Harrison & Hetherington Website Design

Harrison & Hetherington is one of the largest livestock sales businesses in the UK, operating across nine centres, including Borderway Mart at Carlisle. The business, which was established in 1870, has a wealth of expertise among its team.

The challenge

Harrison & Hetherington wanted a fresh, new approach to its busy website. The site had to work well for a specific user profile of a farmer who works outside and uses a mobile phone.
The firm’s managing director Scott Donaldson said: “The majority of people logging on to our website are probably standing in a shed or sitting on a tractor. They need instant access any time of the day.”

Our brief

Our research indicated that the business needed a mobile-first approach and a straightforward website that’s quick to navigate, while maintaining functionality for its administrators.
The website contains a lot of information, so it was important to limit the number of clicks required to reach the key content.

What we did
Working closely with Harrison & Hetherington admin and auctioneer staff, we created a responsive, mobile-first website that’s fast and easy to navigate.
Using analytics, we researched which content is the most important and made sure it’s easily accessible.
The design reflected Harrison & Hetherington’s new branding, using rich colours and bold imagery, which worked well on all screens.

Lets talk stats;
0.5M
Monthly page views
3x
Faster than previous site
20%
Reduction on bounce backs

The outcome
Our customised content management system enabled us to create a bespoke site to fit the business needs, while reducing the amount of code ensured fast page speeds.
The website has a much more contemporary look which is cleaner, fresher and brighter.
There are benefits for the site administrators, because any updates are automatically applied to all relevant pages.
The new website reflects the importance that technology now plays in the farmstock business. Scott added that the new website had vastly improved the firm’s live streaming of livestock sales and live bidding and had made it possible to offer online timed sales of livestock and machinery.
Accessing these services via the website has driven up online traffic.
Having seen what can be achieved, Scott said the business has plans for further online development.

What our clients have to say

Scott Donaldson, Harrison & Hetherington

The biggest benefit is how well it operates on a smartphone; that’s where our customers are accessing the information from most of the time. The speed is massively better, as is navigating through the different parts of the website. Our customers now expect instant access to everything we do. They want the information there – they don’t want to have to wait for it to upload. The images are good; they’re sharp. It gives a very clear impression of the business right across the different facets of what we offer Customers can be online, bidding for livestock being sold at Carlisle. If they want to access that facility, they have to come through the website and after-sale interaction is far greater than it was before the new website.