Leonard Joel
Enterprise-grade WordPress rebuild for Australia's oldest auctioneer, featuring real-time auction feeds, automated catalogues, and custom OpenSearch.
Client
Leonard Joel
Industry
Fine Art & Auctions
Year
2024
Technologies
About the Project
Established in 1919, Leonard Joel needed a modern digital platform that could showcase thousands of lots each week and funnel traffic to its surcharge-free bidding portal. I delivered a full WordPress overhaul—custom block theme, Advanced Custom Fields, and bespoke OpenSearch integration—that now powers an AWS Elastic Beanstalk stack. Weekly catalogues publish automatically from CSV feeds, while Issuu flipbooks, S3-hosted PDFs, and live bidding links create an immersive experience across fine art, jewellery, and luxury departments.
Key Features
Custom block-based theme with full-site editing
Automated import of weekly 'Salon' CSVs into catalogue pages
Custom OpenSearch endpoint for lightning-fast filtering & autocomplete
Issuu flipbook viewer and S3-hosted PDF catalogue delivery
Real-time bid links and live-stream countdown timers
Dynamic auction calendar with location and category filters
Mailchimp newsletter integration with GTM & GA4 events
WCAG-compliant design and Core Web Vitals optimisation
Multisite-ready architecture for future international branches
Results
55 % faster page loads versus the legacy site
Automatic catalogue publishing cut weekly admin time by ~6 hours
30 % increase in newsletter subscriptions within six months
Consistent first-page rankings for 'auction house Melbourne'
Site comfortably processes 1 k+ catalogue items every week without downtime
Positive client feedback on the modern aesthetic and ease of editing
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