A component-driven platform for a UK vending leader
Connect Vending has kept UK workplaces fed and caffeinated for nearly 30 years, with 2,500+ machines in the field. Its website needed to sell like its account managers: understand the buyer's space, narrow the options fast, and back it all with proof. We built a component-driven WordPress platform that does exactly that.
- Client
- Connect Vending
- Sector
- B2B website
- Relationship
- Ongoing partnership
- Services
- UX and UI design · WordPress development · Search and filtering · Ongoing support
2,500+
Machines maintained
97%
Contract renewals
4-hour
Response guarantee
30
Years of vending
01 / the problem
A big catalogue that has to feel like a consultation.
Vending buyers don't browse, they qualify: how many staff, what space, coffee or fresh food, managed or wholesale. The site had to turn a wide catalogue of machines, micro markets and water solutions into guided journeys per sector and workspace.
The content team also needed to move without developers, which meant a section library flexible enough to build new landing pages while keeping the design system intact.
- 01 Guide buyers from need to shortlist quickly
- 02 Filter a wide machine catalogue meaningfully
- 03 Keep search instant across all content
- 04 Let the marketing team build pages themselves
02 / the solution
A section library with serious search behind it.
The build maps every page to a library of Blade components driven by ACF Flexible Content, so marketing assembles pages from proven sections rather than raw layouts. Custom post types model the real catalogue: solutions, services, sectors, case studies and testimonials, each with structured fields.
Discovery is the engine: FacetWP filtering tuned for machine selection and Algolia indexing every piece of structured content, so a facilities manager lands, narrows and shortlists in one visit.
what we delivered
The work behind the result
Component library on Sage 10 and Blade
The detail work that lifts the product above its spec.
ACF Flexible Content page building
Interface and identity work that gives the product its feel.
FacetWP product filtering
Mapping the users, journeys and decisions before anything was designed.
Algolia instant search
Mapping the users, journeys and decisions before anything was designed.
Sector and solution journeys
A clear route from first visit to a qualified enquiry.
Case studies and testimonial system
The detail work that lifts the product above its spec.
Careers and content hub
Structured content the team can publish without a developer.
Managed hosting and support
Kept fast, secure and current long after launch.
03 / the result
A catalogue that qualifies its own leads.
Connect Vending's platform now works like its best salespeople: guided journeys per audience, instant discovery across the catalogue, and a marketing team shipping new pages without a ticket queue.
