WebCitz started working with this client in 2020
- Client: Russian American Company
- Platform: BigCommerce
- Industry: Retail / E-Commerce
- Services: Digital Marketing, Ecommerce, Maintenance / Support
Faced with legacy theme troubles and the challenge of reaching collectors worldwide, the Russian American Company sought to transform its online storefront for better visibility and usability. Through targeted technical fixes and refined SEO, their vast array of rare collectibles became more accessible to a global audience.
The Challenge
By 2020, the Russian American Company was operating on a legacy “Blueprint” theme in BigCommerce. Their primary digital hurdles included:
- Technical Theme Debt: Blueprint themes, while reliable, often suffer from code bloat and performance issues that aren’t present in the newer Stencil architecture. They needed expert troubleshooting to resolve bugs without breaking the site’s unique aesthetic.
- Niche Product Visibility: They offer incredibly specific items, such as museum-quality lacquer boxes from Fedoskino and Palekh. Ranking for these high-value, niche terms required a precise SEO strategy.
- User Experience (UX) Bottlenecks: Their catalog is vast and visually dense; they needed improvements to ensure that global collectors could easily navigate from “Alaskan Native Art” to “Russian Antiques” without friction.
The WebCitz Solution
We implemented an “Organic Reach and Technical Stability” roadmap to ensure their global audience could find and purchase their treasures:
- Blueprint Theme Remediation: We performed deep-level troubleshooting on their BigCommerce Blueprint theme. By fixing legacy bugs and optimizing the code where possible, we improved the site’s stability and ensured a smoother experience for high-ticket shoppers.
- Strategic Product SEO: We focused on improving the rankings for their core product categories. By optimizing for high-intent terms related to Matryoshka dolls, Faberge jewelry, and Russian art, we helped them capture traffic from serious collectors worldwide.
- Catalog Architecture Optimization: We worked to clean up their product data and category structures. This improved the site’s internal search capabilities and made it easier for Google to index their wide assortment of Russian and Alaskan gifts.
- Technical Performance Monitoring: Throughout the relationship, we kept a close eye on the site’s health, ensuring that the integration of their unique product galleries didn’t compromise the site’s load times or checkout reliability.
The Result
The work we performed for the Russian American Company provided a critical bridge between their historic brick-and-mortar presence in Sitka and their global digital audience. By resolving technical theme issues and sharpening their organic search presence, we helped ensure that their museum-quality inventory remained visible to the world’s most discerning collectors.
