A recent article in the industry publication The Drum has indicated that online customers want a little bit more from their web experience. This is certainly a position that bumblebee have always taken, having built the award winning and ground breaking River Island site.

The cautious nature of today's e-commerce world, sees a plethora of identikit sites, whose sole nod to brand identity is a logo. This safety first attitude, although understandable, is crying out for someone to have a bit more cohonas.

Our recent development for Dalvey shows that the high end market is prepared to be more adventurous. It is looking for that cutting edge functionality that will differentiate it from rivals. The site uses 'the selector' to buy shirts and ties.

The Selector has been designed to enhance the customer experience, allowing users to view products through refined searches but uniquely customers can see what's being rejected, much more in line with the shop experience of shopping rails and things catching your eye.

The 'Selector' principle can work for a number of parameter-driven products or services as shown on our demo on this site.

Bumblebee switched across to Drupal as their main development platform about two and a half years ago, but there are still some of our clients who have flash sites. As a result, they have become victim of Apple's anti-Flash policy, and don't have a web presence on iPad or iPhone.

With these viewing devices becoming hugely popular, clients with Flash sites are left with a couple of options, or risk being invisible to a sizeable audience.

A growing number have got us to rebuild their sites, a tough decision, but for some clients, an essential one. In doing so, they've been pleasantly surprised by how cool our new generation Drupal sites look and work plus there's the added benefits of easy upgrades to functionality, content-management and vastly improved SEO.

Another option is to build an html version of your site, which iPad or iPhone users will be automatically redirect to. This option is probably more suited to smaller and simpler brochure based sites. It's a less expensive option, but clients will miss out on the added benefits.

Understandably, it's not an ideal situation, but with Apple unlikely to shift its stance, it's a decision that our client's are having to make.

Today sees the relaunch of the Dalvey online store built using Bumblebee's latest e-commerce techniques. The site boasts two selectors, one for ties, and another for shirts. For those of you unfamiliar with the name Dalvey, they are an internationally renowned men's accessories brand based in the Highlands of Scotland.

There are a number of other features that have gone into creating this simple but sophisticated end product. The launch is only the first phase in an on-going development that will see upgrades throughout the year. 

Bumblebee were invited by Charity Bank, who provide vital loans to UK charities and non-profit organisations, to handle their online and print communications including web marketing.

The corporate website relaunched at the turn of the year. The previous site was overly complex with a few blind alleys, so Bumblebee first dealt with tidying up the information architecture and then set about creating a Drupal-based site that was cleaner, clearer and brand focussed.

This has been followed by the launch of a blog as well as press ads, annual report, project portfolio and promotional video.