"Business Think has supported Melchior Chocolates and helped grow the business over the last fifteen years. Their advice and guidance have certainly helped to grow mail order and e-commerce sales.

The most significant time for the business was when Elliot convinced me to use Shopify and to replace our old website. He helped set up this new system, which proved to be far more efficient and easier to use than the previous websites I had worked with.

All in all, your knowledge and dedication have been very successful for Melchior Chocolates. I would recommend your services to people and businesses in need."

Carlo at Melchior Chocolates www.melchiorchocolates.co.uk

Our work with Melchior Chocolates

I first met Carlo when I worked as a business adviser at the Government support agency Business Link, many moons ago. When our business launched, Melchior Chocolates was one of the first customers.

The early projects focused on his e-commerce website, which had been built using ZenCart. The website was causing repeated challenges for the business, in terms of being able to update content and administration. The ZenCart dashboard is not user friendly and software updates had not been installed, causing technical issues with the website.

Initially the ZenCart site was retained and promotion was actioned using seasonal email marketing and Google remarketing Ads. The goal was to ensure his loyal customers remained brand aware and were proactively informed when new collections were added. However, despite increasing sales, it was clear that the main barrier to growth was ZenCart itself.

Carlo agreed to a Shopify migration, primarily because I assured him he would find the website easy to update and administer. A modern mobile responsive design would also convert more visitors into paying customers, as well as improving Google ranking.

The main challenge on this project was the out of date version of ZenCart on the existing website. The export function was not working, so it was impossible to migrate data, instead each item had to be copied and entered manually into the Shopify platform. Once launched, I held a half hour training session with Carlo, explaining how to use his new website. That was all it took to be up and running. Since that moment Carlo has updated and added new products, set up promotional discounts, processed all the payments and become completely independent.

Carlo won his first award in 1993, Henrietta Green’s highly esteemed ‘Best Chocolates in Britain’. You can also find Melchior chocolates in select delicatessens across the country, including Fortnum & Mason in London. Even though he has been a chocolatier for over thirty years in business, Carlo is still willing to embrace new ideas and technology outside his comfort zone. For those reasons, I enjoy working with Carlo; it’s not just because he occasionally leaves luxury chocolates on my keyboard when I’m not looking – although that works too!

Thank you Melchior Chocolates for asking Business Think to complete these projects.