The Objective
Based in St. Louis, Missouri, A.E. Schmidt Billiards is the oldest pool table manufacturer in the United States, spanning six generations and with dealers located all across the country. A.E. Schmidt’s craftspeople construct solid wood pool tables by hand, offering hundreds of customization options including cloth colors, sights, and wood finishes.
A.E. Schmidt came to Keybridge Web for a new website that better reflected their brand’s commitment to quality. The old site had a clunky user experience, utilizing plug-ins which no longer worked, and many broken links from pages that had been moved or deleted entirely. Their wishlist for the new website included a functionality for visitors to preview their pool tables with any given finish and cloth color options. They were also looking for the ability for users to request a pricing estimate on their selected pool table options through the site.
The Solution
Keybridge Web designed and built a customized website for A.E. Schmidt which elevates the billiards table manufacturer’s brand to an entirely new level. Keybridge generated table combination images for and implemented the customizer functionality, allowing visitors to select a cloth and finish color on any given table in the catalog and see the product photo change before their eyes.
Although the catalog structure uses the WooCommerce plugin, A.E. Schmidt chose not to sell pool tables directly through their website. Instead, Keybridge implemented an “Add to Quote” function. Once visitors select their perfect combination of options, they can add their customized pool table to a list. Once submitted, that list is emailed to A.E. Schmidt, to which they respond with a quote to craft and ship the constructed table to the customer’s nearest dealer.
The redesign process also included consolidating some of the existing static pages, creating a much slicker user experience for the Archived Tables section, a much-expanded History page to accommodate their extensive brand story, and a live Instagram feed integrated on the homepage.
