million dollar turnover company on its own.
  
  
• We continue to work in deep partnership with them week in week out.