Baldwin is proud to announce the go-live of one of our most intense realizations of the last year, commissioned by N.E.W.S Records, and in collaboration with Nvision and Business Central.
N.E.W.S Records is a music distribution company that provides multiple other services within the music industry.
This agile-delivered new webshop and B2B portal was heavily focused on uniting frictionless, hassle-free ordering in a wholesale context, and a sleek, performant design.
A (minimalistic) design where music artwork takes center stage
For this project, the client opted for a minimalistic design that would allow the rich variety of often heavy and colorful artwork to draw attention. The challenge here was to unite this diversity in products, which was done by neutral colors with a twist to emphasize NEWS’ signature character.
Mainly working with the signature blue in various places, the rest of the elements are designed to guide and let the product take center stage. This design was executed through Hÿva front-end solution, which guarantees the least complexity and the fastest results, adding this shop to Google’s favorites.
Real-time integrations
Working closely alongside Nvision and ESC, our primary emphasis centered on achieving real-time integrations and establishing a completely automated synchronization between Business Central and Magento. This was made possible through the Nvision connector, which enabled seamless transfer of clients, orders, products, prices, MP3 tracks, and specific settings, while also managing client access controls.
We prioritized granting B2B users access to the latest information by allowing them to download real-time stocklists, view personalized prices, and check live inventory in their My Account section.
Cool features we implemented:
- Download real-time stocklists
- See your individual price, based on your personal conditions
- The “My Account” section was enriched with a custom endpoint to better serve the needs of a media wholesaler. This selection allows for full control of shipment & transparency on orders.
- See the status of your orders in real-time
Beautiful accessibility & the right info at a glance
Our goal was to provide all functionality and information a user might need in as few clicks as possible. To provide just enough information in the right places, without compromising the look & feel.
That’s why you’ll see one-click operations everywhere:
- Accessing promotional content and assets
- Downloading stocklists
- Releasing all ready-to-ship titles previously ordered
- Quick add-to-cart & which articles are already added at a glance
- Accessing new & upcoming releases in a heartbeat
- Providing the most popular style in your selection for even faster
- Links to artists, and labels in one click
And why we display what is truly important:
- See what items are already in your cart
- The product’s status: pre-order, backorder, in stock
- See what’s new and upcoming to stay informed
A performant music player
A crucial element in the discovery phase is – of course – to try before you buy. That’s why we custom-developed a media player that automatically fetches the track titles & files from the ERP system, without compromising performance. A user can listen to selected tracks from the product detail page to discover a specific album.
Not only can the end user listen to selected tracks to discover an album, but the implementation also allows for fully autonomous additions and changes to the music library for NEWS.
Moreover, B2B users can download the provided assets in one click to promote the titles on their channels.
Recent & upcoming releases – and other filtering techniques
How do you navigate tens of thousands of albums best? Good question – we had the same one.
Navigating music can be done, and was therefore implemented, in various ways. However, some elements stand out from the crowd.
Every week, new music is being released. To find the latest & upcoming music, we based our design around the ability to navigate this way.
Through the widgets on the home page or the header, the user is guided in navigating through the years and weeks, and switching is done frictionlessly.
Other ways of filtering are implemented, such as suggested popular styles based on the selection a user has made.
Delivery: built on solid ground
Delivering this project, we’ll shed light on three principles that contributed to this project:
- Biweekly interactive reviews: every two weeks, progress was shared and immediate feedback was captured, allowing for quick pickup and pivoting where needed. Therefore, we finished separate features quickly and completely before moving on to the next one.
- Functionality first, design second: as requirements change, resources are more efficiently utilized when functionality is clear and working. Only then, the design-cherry was put on top.
- Radical client involvement: from startup to UAT, NEWS was heavily involved every step of the way. By sharing the problems ahead and wins made, and co-assessing priorities and features, we were able to not only keep the transparency high but, most importantly manage and deliver the right expectations.
Even though only approved B2B users can fully browse the website, a sneak peek can be found on: https://b2b.newsdistribution.be.
