Designing a commerce solution for prop and furniture hire company Granger Hertzog

Munching on your popcorn as you watch the latest Hollywood Blockbuster, you may not spend much time considering the hours and skill that have gone into creating the breath-taking sets.

But with decades in the film industry designing and decorating sets, for Karen Granger and Careen Hertzog, it was their life-time’s passion.

It was a natural step for them to launch Granger Hertzog back in 2004 – setting out to create an inspiring space to showcase and hire out high-quality and stylish furniture, props and lifestyle pieces.

From James Bond to The Crown, with their props used in the film, TV, interiors and fashion industries and beyond.

Why Adobe and Redbox?

Granger Hertzog had operated quite happily on Magento, now Adobe Commerce, since 2014. But with the platform’s end-of-life date looming, the company were concerned about potential security issues. They also wanted more in-house control over their page design.

They had begun a relationship with Redbox six years before on the original project build, which made them the obvious choice for the latest implementation. And, fortunately, several of the same developers were still available to ensure continuity and brand and ethos familiarity.

How did Redbox meet the brief?

The new omnichannel experience is built on Adobe Commerce. Granger Hertzog decided to go for a low-cost project without any heavy customisation. Their key goal was to retain the design and functionality of the original platform.

Unusually, the site is non-transactional, which differs from most Adobe Commerce implementations.  So, customers place enquiries, rather than orders, and these are followed-up by the sales teams.

The team used the Accelerator theme to keep costs down and implemented Page Builder and Visual Merchandiser as part of the upgrade.

Page Builder gives  them  greater control over their pages, while Visual Merchandiser affords them more flexibility when positioning products.

Keith Fyfe, Granger Hertzog’s General Manager said: “Page Builder is a big thing for us. It will give us more creative freedom over how the pages will look going forward.

“The upgrade will give us much faster speeds, better security and better mobile ability. More of our clients are using mobile now and Magento 1 was a bit clunky on mobiles, but Adobe Commerce is a lot more responsive.”

Any challenges along the way?

The greatest difficulties came during the build, as the Covid-19 pandemic hit, causing disruption across the globe.

While having staff on furlough led to delays with launch dates, the teams from both sidescontinued  working through the lockdown and subsequently in order to finish the implementation.

Keith said: “As with any project like this there are teething problems. We had originally wanted to launch when we re-opened after the first Lockdown, but there were a few different delays that caused us to put this back several times.

“But we had an M1 site that was working well, so the delays didn’t make a massive difference and Redbox resolved the issues as quickly as they could.”
 

Results since the launch

In August 2020 the site was launched and feedback from customers has been very positive. “Customers could hit the ground running and easily navigate the site as they had before. Customers have been placing enquiries and orders again without any issues, which is great.

“We wanted the new site to be as close to the old site as possible in terms of function and design and this was even more important with the launch after the Lockdown. We wanted a better experience, but something familiar to our customers so it wasn’t a shock.

“There was one problem with a third-party plugin that was fixed quickly by Redbox, but other than that it was a very easy transition for our customers.

“Support from the Redbox project managers and front and back-end developers has been very good, and the relationship worked very well.”

Looking to the future

Granger Hertzog has drawn-up their future wishlist which includes additional improvements to the customer journey and the enquiry process. These will take place in 2022.

Redbox’s client service manager, Adam Skinner, commented: “Both teams have really enjoyed working together and Granger Hertzog were very happy we engaged with them during such a difficult time due to the pandemic.

“They now have much more control over the site thanks to Page Builder and Visual Merchandiser and appreciated the training we provided. They have a good insight into what they have to do to maintain the site themselves going forward.

“From our point of view, it was a really successful migration to Adobe Commerce and we have worked hard to make improvements around communication when needed.

“We look forward to working with them again on the other improvements soon.”
 

Profile

Industry: Furniture and prop hire
Location: London, UK
Background: With decades in the film industry designing and decorating sets, it was a natural step for Karen Granger and Careen Hertzog to set up Granger Hertzog back in 2004. The company’s collection of modern and mid-century furniture and items are hired by clients in the film, television, fashion, interiors and events industries. The carefully-selected pieces are brought together by an expert buying team from all over the world and constantly updated to stay ahead of trends. They have featured in hit TV shows such as Killing Eve, films including Judy and Harry Potter, events such as the Cannes Film Festival and much more.