BBC Children in Need appointed Screen Pages to design an online shopping site for the purpose of making it easier for people to donate to the charity and build on its record-breaking fundraising in 2014.
The project commenced in July 2014 and the completed website was launched in early October 2014 – in time for the Appeal’s programme of activities.
The BBC Children in Need website sells both classic merchandise, such as Pudsey Bears and ears for fundraising events, alongside products such as backpacks and lunch boxes, as well as accessories and gifts. All the profits from anything purchased through the site will go straight to the charity.
The results from the 2014 appeal were impressive: sales were up substantially on the previous year.
The online shop (at http://www.bbcchildreninneedshop.co.uk/) was developed with Magento Enterprise and is hosted at Peer1 with dual load-balanced front-end servers and back-end database server. It is synchronised with BBC Children in Need’s eBay store (using M2Epro’s eBay integration module) and its warehouse at Hallmark. Payment is via Paypal.
Overall, the appeal raised more than £32m. See the BBC website for the full story.