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How a Recipe Blog Became an e-Commerce Website

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For over 30 years, GoodCook has been relying on partners to sell their products. The only presence they had was an Amazon store. Recent changes in consumer behavior made GoodCook rethink its business strategy and enhance DTC (Direct-to-Consumer) selling into its operations.

The company had a perfect place to start to expand its online presence – the recipes blog with thousands of daily visitors.

The readiness to innovate and desire to put customers’ needs first encouraged GoodCook to explore the latest technology — Magento PWA.

The brand

GoodCook is part of the Bradshaw International family of brands — a company specialized in producing cookware, houseware, and foodservice equipment. Having more than 100 years of experience on the market, Bradshaw International has definitely and rightfully secured its place amongst the leaders in its industry.

GoodCook has been a pioneer brand of kitchen tools and gadgets, cookware, and metal bakeware in the United States for more than 30 years and has undoubtedly gained a lot of trust and love from enthusiasts and experts of cooking. You can find GoodCook kitchenware in probably every kitchen in the USA. However, one thing makes GoodCook stand out among a crowd of competitors: Despite being widely known and having a well-established relationship with its customers, the company is open to innovations and is not afraid to keep up with technology.

The story

GoodCook's website used to be a recipe blog, hosted via WordPress, with thousands of fans from all over the world before the massive PWA change on Magento 2.4.3. As more people went online, GoodCook felt compelled to convert the blog into an online store. The key problem was to implement e-commerce without losing any of the site's traffic or visitors.

Spoiler: mission accomplished

“We turned our WordPress recipe site into an e-commerce PWA site in just four months and a half. Not only did we not lose an ounce of our traffic, but have already started growing the site and are getting our first sales. I can only imagine the results when we launch our marketing campaign.” —Froy Terriquez, Direct to Consumer Website Manager, Bradshaw International

GoodCook chose GoMage to convert its WordPress recipe website into an e-commerce store. That was the main objective. The team needed to add e-commerce features that would allow users to add things to their shopping carts from recipe pages.

At the same time, the team needed to make sure that the transition, from being “just a blog” to becoming a full-fledged e-commerce website, went as smoothly as possible. The new functionality needed to be integrated in a way not to alienate users and turn them away from their beloved recipes blog.

The decision-making

It's never easy to pick the right platform. Especially when it comes to switching from one solution to another. As Bradshaw International was already familiar with Magento and its capabilities, it was the obvious pick. GoodCook, on the other hand, didn't stop just there.

Why stop at website development when you can integrate a solution that is lightweight, efficient, gives a smooth user experience, and has a lot more features than a regular website? Progressive web applications, or PWAs, proved to be an excellent choice for ensuring a smooth transition from a blog to an e-commerce site that would work across all devices and operating systems without alienating visitors.

At the time GoodCook was making a decision, around 75% of its website traffic was coming from mobile and tablet visitors. So, the business needed a solution that would work across all platforms. The company was choosing between two options: (1) to add e-commerce functionality to a recipe blog and build a native app, or (2) to turn its WordPress website into a PWA that combined the best features of both. The former option was time consuming and cost-prohibitive. PWA, on the other hand, ensured that all users had a great experience across all platforms and devices. At the same time, PWA technology allowed the company to cut the development cost at least by two- to three-times when compared to the development of a new e-commerce website and two native apps — for iOS and Android.

Scope of work

  • PWA development
  • Migration of WordPress blog to Magefan Blog
  • Integration with:
    • Information management system
    • Order management system
    • Payment gateway

Technology stack

The result

GoodCook was able to convert its former blog into a Magento PWA storefront in just four months and a half. The team handled all of the heavy coding and assisted with the migration of all data to the new content management system, as well as supported the integration of the GoMage PWA Storefront with Salsify, NetSuite, Klaviyo, Mailgun, and Cybersource. The team ultimately helped to achieve one main goal: a continuous, seamless user experience.

Visitors of GoodCook.com can now buy the products they love online. The recipe pages have a dedicated section with recipe related items so that visitors can buy products right from the blog pages.  The e-commerce features turned out to be a great addition and a significant step forward for the GoodCook company. With no new marketing expenditures, the e-commerce store is already generating purchases.

The move to PWA has already brought great results already:

  • The bounce rate was decreased by over 25%
  • Average session duration grew by around 31%
  • The number of pages viewed increased by around 57%

The work on GoodCook’s PWA continues with new features and improvements, which are designed to better establish GoodCook’s online presence and bring the company to new heights.