increase in organic traffic YoY
increase in organic revenue YoY
engagement rate achieved post-launch
About the Ark Wildlife Shopify migration case study
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About the client and the brief
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What we delivered
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The results
Ark Wildlife is the UK’s leading specialist in bird food, wildlife food, habitats, and accessories, renowned for competitive pricing, free next-day delivery, and a comprehensive 45-day money-back guarantee.
With a recent rebrand emphasising their mission to make supporting British wildlife simple and accessible, Ark Wildlife sought to inspire more people to transform their gardens into thriving ecosystems. Their vision was to revive British wildlife, one garden at a time, through knowledge sharing and easy-to-implement changes.
To meet their goals, Ark Wildlife decided to migrate their website to Shopify, addressing limitations in performance and usability. They sought a user-first, feature-rich platform to improve intuitive search functionality, streamline the buyer journey, and align with their brand ethos: “making helping wildlife simple.”
Distinctly was tasked with ensuring a seamless migration, protecting and growing Ark Wildlife’s strong organic visibility, and minimising disruption during the transition.
- SEO-Focused Shopify Guidelines
We developed comprehensive SEO guidelines for the development partner, embedding SEO best practices into the build from the outset to save time and improve results. - Wireframes for Key Pages
Designed optimised wireframes for the homepage, collection pages, and product pages to enhance user experience while staying true to Ark Wildlife’s brand identity. - Product Migration
Migrated over 1,500 products, including complex variants (some with 5–6 options), using Matrixify to streamline the process while ensuring data accuracy. - Website Architecture and Redirect Mapping
Built a clear website architecture optimised for search engines and implemented redirect mapping to preserve existing authority during the URL structure transition. - User Experience Feedback
Collaborated with Ark Wildlife to refine the user and buyer journey, reducing friction and enhancing the overall customer experience. - Technical Audits
Conducted detailed pre- and post-launch technical audits to ensure the website was easily crawlable, indexable, and performed well in search engines. - Tracking and CRO Setup
Implemented full tracking to monitor user behaviour, including drop-offs in the conversion funnel, and conducted a CRO audit to identify opportunities for reducing friction.
The website launched successfully on July 1, 2024, and the results over the following six months (July–December) were remarkable:
- 49% increase in organic traffic YoY, demonstrating improved discoverability and visibility.
- 27% increase in organic revenue YoY, reflecting a significant boost in conversions.
- Engagement rate grew from 58% to 92%, indicating the content better satisfied user needs and kept the attention of users with a better website experience..
- 26% increase in average session time YoY, showing users were spending more time on the site.
- Record-breaking email sign-ups, helping Ark Wildlife build a stronger community and encourage repeat customers.
These results highlight the success of a user-first migration strategy that combined SEO, CRO, and technical excellence to deliver a frictionless experience for both users and search engines.
Quote From Client
“Distinctly ensured our transition to Shopify went exceptionally smoothly. The results speak for themselves, we now enjoy a super-fast, feature rich website, that Google and other search engines love!”
Sean McMenemy, Managing Director and Founder, Ark Wildlife
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