After the events of 9/11 we realised that it was futile to keep working with print, the second our magazines left the presses they were immediately old news. Back in 2001 we made the decision to move all of our content to the web, that was 10 years ago. We’ve been through many iterations since then.
We’ve seen tables based layouts come and go, we’ve seen the rise of newsfeeds and their profound effect on instant news delivery, the tight integration of javascript across practically everything, the huge up-tick in online video and it’s use as a promotion tool (and the consequential bandwidth drain), a huge surge in mobile use and a greater use of browser technology (thanks Apple) to name but a few. At times it’s been tough, integrating a new technology or in fact methodology is always an exercise in patience.
On top of iterating our technological underpinnings we have spent an extraordinary amount of time focusing on our design, as the web has shifted. So too has our focus, specifically on UIX (User Interface Experience) and we have worked hard to streamline our sites to make them as accessible as possible regardless of platform or browser. As a consequence, information is now stored and accessed logically as you would expect - it still surprises us today as to how many sites fail to achieve this essential task.
We now have a platform we can be truly happy with. Our customers love it, we love it, constantly evolving and changing to make it a more effective means of communication for everyone’s benefit.
We have seen competition come and go; it’s a tough market out there and unless you are delivering results, it is unlikely that you will retain your customers. Over the last 10 years we have kept our customer retention rate above 90% which in this day and age of economic doom and gloom is a fact we are very proud of.
We are hugely grateful to all of our customers and site users for making us the original one-stop-shop for buyers and suppliers around the globe and we will continue to innovate in this space and deliver the results you are accustomed to.
Here’s to another 10 years!
