The Client

Based in the heart of Brighton, Kiss Me Kwik has been the UK’s go-to for "funny, rude, and cheeky" greeting cards and gifts for over 25 years. From their iconic seaside humor to contemporary pop-culture wit, they have grown from a local boutique brand into a major supplier for both retail customers and international trade partners.

The Challenge

With a massive catalog of hundreds of card designs and a diverse range of gift products, Kiss Me Kwik needed a digital platform that could handle the chaos of a busy e-commerce environment while remaining simple to manage.

The previous site needed an upgrade to:

• Bridge the Gap: Seamlessly serve both individual retail shoppers and bulk-buying trade customers on a single platform.

• Manage High-Volume Content: Allow the team to easily upload, categorize, and tag hundreds of new designs every season.

• Mobile-First Shopping: Ensure that the "impulse buy" nature of greeting cards translated perfectly to mobile users.

• Technical Reliability: Handle peak seasonal traffic (Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Christmas) without performance drops.

The Solution

Plan 9 developed a high-performance e-commerce solution that mirrors the vibrant, colorful energy of the Kiss Me Kwik brand. Built on a robust framework (Umbraco), the site prioritizes "content velocity"—the ability to get new products from the design studio to the digital shelf in minutes.

Key features of the project included:

• Integrated Trade Portal: A dedicated B2B area where trade customers can apply for accounts, view wholesale pricing, and place large-scale orders with custom shipping rules.

• Advanced Filtering & Search: With so many "rude" niches to cover, we implemented a lightning-fast search and filtering system, allowing users to find the perfect card by occasion, sentiment, or humor style.

• Streamlined Checkout: Integration with Stripe and PayPal to provide a secure, one-click payment experience, reducing basket abandonment.

• Automated Rewards System: A "Reward Points" engine that encourages customer loyalty by automatically calculating and applying points to retail accounts.

• Dynamic Visuals: High-resolution product galleries that showcase the tactile quality of their FSC-certified cards and brightly colored envelopes.

The Result

The new Kiss Me Kwik site is as bold and functional as the products it sells. It has transformed from a simple shop into a powerful business tool that manages the entire lifecycle of a card—from its debut as a "New In" item to its distribution across the globe.

Since the Plan 9 relaunch, the platform has:

• Boosted Conversion: Streamlining the mobile journey led to a significant increase in retail sales.

• Empowered the Team: The intuitive back-end allows the Kiss Me Kwik team to manage their own promotions, trade approvals, and stock levels without external help.

• Scaled for the Future: The site comfortably handles the extreme traffic spikes of the holiday season, ensuring that the only thing "cheeky" is the cards themselves—not the load times.