Bonterra:
A better DTC solution for America’s #1 organic winery
Problem
Bonterra is America’s #1 organic winery, and its website was holding it back. The build it inherited was slow and hard to change: Yellow Lab Tools scored the home page 0 out of 100, the page weighed 21.1 MB, and routine campaign updates kept running into technical bottlenecks. The site did not reflect Bonterra’s values, its scale or its direct-to-consumer goals.
Background
Bonterra came to us for a rescue. Over the course of a year we worked behind the scenes: we repaired the code, moved the site onto our renewable-powered hosting, and supported campaigns with landing pages built from analytics, heat maps and session recordings. That year showed us where the site was failing customers and the in-house team, and earned us the go-ahead to rebuild.
Result
We rebuilt key parts of the site on a custom WordPress theme with Commerce7, with accessibility, speed and ease of management as the brief. Real user behavior shaped a new architecture and UX for direct-to-consumer sales. We revised the design and style guidelines for accessibility, and made the back end simpler for Bonterra’s team to run. At launch, the Yellow Lab Tools score went from F to A, page weight fell from 21.1 MB to 2.3 MB, and mobile accessibility in PageSpeed Insights rose from 88 to 97.
Growth-driven design means the site is never finished. Every month we looked at how Bonterra’s customers used it, changed what got in their way, and measured again.
5forests
From rescue to rebuild
Our work for Bonterra began with keeping the site running and improving it month by month, and ended with a full rebuild, plus hosting and care across the wider portfolio.
Before and after
Project details
Client
Bonterra
Region
Website