Possessing long-standing relationships carefully nurtured over the years with mainstream manufacturers, New Balance, Nike, Asics, Adidas, Vans, Airwalk, Reebok, Wilson, Converse, K-Swiss and Saucony—and 16 years of experience catering successfully to a finicky, Southern California clientele seeking footwear specifically for cross-training, tennis, walking, basketball, running, aerobics and those who simply enjoy wearing top quality athletic shoes—Sneakerland was poised to extend market reach by establishing a corporate presence on the Internet.

Sneakerland thrives on repeat customer business, offering name brand athletic shoes for men, women and children, as well as sport socks, caps and other accessories—all at discount prices. In 1998, with a 16-year-old business, two Southern California retail locations (Woodland Hills, CA and Thousand Oaks, CA) and a reputation built on quality, name brand athletic footwear, knowledgeable and attentive customer service, the company sought to bring their business to the Internet.

The challenges presented included a website where products could be showcased, browsed efficiently and purchased online. However, with so many manufacturers, products and styles and choices, the company needed a smart, but simple solution to make it easy to browse, search and locate styles for men, women and children and by manufacturer or type of shoe. In addition, with over 20 years of business experience, the company also sought related solutions for placing special orders, maintaining superior customer service, customer communications and backoffice operations, including order management, credit card processing, shipping and site maintenance, and turned to Imagine IT for a comprehensive eCommerce solution.

Expert user interface design and navigation was necessary to make it easy for customers to browse, search and locate styles on their own—an experience unlike the care and attention in-store customers receive from Sneakerland staff. The complexities of searching for men’s, women’s and children’s products specifically, or by manufacturer or type of shoe or style were analyzed and incorporated into the "Sneaker Search," a fundamental, yet powerful search feature developed for the website. Navigation from the Home Page also provides one-click access to "Hottest Styles," "Top of the Line" products and clearance items, to further help customers find what they are looking for quickly and easily. The Special Order Request Form was developed to allow the company to cater to its online customers by encouraging special orders and routinely handling those requests, particularly in situations where customers don't see exactly what they are looking for online.

The customizable shopping cart feature incorporates sales tax and shipping options according to Sneakerland’s business rules and interfaces with AuthorizeNet, a leading payment solutions provider, to process credit card transactions automatically via the Internet. The Sneakerland Website uses Imagine IT’s Order Management System (OMS), a component of the LiveWebä eCommerce solution which not only tracks and manages online orders, but facilitates a high level of customer service and satisfaction—key components on which the company has staked it’s reputation. Sneakerland employees can update the status of an order, from "New" to "Shipped" to "Completed," etc., which triggers automatic email notices to customers, keeping them up-to-date on purchase transactions. Each transaction is issued a unique order number, which customers can use to check the status of their order when returning to the site, including an estimated delivery date for their orders.