Blue2 improves the user experience for
The Open golf fans

Background

The 148th Open Championship, teed off to an interesting start this week. Viewers will be glued to the proceedings until Sunday’s denouement at Royal Portrush Golf Club.

The County Antrim location is this year’s stage for the game’s oldest major, 68 years after it held the only other Open to be played outside of England and Scotland. There has been a long wait for Portrush to host its second Open, and there have been some major changes to the course in that time – including the creation of two new holes. Just like golf courses, club websites also have to move with the times. This year the R&A tasked us with improving user experience and making The Official Open Shop more mobile-friendly. Changes to the menu and layouts on mobile have led to a simpler online shopping experience and an increase in mobile traffic.

About The Open Shop

The Open Shop is the only place you can buy official merchandise for the world’s premier golfing tournament. The team continuously work with and support the R&A by tailoring unique requirements and focusing on usability and optimisation so that user engagement is maximised, ultimately driving sales. The new design allows users to easily navigate and view products by category, product and even by brand. The website is super fast and is in line with the iconic brand of The Open.

From a technical perspective, the site uses Kentico as an administration system and integrates with 3rd party stock management, epos and delivery management systems. Although available all year round, we see website traffic increase greatly in the months before and after The Open. To cope with this, our servers scale to demand and ensure the site operates optimally at all times. Here at Blue2, we know how important it is that everything works properly to meet demand, and our knowledge of extensive eCommerce solutions, scalable technology and user experience makes this possible.

Our work with the R&A demonstrates our hard work and commitment to delivering the best service possible for our client. We enjoy looking for ways to improve and support our client’s online services – and that’s why we build long-standing customer relationships.