Smith the Grocer Website

Web Design | Smith the Grocer Café

When Smith the Grocer contacted me, their website had not been updated in 12 years – which in web design terms equals a lifetime. Interim developments in web technology and drastic changes to the devices people use to browse the internet presented an exciting array of opportunities to convert their existing web presence into a potent customer engagement tool.

I began the process of revitalising the Smith the Grocer website by sitting down with owner, Mike, to understand the business context of the café and help articulate the brand narrative. New elements introduced to the site were curated to align with this story, asserting a vintage grocer theme in addition to enhancing the website’s usability. The ambience of the café was celebrated by restructuring pages to capitalise on recent professional photographs, with an animated photo carousel, embedded Instagram feed, parallax page headers, and accent character shots all leveraging the compelling visual appeal of food and thematic décor.

Integrating Smith the Grocer’s website with their social media helps to keep website content fresh, casting a spotlight on team personalities and encouraging site visitors to engage with the café on a platform that greatly increases chances of repeat interactions. The business operating hours appear prominently in both a sidebar location and within the site footer, accompanied by an on-brand location map to provide a clear call to action. All content is also structured within a responsive layout, meaning elements dynamically shift and scale to look good whether they are viewed on a phone, tablet or desktop computer.

On a technical level, shifting the website to a more user-friendly CMS means Mike can now manage his own website. When delivering the final website I included a site admin guide document that explains, step-by-step, how to perform common administration tasks without requiring any code-editing skills. Furthermore, breakfast and lunch menus appear as linked PDF documents, providing SEO benefits and effortless rotation of seasonal menus.