Dippin’ Dots Grows its Direct-to-Consumer Business Online with BigCommerce

SOLUTION

Customizing the checkout to streamline shipping fulfillment.

With the support of US-based design, development and marketing agency Groove Commerce, Dippin’ Dots has been able to elevate its online presence and capture the spirit of its brand online.

To address the challenges of shipping and fulfillment, Groove Commerce created a customized shipping calendar and date picker, which is integrated into BigCommerce’s Optimized One-Page Checkout. Leveraging BigCommerce’s checkout and Advanced Shipping Manager’s API, Groove Commerce’s back-end development team was able to build this custom development solution, which allows customers to select specific delivery dates, view blackout dates, corresponding shipping methods and costs prior to selecting their delivery date. This way, customers can know exactly when their package will arrive and enjoy their favorite frozen treat without worrying about the product melting in transit.

“We wanted to make sure that we could leverage BigCommerce's existing One-Page Checkout as much as possible, and we were able to use Advanced Shipping Manager’s API to create something that was then inserted into the actual one-page checkout interface without disrupting that process,” explained Blais.

In addition, Groove Commerce also implemented a visual delivery date selection calendar, making it intuitive for customers to select the ideal delivery date.

“Instead of picking from some type of list or typing in a date, the visual delivery date selection calendar looks great, it matches with Dippin dots’ branding and you can see the blackout dates — it all makes sense,” explained Spencer Flaherty, Internal Marketing Manager at Groove Commerce. “It really streamlines the whole process and gives a visual understanding to the end user.”

Increasing efficiency with a simplified tech stack.

As a brand that runs frequent promotions and site changes, Dippin’ Dots needed a tech stack that would allow its team to easily innovate on the fly.

“From the beginning, we approached the design process knowing that it needed to be something flexible, and we needed to build it for them to work best for their workflow,” explained Blais.

On top of that, the Dippin’ Dots team is relatively lean, which meant that it was crucial for both technical and non-technical employees to be able to easily and quickly make edits to the site. Thus, when it came to building out its tech stack, Dippin’ Dots decided to utilize as much native functionality on BigCommerce as possible.

“The blog is on BigCommerce. Their content pages are using Page Builder. They're using native BigCommerce search. We were looking for ways to streamline the tech stack as much as possible,” said Blais.

From running donations and fundraising promotions to incorporating unique CSS animations, Dippin’ Dots has been able to leverage the native functionality of BigCommerce to build out the ideal customer experience for its site. Rather than having to pay for various apps and plug-ins, Dippin’ Dots found the out-of-box features it needed to simplify its tech stack and do more with less.

Bringing the brand to life online.

To help transfer its brand identity to its online store, Groove Commerce fully redesigned Dippin’ Dots’ website on BigCommerce from the ground up. Using a series of interactive elements, new graphic assets, pages and CSS animations, Groove Commerce revamped Dippin’ Dots’ website to help engage customers and bring the brand’s playful in-person experience to its ecommerce store.

“A big part of what customers love about Dippin’ Dots — in addition to our delicious ice cream — are the memories they experience while shopping at our physical locations or enjoying the sweet treat at their favorite entertainment venues,” said Dana Knudsen, Senior Director of Marketing at Dippin’ Dots. “These enhancements to our website will allow customers to create new memories by bringing the Dippin’ Dots experience home for parties, gifts and more.”

Needless to say, bringing the brand online — as well as its sister brand, Doc Popcorn — has been a game changer for Dippin’ Dots. With the logistical challenges of selling perishable products, the company has been primarily focused on the B2B side of its business, selling to convenience stores, and national food service venues across the country. However, with Groove Commerce’s delivery date selection calendar and BigCommerce’s powerful ecommerce engine, Dippin’ Dots has found the freedom to grow its DTC business online.

“There will be challenges that merchants have and they think, ‘Oh, it's too much of a hassle to start selling online,’” said Flaherty. “But the truth is if you implement one step along the way — like the delivery date selection calendar — you can actually solve, in one swoop, all those challenges that you think are unsolvable.”