Every week, we work on more than a dozen ecommerce sites. When you include initiatives related to SugarCRM and Salesforce.com as well as other projects and technologies, we’re probably working with more than 30 customers per week. We genuinely believe each project has its own stand out merits and that we take away something positive and rewarding from each one. But every once in a while, we get to be involved with company or project that stands out from the pack and makes us feel especially good about what we do. That is certainly case with one of my favorite customers of all time, Cabbage Patch Kids (www.cabbagepatchkids.com).
Yes, this is the same Cabbage Patch Kids that many of us who care not to date ourselves that far back knew all too well in the 1980’s. If you hadn’t heard much about them recently, well, you probably haven’t paid too much attention to the Toy aisle at many of your major big box retailers. But that’s not the exciting part, what truly sets this customer and project apart is what is unique to the ecommerce store itself that we just helped re-launch a little while back.
Cabbage Patch does have a line of mass marketed products you will find in abundant supply at the Target, Walmart, and Toys R Us’s of the world. But if you visit their site, you’ll find there is an entire line of products that were previously only available if you visited Babyland General Hospital in Cleveland, GA. In addition, you’ll find that there their complete unique, authentic and truly one of a kind products are available online for the general public vs. the lifelong enthusiasts who previously had an inside track on every seasonal offering. Take note though, these items disappear almost as fast as they are added to the site, so quickly in fact that there is a time limit to how long they can be in your shopping cart before they’re released back to the rest of the world to prevent some individuals from claiming them all for themselves (and you thought only Ticketmaster did this?).
This site overhaul was a great experience for the team. http://www.CabbagePatchKids.com was completely redesigned and re-branded. The backend was fully integrated to the operational systems to quicken fulfillment cycles for customers who used to call daily to check on the status of their adoption of their one of a kind baby. New offerings such as birth certificate requests and the collector’s club memberships have been fully integrated as well.
While the site is exceptional, and a great example of how much Magento Enterprise can enable you to do, it’s a small part of the success of this great company. We encourage anyone who can to go visit the Cabbage Patch Kid team at Babyland General Hospital and be wonderfully surprised at how much fun you will have. Bring your kids and take a lot of pictures. It’s a beautiful setting (especially for those coming to the annual Easter Eggstravaganza on March 23, 2013 http://www.babylandgeneral.com/calendar/upcoming/ ). And if you are looking for a place to stay, there is no place more enjoyable or pleasant spot in this country for a long weekend than nearby Helen, Georgia. You’ll have to trust us on this one and visit for yourself to see why.
