PRESS RELEASE: It was a long time coming with 28 months in actual development, but it happened!

Hand with red handled scissors cutting a red ribbon wrapped around a violin

Fiddleheads "soft"-launched our incredible new Magento 2 e-commerce website on June 7, 2021

Magento is a robust and complex e-commerce solution almost exclusively used by much larger businesses, many of which are Fortune 500 companies. The goal was to replace the aged first website from the late '90s, which consisted of static HTML, with one that better showcases our instruments and makes for an incredible shopping experience for our customers.

The site has many enhanced shopping features such as (left side column) layered navigation attributes to narrow down products, massive FAQ and articles sections, and other helpful tools not even present on other massive platforms like Amazon and Ebay.

Fiddleheads' owner, and primary developer on the project, Rhiannon Nachbaur said, "It's impossible to compete with a company that literally has more than a million employees, but what I lack for in sheer numbers, I make up for with my expertise and little touches here and there that the big guys simply can't do."

 

Soft Launch

We say "soft launch" as there is optimization work to be done to improve the massive system so it was released without the marketing push behind a "grand opening." This beta version "dress rehearsal" helps us create a more sustainable and failure-resistant platform for our clients to enjoy sooner than later.

This is a common practice in the business and marketing world as new web technologies demand more tweaking than ever before. It's also far more sustainable to improve the site in real-world user conditions than working in a total vacuum.

"I could have worked on this for five years and still seen areas I wanted to improve," said Rhiannon. "But my customers were chomping at the bit to see Fiddleheads 2.0 so I was driven to 'git 'er done.'"

Adding to the pressure to launch the site was a 12-week deadline from StrongerBC's LaunchOnline, a Province of British Columbia grant through the Ministry of Jobs, Economic Recovery and Innovation. The program provides funding to B.C.-based business to create an online shop and/or improve their existing online operations to attract new local customers and expand to new markets.

"I was very pleased to hear that my application was successful and honoured that the adjudicators saw value in my project," said Rhiannon in March. "It also gave me a deadline, come hell or high water I needed to get this done!"

 

Rhiannon wearing two masks and a hospital gown doing thumbs up

Delays Due to Health Problems

[Photo: Rhiannon waiting for her surgery, May 2021]

The timing was impressive as was still recovering from an invasive cholecystectomy (gallbladder removal) less than a month before and the effects of prolonged sickness on her body.

The potentially lethal inflammation of her gallbladder kept her ill for the entirety of the project and lead her to stop teaching violin in late 2019. Despite this, our entrepreneur pushed through to get the site completed for her loyal customers.

"The specialists were all perplexed why I was so sick," she said. "My surgeon offered in early 2021 to remove my gallbladder as the painful attacks were worsening. It was purely process of elimination to take it out." 

It was only in the pathology reports that the extracted little greenish organ showed how serious the situation was. Ever the optimist, Rhiannon still sees the positives in the experience. 

"Now I know how emotionally resilient and physically strong I actually am," she said.

A week after the launch Rhiannon had two more hospital procedures and is feeling much better with each passing day.

 

Lydia in goth clothes standing beside a seated Rhiannon in a hot pink floral dress

The Finish Line

[Photo: Rhiannon, still recovering, with daughter Lydia, June 2021]

Though recovery was painful owing to her weakened state, Rhiannon says she felt an immediate difference to her chronic abdominal pain mere hours after the surgery and was inspired to charge to the finish line. Remember, this is a woman who lived over twenty years with a broken spine and overcame a risky spinal fusion in 2010 by with a return to her symphonic career only a year later.

"There were moments I felt like I was over my head with Magento because I am not a PHP programmer. I taught myself HTML and some CSS and this is a whole new ballgame!"

When Covid hit and many developers became swamped with brick and mortar shops clambering to move their sales online due to limited in-person shopping.

"Talk about bad timing," she laughed.

"My dev friends helped me when I got really stuck. I had to let a lot of less important items on the wish list slide, just as I had to let go of things I couldn't do because of Covid decrees and my declining health. Having this project to occupy me during isolation gave me something to focus on and give me a sense of purpose when my orchestras and the world overall was closed."

Impressingly, Rhiannon actually designed and built about 98% of the site entirely on her own, from the product photography, content writing, design and theme, overall site architecture, module selection and configuration, and all other necessary database and design elements.

She had the hired help of a couple professional programmers for the trickier back-end coding and security. She has since learned the ropes in some more accessible realms so she could manage the site largely by herself moving forward.

Her university student daughter Lydia stepped in near completion to finish moving vast amounts of compiled data over from the old site, such as testimonials, articles and product reviews as well as management of inventory information.

"If you see a product measurement, Lydia's the gal who did that work," proud mama Rhiannon said.

 

What's Next?

The new Fiddleheads site has many enhanced shopping features not even present on other massive platforms like Amazon and Ebay and is expected to provide a far better customer experience than the competition. "It's imposssible to compete with a company that literally has more than a million employees, but what I lack for in sheer numbers, I make up for with my expertise and little touches here and there that the big guys simply can't do."

This ambitious project sees brilliant plans in place to implement other features in the coming months and years, gauging what is best for our customers as she course corrects. Phase one was soft launch. Phase two before sees ironing out small bugs in overall site functionality, tweaking CSS theming, and optimizing page load speeds before the official "hard launch."

Phase three delves into more of her 20+ year wish list where the creative juices can flow.

"I would like to develop more interactive tools, gift cards, and more automated systems, but that's in the phase 3 step of my plans," she said.

"My immediate goal was for customers to see new products Fiddleheads has developed, like the Scarlatta and other additions to my Bellissima violins line, our new Voxy Panache bow, and some fun Fiddleheads swag in the gifts section of the site. I've been buzzing with excitement to see these items in the hands of my customers."

Rhiannon added, "No project of mine is that it's never finished. I love creating and innovating to improve experience for my customers. It brings me calm and pleasure to see Fiddleheads evolve."

 

What do you think of the new site? Add your comments below.