Connecting a cross-border business community
The West Cheshire & North Wales Chamber of Commerce is the only cross-border Chamber in the world, supporting more than 650 businesses across two countries since 1921. It does far more than networking. Advocacy, international trade, training and the Young Chamber programme all sit under one roof.
The problem was that little of this came across online. Members had to move between two separate websites, a public site and a member login, each with its own feel, and the wider benefits were buried. The Chamber wanted a site that felt modern and trusted, made every benefit easy to find, and brought both experiences together in one place.
We refreshed the brand, rebuilt the website on WordPress with a full Rubi CRM integration, and set up a quarterly retainer to keep developing the site long after launch.
Measurable Improvement
Within a month of launch, we were already seeing measurable improvements in how people used the site. Comparing the 30 days before launch with the 30 days after, people were exploring more, engaging more and finding more reasons to stay. Bounce rate fell by 48%, alongside significant increases in engaged sessions, engagement rate and events per session.
It’s a strong early sign that making content easier to find and creating a simpler, more connected experience is helping people get more from the Chamber online.
Two sites, one journey
The biggest change was joining two separate experiences into one. Members used to sign in on a different site that looked and felt nothing like the public pages. We mapped every journey across both, from joining and renewing to booking an event, and rebuilt them as a single, seamless flow.
We went through every form, sign-up and step, cutting anything that slowed people down and rewriting the language as we went. Labels like "policy and insights" that meant little to a busy business owner were replaced with plain wording that describes what you actually get. With most visitors arriving on desktop and events driving a lot of that traffic, we designed those key journeys desktop-first, then made sure they held up everywhere else.
Warmth and community
A big part of the brief was showing what the Chamber does in a warmer, more human way. We led with real member photography and a genuine sense of community, so the benefits come through as people and stories rather than a list of features. Making those benefits easy to see matters commercially too, as members who understand everything they get are far more likely to stay.
A refresh, not a rebrand
The Chamber didn't need a new identity, it needed a sharper, more consistent one. We kept the core red, black and white and the British Chambers of Commerce leaf, then refined the wider colour palette and typography to create a clearer, more modern system. We also turned the existing leaf shape into a flexible graphic device, giving the Chamber a more distinctive way to frame content across the site.
We assigned each area of the Chamber, including International Trade and the Young Chamber, its own recognisable colour within that system, with clear rules for how and where each should be used.
Integrated with Rubi
The Chamber stores all its member data in a CRM called Rubi. The problem was that members had to leave the website to use any of it: the public site ran on WordPress, while the member area was a separate system bolted onto Rubi. That's where the "disconnected" feeling came from, the two really were different places.
We closed the gap with a secure, two-way link to Rubi's API. Members can now log in, update their details, book events and apply for membership straight from the website, all staying in sync with Rubi automatically. The Chamber keeps its dedicated platform for managing members, and members get one polished place to handle everything.
Delivering it meant coordinating three parties: the Chamber, our designer Vic, and Rubi, who control access to the data. This was the role of our developer, Rich, who worked between all three, translating our designs into a functioning site and securing the changes from Rubi that made the integration possible.
Built to flex
A large part of the site is filled in by members themselves, through directory profiles, offers and events. That is a real design challenge. It still needs to look good whether a member uploads a logo or leaves it blank, writes two lines or ten.
We built flexible layouts and content blocks that hold their shape around whatever goes in. The same system lets the Chamber team build content-heavy pages that never feel flat, and adapts to new content without needing a different design for every block.
Planned to grow
The Chamber had ambitious plans for the new website, but not everything needed to happen at launch. We helped them prioritise the features and content that mattered most, while making sure the site was built to accommodate what came next.
We then created a quarterly development plan as part of an ongoing retainer, giving the Chamber a clear roadmap for new features, improvements and content after launch.
We’re absolutely delighted with the website that Stride created for WCNW Chamber. It has a fresh design and feel and we are so pleased with what the team have created. This was a complex project, particularly with the site needing to connect seamlessly with our CRM through APIs, but the team guided us through every stage with patience, expertise and real care. They were helpful, responsive and a pleasure to work with throughout. We’re thrilled with the end result!
Matthew Hodgson Membership & Communications Manager
