Portfolio: Sekine Shichiya 2008 Renewal

Overview

Established in 1949, Sekine are a chain of family owned pawn/discount shops located in the heart of Tokyo. With four locations accessible in only a two minute walk from major train stations, Sekine offers a wide selection of luxury brand goods at attractive prices.

Having created and maintained the company’s original web presence, Sekine returned to STi when it came time for a full website renewal, which included a full overhaul of design, architecture, functionality and backend. The goals for the renewal were rather straightforward. Design a site the site to appeal to a younger audience than in the past, as well as add value through improved content and sales focused functionality.

Get the Flash Player to see this player.	Client: Sekine Shichiya
	Date: 11/2008
	Category: Web Solutions
	Credits:
	Programming: Graeme Bull Design & Development: Kris Honeycutt
	View Website

Design & Technology

The site was redesigned to support the company's new brand, with the goal of appealing to a younger audience than had been targeted in the past.

New functionality included an improved product catalog and admin, as well as an online appraisal form, allowing customers to receive product evaluations without the need to visit one of the physical locations. New content providing an explanation of the pawn and buying process was included, as well as information in Chinese, Korean and English, explaining tax free shopping available to visitors.

With its predecessor having been developed in Microsoft ASP, the new site and CMS was fully rebuilt using ColdFusion, with an MS SQL database and HTTPS connectivity.