New Website Launch: eCommerce Redesign for B2B Clothing Brand True North Gear

B2B Clothing Company Goes D2C

From backpacks and bags for firefighters under the True North label, and a broad range of fire-resistant clothing under the DragonWear label, the True North Gear brand has a wide range of products uniquely designed for their customers. True North's philosophy has been to provide innovative products at competitive prices, then back them up with a lifetime warranty and great customer service.

The previous True North Gear website was created as a catalog to show off their gear, but users could only buy wholesale. With the changing landscape of eCommerce, the TrueNorth team wanted to be able to directly interact with their customers while also creating a smoother experience for their dealers as well.

After a lot of collaboration with the TNG team, we decided that the best way forward was to create two separate sites - one for wholesale, and one for D2C. With this format, we were able to add complex functionality to the B2B site, while putting content at the forefront of the direct-to-consumer site. 

B2B Website Development

For the B2B site, we created a number of unique aspects of functionality, including order lookup, a custom home screen with a required login,  quick order lists, and much more. We powered this site with BigCommerce as the eCommerce engine, giving us flexibility and customization to make the website meet all the needs of the True North Gear team.

D2C Website Design 

When it came to the D2C site, we wanted to use the beautiful imagery that the TNG team had of their products in use and put content at the forefront using a Content Management System - in this case FusionCMS. Since some users may be new to the TNG or Dragonwear brand, we wanted to make sure it was an educational site that provided information about their origin store, proprietary fabrics, and showed off their product in numerous environments. When a user lands on the site, the first call to action is for the user to learn more about the brand’s story, showing how crucial it is for them to understand the people behind the brand. 

For the navigation of this site, we created a mega-menu that gave users a lot of different options to shop by, including the category, job, gender, certification, and collection. This allows the user to build out their own path and shopping experience based upon how they’re searching. For an audience that often knows what type of clothes and gear they’re looking for, a menu like this is a great way to make it easy for them to find it. 

To read more about the project build, read our portfolio entry on the True North Gear redesign. 

Ready to make the leap from B2B into D2C? 

We can help. With over 15 years of experience helping businesses build their online presence, we can help strategize, design, and build out a full 360 marketing plan to help build your business. Want to know how? Email us at [email protected], call us at 206.384.4909, or fill out our contact form and one of our digital strategists can help decide how to grow your business.