Complex Drupal CMS + Magento E-Commerce Platform

Capital Brands, makers of the NutriBullet Juice Extraction System wanted to launch a new marketing initiative, “NutriLiving”. The plan was for a web based customer outreach program both supporting and promoting NutriBullet. Capital Brands’ goals for the NutriLiving website were to make it an added value to NutriBullet owners, provide them a healthy lifestyle social site as well as exclusive shopping opportunities for NutriBullet products. NutriLiving’s complete site content would be visible only to NutriBullet owners. Some of the site content would also be visible to any visitor to give them a preview of NutriLiving’s benefits. To combine these services, a combination of Magento and Drupal took place.

The NutriLiving site would need to interact with Capital Brands’ internal systems. For example, a NutriBullet owner would register as a NutriLiving member by providing a product serial number that in turn would be authenticated by Capital Brands’ systems. Additionally, the NutriLiving store would interact with the Capital Brands’ internal order management system. As those systems were developed and maintained in-house by Capital Brands, coordination of the integration of the NutriLiving site would be essential.

An added dimension to the NutriLiving design and build was the necessity for continual updating of content. Fresh content in the way of recipes, articles and contributions to Forum discussions would be essential to encourage members to make return visits. As a result, Capital Brands staff would need the capability to manage content as simply and efficiently as possible.

That fresh content aspect combined with the multiple unique design and functionality requirements of NutriLiving is why Drupal was the choice for the content management system. Not only could Capital Brands’ staff be the primary content providers, Drupal’s customizability allowed for social networking and E-commerce right alongside the content management. Capital Brands would also benefit from the lack of licensing fees as a result of Drupal’s open source nature.

For E-commerce, Magento was the go to as a result of its ease of integration into Capital Brands existing business systems and customization capabilities for NutriLiving’s unique features. Initially, its online store didn’t involve an extensive product catalog and that aligned with Magento’s compatibility with catalogs of 1 or 1,000 items. Once again, affordability due to its open source nature was a benefit, but it is also has a bright future as an E-commerce solution due to its ongoing development worldwide.

In collaboration with Capital Brands’ in-house developers, among the features of the NutriLiving site designed and built by EnderTech’s team:

• Dual Registration where members can automatically sign up for NutriLiving when registering their product warranty.

• An encyclopedia of Recipes, Articles, and Healing foods where members can learn about healthy foods or what to put in their smoothies.

• Discussion Forums arranged by topics in multiple formats: most recent posts, most viewed threads, by category (main forums, cleanse) including a “We’re Listening” category where Registered Dietitians and Capital Brands’ staff provide insights and answer questions.

• Members only content whereby all site content is publicly searchable but users who are not members of the site are prompted to log in or register.

• An E-commerce platform integrated with Capital Brands’ internal order management system and a NutriLiving online store that sells products exclusively to its members.

The Capital Brands and EnderTech collaboration resulted in a well designed and developed NutriLiving site. It provides exclusive added value benefits to NutriBullet owners while also allowing the general public a preview of such benefits. Technologically the site has the capability to grow with additional content and products. Although NutriLiving membership is currently free of charge, the site also has the capability for fee based membership.

Capital Brands and the EnderTech team continue to collaborate in growing and improving NutriLiving. To expand its traffic and membership, marketing initiatives via social media and other outlets have been undertaken. Additionally, a “person based” analytics program, KISSmetrics, has been incorporated into NutriLiving so that site activity can be more precisely measured. This will allow Capital Brands to drill deeper down into metrics beyond just page views. Such information can only lead to an even better NutriLiving in the future.