About
In 2023, shoppers expect online retailers to help them find, discover, connect, and deliver in faster, more engaging ways.
Learn how to leapfrog your competitors with 4 key ecommerce strategies to increase sales.
Our panel of ecommerce industry experts will unpack the strategies and deliver in-depth insights, including:
👉 Find – help shoppers do what they came to do.
👉 Discover – make product discovery more engaging.
👉 Connect – create seamless online and offline retail experiences.
👉 Deliver – define your post-purchase competitive advantage.
Today, we’re going to be diving into the concept of the future is fast and four key e-commerce strategies to increase sales a couple of interesting stats from the e-book so 34 of sites couldn’t return useful results when misspelling even a single character I hate not being able to find products uh online uh 34 sorry 83 said it’s appealing to receive assistance finding and selecting the right product for their needs I’m really looking forward to diving into that uh stat and that that concept a little bit more today and a massive 85 of Shoppers set a bad delivery experience would prevent them from ordering again and we’ve all received those uh slow or poor delivery experiences that would question making that repeat purchase thank huge everyone that completed the registration question which strategy are you most focused on to increase sales this year some of the call outs so improving conversion rates we know conversion rates are struggling uh at the moment for some Brands so really getting focused on how to make the most of the traffic that’s coming to site with a real lens on improving conversions but then also looking at that upselling and increasing Revenue per visit or growing the average order value and looking at how personalization can play into that as well and I think one of the ones which is absolutely high on everybody’s radar right now is how to use that to improve customer retention and loyalty as well
um for those that I don’t know myself I am Kate Massey our head of APAC for Searchspring uh included on the screen are some QR codes um feel free to connect with us all on LinkedIn using those QR codes um super excited to announce our Rockstar panel we have Sarah joining us as the e-commerce product manager of cookie has been with a brand for a massive over a decade now I’ve seen a lot of change and a lot of growth and a real focus on having that Best in Class online shopping experience we’re looking forward to diving into that we also have Dan Ferguson Chief marketing officer for adore Beauty anyone that has shopped on adore beauty knows you don’t just buy the one thing you went there to get they they’re very good at growing the average order value but they sweeten the deal by making sure that those delivery experiences arrive really quickly I’m a run out of something and need extra right away so we really appreciate that and we love the tim tams that come with those deliveries as well uh I’m really excited to introduce Samantha as well um fun facts month has now worked across three Searchspring clients Helen Kaminsky age and now is the head of e-commerce and digital for venroy that are doing really great things in creating a really great community of shoppers now also really excited to announce our partners that have uh first of all we bought this event together in Melbourne at half acre it was our largest long table lunch we turned it into an ebook and now we’re unpacking that concert those Concepts a little bit further today uh we have Michael the founder and CEO for Prezi Andrew the CEO and co-founder of stock in store and James the co-founder and head of Partnerships at render I’m really looking forward to hearing from each of these both uh Brands as well as these Partners on unpacking how can we help Shoppers get to find products discover them connect and deliver in a much more seamless and efficient way to create those competitive advantages so really excited to dive into our first strategy the concept of find and how do we help Shoppers do what they came to do um we have joined me for this section is Sarah from cookie very quickly about searchspring there is a QR code on the screen if you are new to learning about searchspring dive onto that QR code learn a little bit more about us but really goes back to those initial survey questions we’re really focused with brands on how to improve conversions uh how to grow the average order value but having a really seamless shopping experience and getting the right product the right Shopper at the right time and bringing the concepts of search merchandising and personalization altogether whilst at the same time letting technology do a lot more of the heavy lifting so Sarah welcome um one of the things we’ve been talking about lately uh Sarah is the concept of this consider purchase we know conversions can be struggling at the moment people are still buying online and and in store but they are considering those purchases more and whilst the percentage of traffic using search is usually a little bit less it is Inc accounting for an increasing amount of the revenue I know with cook I sick just six percent use the search bar but that has grown to a mass of 32 of Revenue so Shoppers that know what they’re looking for now um 65 of Shoppers say the most influential website aspect is ease of navigation and 83 said a good digital experience is being able to quickly accomplish what I came to do Sarah how are you helping Shoppers find what they came for when they come decide to impact question thanks for having me here today Kate and team um yeah no critical exactly that last line that you mentioned being able to quickly accomplish uh customers being quick being able to come by and quickly accomplish what they want or find what they want really and I think now in a need it now want to now world it’s so crucial for your Ecom experience so that customer experience to really have search as almost a backbone I think I I like to refer to it um that backbone of of the website and being able to find the right product find the relevant products um that customers are after you know I think we all um we all instinctively you know default to Google searches nowadays and you know it’s that mindset of searching you’re not looking up something specific or going directly to somewhere you’re sort of treating you know customers can treat your website as a bit of a Google search so it’s so important to have those right keywords and um in place having your synonyms download just spell checks um and those things you know that come with um that search experience search is such a critical component and that’s not just basic search to stuff okay search it’s that good powerful search that really Powers um that experience and sight and particularly for a fashion and apparel retailer like ourselves it is so important to be able to showcase the right products the breadth of the range um you know we’re known for our Fabrics here at Cook eye so what’s that black dress that you’re looking for and what does that mean when you’re searching on on site and being able to narrow it down to say what UK would specifically need to search for this weekend going out for a night out on the town what does that mean in being able to Showcase um the relevant search results so I think with that you know being able to partner with yourselves you know has really been able to elevate our customer experience online and I know being as you mentioned earlier being here for 10 years we’ve seen some interesting research I guess Seasons I’d probably like to call it and being able to partner with a powerful solution like search spring has been such a vital component to our e-commerce experience online and bringing that to life hand in hand with um the power of of merchandising and telling stories for our merchandising showcasing um you know particular campaigns um you know leveraging the merchandising insights as well as search insights to make those decisions and really continue to evolve the customer experience online and I guess you know we could probably talk for a long time about these points but you know you add in your filters yours your your spelling Corrections um synonyms and and all of that and just being able to leverage on those elements of of that search and match experience is really crucial to that um overall customer experience online yeah absolutely that that stat that I mentioned uh at the start um around 34 of sites not returning useful results with a misspelling by a single character and um having that auto spell correction but based on that product catalog not on a dictionary is so important um yeah and I think the other the other piece there is um picking up that data and insights and being able to use those insights to inform that future decision uh making and I know the the team really lean into that a b testing as well now um then a 54 said um they purchased shop they purchase products when they came across them unexpectedly now I’m surprised that number’s not higher because I know that is the way I shop I am an e-commerce manager’s dream Shopper I’m one of those Shoppers that will always grow my average order value by adding things to cart that I was definitely not looking for how do you help Shoppers on that product Discovery Journey for us um I guess the the biggest one for us is leveraging the search for recommendations widgets and the one that we’ve really um you know has been quite powerful us um since partnering with the solution is um either you may also like and the recently viewed widgets which have proven quite powerful and as I mentioned earlier with with a range of um of the collection that we have when it comes to dresses and pants and you know an array of wide leg pant it’s you know really being able to Showcase those alternate options and sort of you know um have in in customers direct view or what those other Alternatives might look like based on I guess their interaction with the with the site and the products that they’ve been interacting with then likewise going back to the good old black dress example um you know one can never have too many black dresses particularly here in Melbourne what does that look like for you is it long sleeve is it round neck is it short sleeve is it midi Maxi Etc we’ve been gone for days but I I guess having the the powerful tool there that actually showcasing relevant um recommendations and not showing you something that’s you know sort of completely um left field that you know isn’t quite relevant to your journey and to what you have um engaged with on site so that for us has been a real powerful tool and and being able to also on top of that delve into a b testing which is something that we’ve been super excited about and being able to see some um really interesting results and I guess as well the power of a b testing through merch um sort of proving I get some of your own personal theories wrong and and I think that’s where you can sort of see those results and able to take actions and take that back to the business and and be like you know what this is this is what’s actually happened um maybe we need a bit of an internal mind shift or maybe we need to just give it a go and a bit of a test and learn process there with the um ABC testing powers that that search spring has to offer so for us that I feel like we’re probably only um you know really hit the tip of the iceberg there and there’s just so much more to unpack there and um and really delve into more and more yeah absolutely and I think like it’s great to see those uh what else have customers viewed but of a similar nature whenever we’re on the cookie side and you’re jumping around and clicking through different things those recommendations are so similar to where I currently am in my shopping journey and like cooker is one of our top personalized products performers right like it’s so great to to see that actually really turning into that Revenue number as well um so then from a um new product releases new collection drops going into sales and promotion times are all key part of the cook High sales strategy um what are your tips for focused on growing conversions the average order value and then that retention piece that was pulled out in that survey earlier is those key priorities for e-commerce managers yeah um for us I think the biggest thing has been the power of the banners um you know something that’s really transformed um that experience on site and whether that’s um launching a brand new summer collection or winter collection um right through to our Peak promotional periods um or so we’ve got after payday this week as I’m sure everyone’s gearing up for and obviously the likes of Black Friday coming up um not not too far away from us being able to Showcase um whether that’s beautiful campaign content content that’s been shot in Queenstown our lovely winter campaign was shot there this year um really elevating that customer experience on site through our collections Pages um video banners static image banners um but those sort of um highlight moments of the season but on top of that during those Peak periods or promotional periods being able to call out specific messaging from a promotional aspect or um through our sale collections um more tailored messaging around around there through the banners has been quite key for us and really powerful and something that you know the business has certainly been excited about and a real elevation in that customer Journey on site since partnering with the team at search spring so that’s been super exciting um on top of that badges are a big thing for us as well being able to um you know create some sense of urgency with our best sellers with things that are almost out of stock and we’ve had some really real key pieces this um season where we’ve had some hot sellers that are just in one day and out the next so for us to be able to highlight that and showcase that um as well as with the merchants merchandising aspect to leveraging those insights using the combination of all three to really maximize that conversion and you know send the send the right message across communicate um and tell the story that we need to tell also yeah absolutely they’re almost gone bad gets me every time really uh plays into that scarcity okay yeah I know I know um and so does my credit card um great so uh thank you so much for going through all that some really good uh actual uh tips and insights um really appreciate you sharing that and we’ll be welcoming you back shortly but let’s dive into our second strategy now and so joining us we’ll have Michael from Prezi and Dan from adore Beauty unpacking the concept of discover so over to you Michael thanks Kate really appreciate that and thanks Dan for your time so um moving straight into it I think the second part of the strategy is all about Discovery so I’m going to ask Dan a couple questions just on the work that he’s been doing throughout his career so I think it’s uh great we just get straight into it so Dan going on the theme of the webinar and the event we all know the um e-commerce industry is moving so fast and when things move at this kind of pace it’s really easy to just miss things Miss Trends or make mistakes so getting straight into the deep end down we all know you’ve been in Ecom for a while so from your experience and um from your various roles can you give us some you know examples or um some ideas of some big mistakes or some things that you’ve maybe missed that you’re happy to share yeah sure mate um look I mean um things are moving pretty fast right now and there’s you know ups and downs in the economic cycle and I mean just think about when you’re in a real rush to get somewhere I don’t know you but uh my kids are screaming and and we just need to get out the door I’m just focused on getting out the door you know like everything else becomes not necessary it really Narrows down you know what you focused on and and what you consider you miss a whole bunch of stuff um and it’s similarly you know when things are moving fast or when there’s variations in the economic cycle sometimes you get conservative sometimes you actually go into protection mode and you miss things so the first thing I’d say is one of the mistakes over all the different businesses I’ve been in you know thinking about 2008 thinking about the ups and downs uh more recently as well um is don’t narrow your focus so you know keep keep across all the opportunities now that’s a bit of a vague one really um but uh I think an example is covered so March 2020 um there was a huge variation the world was shutting down lots of companies you know started slashing their investment as well um and uh you know we carefully looked at internal and external data brought it together to be able to forecast what was going on so I think when the situation when when the conditions are moving really quickly get all the data you can to try and inform a consistent and strong decisive you know action set um because then you’ll take advantage now other companies will be flailing other businesses will be flailing around going oh my God you’ll have a clear view on hey is this an opportunity for us or is it a risk um or what are the mixes there so use external internal data we use you know various external sources combine them internal and it sort of had a good estimate on what it was going to mean for us and that meant we took instant action I think that’s really important I think back to 2008 um you know I was at General pants launching their e-commerce business um and um where you know it was a bit of a varying up and down economic time and one of the things I did to really accelerate their their total database and their total e-commerce growth was use every single one of their stores to collect emails overnight you know tens of thousands of emails came flying in and I think in varying conditions when things are moving fast leverage your assets more you know really sweat your assets so if you’ve gone out and bought an incredible C CRM email platform ASP customer marketing platform whatever you want to call it and you’re using you know half of it Now’s the Time that you use its full capability so go to every one of your SAS platforms and speak to them about what you can do more with their product I think that’s really important as well other mistakes well you know the great thing about in Ecom mistakes sometimes be great so sorry emails that’s a mistake but they respond really really well and also emails in general don’t make the mistake of treating them like I don’t know golden winged eagles which are precious and you know will live forever they won’t they’re like butterflies or cicadas or blowflies they last for 24 hours in your customers Minds so get them out there test you know iterate get them get their customer feedback and then go on to the next one give you give your team and Empower your team the ability to run those themselves rather than having to get multiple points of feedback in your business so that you can fail faster when even faster I think they’re really important things and in this environment as well another thing is you know everything’s moving fast keep a careful eye on the slow burn stuff so you know that’s about the stuff that’s harder to measure in your business um try to connect that to Value whether that be directly via GA or via links or codes you know I think about all that content you need to prove the value of that stuff and think about how they’re generating and supporting customer repeat and LTV don’t discard those when things get variable or when things are moving too quickly yeah yeah no they’re great points then I think one of the things you mentioned is almost like keeping opportunistic you know lots of the e-com managers we speak to often they might speak to a vendor or block out an hour a week to speak to a couple vendors just to see what’s what’s kind of trending so moving on to the next question there is a lot to talk about online and obviously offline now um there is a lot of when it comes to online specifically what do you think that um online or Pure Play businesses can do to make make experiences great um that often don’t have the support of physical stores because lots of businesses especially we work with the Omni Channel and the support the stores can support the um the site but um do you have any any tips that you can share to how to make a pure play kind of stand up against those omnichannel brands yeah look I mean I think you have to it sounds like something I tell my kids be true to yourself um you need to you need to use the advantages of your own platform or format um and with online I think the the first thing is um to make a great experience online you need to nail the nuts and nuts and bolts so that’s consistency delivery returns complaints make them really smooth um and make them easy so that let’s assume you now the nuts and bolts then I think you need to what I call go beyond the transaction whilst they’re in the transaction so do more than just oh here’s you know you want to buy that here take let’s take your money reviews and lots of them and make sure they’re authentic range that they want you know not just what you think is going to be valuable or lucrative but range that they want that means listening to them and I think that’s another thing too so listening to your customer now you know if you think about a store they walk in there they dissatisfy they make that really clear the store learns a good store manager anyway um however in online you need to make sure that you also get that Advantage so make sure that you’ve got really strong points of collection of customer feedback not feedback once they’ve got the product but when they’re in the store as well as when they got their product and make sure that feedback plugs straight into your team and make sure your team cares about it and the way to do that is demonstrate care so you care about it as well you know um so and for us that means that we’ve got we’ve got piped positive and negative reviews constantly coming in and I constantly talk about them with with our team and our team costly circumstance circulates them as well so that helps you iterate and change and make a great experience and I think the last point is is that you really need you know if you think about a great in-store experience it will be someone coming up to go hey can I help you with something or if I think about the best experience it’s like hey Dan you were here last week I remember that you know you really like love that style of shirt etc etc it’s that kind of Discovery and anticipation and personalized experience um now you know it’s no it’s no surprise and Michael we’ve worked with Prezi for a while at a door and and one of their products sort of um their Discovery products their Journeys Prezi Journeys um has been really powerful for us in terms of meeting that customer and saying hey are you looking for yourself for a gift what like helping them move from um a shopper to a buyer without them feeling like they’re being pushed down a funnel because often in e-commerce it’s like you’re on an escalator straight to a checkout point and what’s great about in-store is this sense of Discovery explore exploration understanding and so that’s that’s been powerful for us um and it’s part of what sort of I think drives a great online experience irrespective of in-store you know we could we can have we can make brilliant experiences just online uh yeah thank you Dan that was that was great so to my last question like I’ve been buying from JB Hi-Fi a lot I think their experience in-store and online is the best that’s why I keep coming back um simply pull we we know that there’s a lot of value in post-transaction after the first transaction um in your experience what value can Brands bring but beyond the first checkout which ultimate ultimately goes to increasing lifetime value and keep customers coming back yeah look I mean I think um people might have seen that ad on TV a while ago where there’s a couple in a bank signing a mortgage and the second they sign all the walls drop away and they’re in the middle of a desert often for online retailers it’s almost the same right once once they’ve pressed checkout we’re like oh hey you know we’ve done our job now it’s if you think about a real shopping experience it’s in a mall or it’s in a shopping center or it’s um in a High Street and it’s kind of this beautiful Discovery you go to one shop you go to another it’s it’s a it’s an organic experience so I think first of all post checkout um as a business you need to make sure you nail a few things things like you know emails and follow-up how do you like the product what was your experience um information you know how you bought this can we suggest that you know you use it that way or here’s some ways to get the the most value out of the thing you bought I also think um really relevant content to help them keep on Discovery and keep on finding more things out about the particular category they um they shopped in and I think about you know like I said before if you if you once you’ve actually purchased then you browse onto the next door and that kind of Discovery is really powerful it’s also as a business it’s about you know if those businesses are kind of indirectly co-referring each other if I’m in a mall and um I’ve got my store there well then once they shop with me they go off to the next place and I’m kind of indirectly referring I think that’s really powerful it’s positive for the business as well because they’re getting leads to traffic people coming to them and they’re sending traffic out externally um again Michael no surprise we chatted about this a year ago um and you started as part of that conversation you started a new product in in Prezi called nextbuy and what that does is you know once someone’s shopped at any of that next by Network they can then get referred to another retail partner just like a shopping center um and we we kind of talked about that because what we’ve done is set up one-to-one direct Partnerships with other businesses and in this in this current environment but in any in any you know across the economic cycle Partnerships are really powerful so you know I’m not going to Advocate that everyone must go to crazy and next buy it’s something we use it’s really powerful but um Partnerships even by themselves are really valuable it’s a it’s a way of sharing traffic it’s a way of we’re all paying for Google all matter all that traffic we don’t need to individually pay we can share the traffic so Partnerships are really powerful they do take a lot of effort and set up though and you know only what is it eight months in um next buyer’s got over 50 I think over 50 retailers already signed up uh and so for us you know aside from that constant post-sale experience where we’re following up adding value encouraging them to keep on shopping you know if I think about the app as well there’s an app limbo bar and that bar is if I don’t use my app more than once every two to three months I delete it so you’re going to need to add content something else on that ad that’s beyond the transaction in order to keep the repeat and to stop them deleting app so there’s all those things we do but also to use and to to Really value every um every uh traffic and every visit and every exploration every user that comes to us to make sure that um we we refer and give them added value post shop we’ve used Partnerships and specifically next buy because it helps us you know get instant Partnerships Just Add Water 50 plus and keep referring so there’s value in that for us as well because we get referrals back yeah yeah thank you Dan appreciate that and um excellent plugs so on that basis I will hand it back over to our wonderful MC Kate so um thank you Dan for your time that was brilliant great great job and yeah Dan and the adore team I just have to say commend you both on how to make your site like really easy to get to the products that you go your tried and tested the brands and the products that you’ve used for uh the last 10 20 years but then also really focused on that Discovery Priests of those new brands those new products particularly those best sellers and those top rated um that I love being able to to uncover those new ones and that loyalty piece uh tying it all together definitely keeps me coming back time and time again to learn more about uh Prezi there is a QR code on the screen take a quick snap and you’ll be able to learn even more about the great work that they do and the brands that they power let me now uh welcome back Sarah from cookie and introduce um Andrew from stock in store they are going to um really look into the strategy of connect and creating those seamless online and offline retail shopping experiences
Kate hi Sarah welcome back thanks for having me two for one today absolutely ABS absolutely um so I mean uh today uh our topic is connect and I guess from a from a stocking store perspective um you know one of the things that we um brought ourselves on is is that we through our omnichannel Solutions actually connect up um your customers with um with not just the website but through to stores and the Erp system and all aspects of yeah the retail operations business and and we also touch all parts of I guess a Retailer’s business in terms of you know digital because we touched the website Finance retail Ops all of these areas of of of the business so in terms of connecting you know what was one of I guess the the key thoughts and and concerns and I guess cook I had initially in terms of you know um putting its click and collect solution in place and you know and and its impact on the business as a whole in in Touching all of those areas of you know connecting up yeah well I think for us given that we’ve you know sort of worked together for quite some time I was thinking about it the other day there’s been six seven plus years now I think if I can count correctly um yeah you’re one of our first customers yeah six six years ago six that’s okay good I got the number right um I think for that you know we I’ve obviously partnered with stock in store um prior to the click and collect piece from that find install functionality for our website and I think you know um partnering with the guys at um the stock installers it was a huge um you know it made sense for us when it came to that um click and collect component because it was sort of I guess I guess you could almost say a bit of the The Next Step um for us in terms of um what really that experience looked like on site it was an existing feature from that find in store perspective and being able to then obviously um go down the click and collect path with Andrew and the team it made a lot of like a lot of sense for us to just continue to down that path and really I guess evolved that familiarity on site for the customer more um more importantly that there wasn’t such a huge change or a shift in that um and for us it’s so important to be able to to partner with um solutions that are really customer-centric and really customer focused and I think Andrew and the team are very used to our sometimes peculiar use cases is probably the better phrase to to use and being able to collaboratively work together to partner and really work through those use cases that can be quite um specific to to the business needs and I think when you you are looking at sometimes other Solutions you as a business are sometimes subject to um I guess that overall technical Pace or whatever it might be but I think for for cool guy and the team at stocking store that collaboration piece has really served as well over the six years and being able to really collaboratively really work together and um and continue to evolve that customer experience online and in store now so yeah thanks thanks so much and and in terms of I guess um you spoke about the customer and the customer experience I guess what have you found since since implementing click and collect and it wasn’t yeah it wasn’t that long ago it was only really a few months ago that we we finally got there um I guess what’s the the customer feedback one one of the things that I guess has has come through in terms of feedback from everyone that’s you know that’s filled in the survey was you know conversion rate um and and upsell and all of these sorts of things in these tight Economic Times you know what’s what’s the feedback that you’ve had from customers in terms of that experience and and how click and collect has actually driven you know some of those those I guess metrics for for the business yeah well I think I mean as cliche as it sounds easy really really and and giving the customer that peace of mind um as I I mentioned earlier um in my session with Kate just then you know we’ve had some of these um critical I guess products that have really just sold out um and some sort of hot high-end items that have really been able to um I guess with the click and collect um service being able to really give that either um of that shopping experience to the customer and that peace of mind that they can go into store knowing that they have um secured um that final product or that final last one in in the business that we may not be bringing back so to be able to have that and then that obviously Translating that customer experience into store and having our um our retail team be able to have the opportunity to to upsell and talk about um the garments a little bit more and being able to provide um instructions on how to care for it and all those elements that you would get um from that in-store experience and I guess having the customer really um almost not have that sort of distinct divide between both it is cool guy at the end of the day um whether they transact online or in store has really um I guess continued to to um blur those lines almost and just have it um as that all you know towards that really true omnichannel experience and in terms of I guess um in the topic of you know um the the the fast you know principle um but yeah one of the things that we’ve seen in in some of the reporting metrics that we’ve we’ve seen on you know um that have come through is essentially you know and and Retail operations we had you know a lot of conversations about what impact it would actually have on the retail operations teams in stores and you know being disruptive and all of these sorts of things and you spoke just before about um giving them the ability to actually meet with the customer talk to the customer personally identify them and then that concept of personalization when customer walks in um you know how easy has it been for the store staff and I think we see um there’s about 80 of um all click and collect orders are coming through a customer gets a notification that it’s ready to collect within two hours so in terms of I guess speed and far getting getting things fast and customers getting things fast you know how has that impacted I guess customers experiences and expectations to just being able to have to order it online and wait for it to be delivered how what what’s the customer feedback been in the stores feedback been in that regard yeah well I think for us internally I mean from working on the project I think we were quite pleasantly surprised at um you know the real uptake from our retail team and obviously um you know we’ve got those conversations around reporting and sales attribution and all that other fun stuff uh but for us we were really excited to see um the yeah exactly like you said that 80 um uh yeah it’s enough customers getting their notifications on time and just the excitement from the retail team to be able to put together that order go through the whole entire process and I think for us um as a business the biggest thing about the stock install solution was how easy it was for our retail teams to receive the order easily step through the process quite um almost you know you just sort of don’t have to think about it really step through that wrap up the order send the notification off to the customer and it is really a non-fictional point also for the retail team so as um as easy as it is for the customer but also for us internally ensuring that um it’s easy for our staff to be able to fulfill that order in store um and you know having that as as part of an enjoyable experience for the team in store and really motivating them empowering them to um have that ease of um ease of use to fulfill that order quite well and also that make that gives them that excitement that hey um Kate’s coming in to pick up her black dress here she is and what does that but um you know what else can I sort of chatter about how do I care about the Garment Kate you’re going out on Saturday night here’s a pair of earrings and maybe a pair of shoes to go with it so it’s um you know it’s been very positive for us so so in terms of I guess you know reach holders at the moment are talking about how to get customers into a store and and the upsell process I guess what’s the you know you spoke just before about you know yes I’m I’ve bought the dress online I’ve walked into the store but your team are actually upselling and how important was that training process I guess that that’s not something that we can we can provide but just internally the opportunity to actually have the team you know meet a customer and be able to then talk to them going from you know an online into a physical store and actually you know really owning that customer thereafter yeah super crucial and I think um a credit to our retail team whereas we um you know don’t like to have those distant lines between who the customer initial where the customer initially transacted at the end of the day she physical guy customer and she’s here to to have that exceptional experience both online and in store so um no excited to see what um you know the the next evolution of clicking collect is for cookie and yeah oh great to partner with um yourselves Andrew and yeah see what the next um phase is for us one one last thing um I guess um do you know what percentage of customers in in the principle of yo you know the the you know the the future is fast what percentage of customers are actually collecting their orders within 24 hours of of you know their click and collect order within you know um within you know placing the order and and then you know collecting it thereafter do you have any any of those sorts of metrics yeah at the moment it’s sitting around that 40 40 45 Mark um and I think the times of peak periods coming up now with that bfcm and happy gifting um Peak period um I mean I think we all need to brace ourselves and hold on for that to just only Skyrocket when we’ve got uh Christmas parties um to go to um wedding wedding season starts again soon and all the alike for the cookware customer so can only imagine that number would only be on the up from there what one last thing sorry Kate um customer feedback what’s what’s the customer feedback being uh you know obviously you get feedback on social media and and you listen to the customer feedback what’s what’s the feedback being because I think at one point in time there was a lot of conversation you know that customers really want this technology and you know um I guess now that you’ve got it you know what’s what’s that feedback been in terms of its execution by the business yeah well I guess we took it with a um a subtle stuff launch initially and really now um started to Vamp up our comms around it um and really looking forward to doing um a more full-blown campaign hopefully in the next couple of weeks so so far that the customer feedback has been quite positive the ease of use the notifications I think and how quickly our stores are sending out and fulfilling those orders have been crucial and I think um you know reducing the comms there even when they need to change their collection dates they because the Stalls have that direct relationship with the customers there so um quite a positive um quite a positive overall um you know experience from our customers that they’ve got the item if they don’t pick it up today they’ll be there and they will no doubt still commit um to picking up their purchases um and having that in-store experience as well amazing thanks so much Sarah for coming back and giving us our two for one um and sharing some insights into um you know the way in which cook I are doing things um in the in the connect and uh in this the future is vast World um back thanks thanks that was great great team Andrew you’re like me you could talk to Sarah all day so many insights and so much great uh feedback and I think the key things there is about how to remove friction in the shopping experience and uh particularly as we’re going into that uh peat trade having a focus and now getting some strategies in place to looking at that orders on time and meeting those customer and Shopper expectations particularly when the warehouses um and auto pickpack and delivery teams are getting increasingly busy we’re also seeing a brand starting to add in-line banners uh towards the bottom of the page on um in a rush check out I click and collect locations as well and I’m always a last minute Shopper if you want to learn more about stock in store QR code on the screen and I know and you’ll be very keen to continue those conversations as well uh let’s move into our last strategy of deliver as a very last minute Shopper myself I think this is such an important theme on giving customers that choice in that delivery piece and looking at how that can be used for that post purchase competitive Advantage so I’ll let me welcome James from render and Samantha from Ben Roy to cover this one off for us thanks Kate um appreciate it and it’s been great to hear um sort of everyone all the partners talk about uh the key findings and key metrics and I think it’s quite fitting that the final piece of this webinar focuses on that delivery piece which is um seen as probably the most critical part of that shopping experience it’s that final mile to meet that customers needs and and make that customers demand and you only have to look at the Shopify e-commerce report to to know that 66 66 of customers expect at least same day next day or two day delivery so um meeting that that customer need um is imperative um in that shopping experience and super excited to be joined by um head of digital and e-commerce at venroy to talk through Venice experience with elevating their their customer experience um through delivery so I think it’s probably best to to start from before and bring in the now and and understand from um your experience Sam thus far with Ben Roy um how how that delivery piece was handled previously and was customer experience prioritized as much as it is nowadays from a retailer that’s only recently brought in um delivery that that makes those customers demands um through convenience and certainty yeah sure um tough hack to follow as well guys being the last ones who did an amazing job and so many insights there um yeah I’ve been at Fenway now for almost five months which is absolutely flown um I guess just kind of taking a step back what I really loved about the brand before I came on board is that dedication to the customer experience you know very brand first strategy and a huge amount of rigor around generating desire and demand for the product in which you know we release on a seasonal basis but you know through drops and one thing that we don’t do is rely on things like promotions so in an environment that we are in at the moment obviously economical pressures is really important for us to always build that product and brand strategy so a massive draw card for me coming on board here to focus on making this even bigger and better and kind of as James said focusing on that end-to-end experience my background is in digital marketing and Ecom and I’ve also got Consulting experience too but I know just how important it is to kind of fulfill that need for post purchase and delivery especially in an environment where we are really chasing that position and needing to kind of um I guess close out that marketing funnel and just make sure that all of that money was spent across the whole branding exercise is really driving that Roi for us so um where we’ve seen ourselves as a brand um really succeed in the past is really around Innovation so not something that we usually tied to things like fulfillment or shipping I think sometimes those are kind of the unsexy terms for some retailers and the kind of Ecom landscape but we’re really really excited to see whether we could kind of innovate that um kind of last touch point or end point customer experience and render really being able to do that for us I think noting also the kind of uptake in online post covered we know our customers are far more confident our kind of demographics uh Benoit really used to shopping online very often um but traditionally before I came on board delivery I guess was a bit more traditional um it was kind of always had that layer of put the customer first but you know standard next day Metro shipping we had click and collect capabilities but all of those had great uptakes but I think you know really missing out on that Innovation piece and being really critical on our on what we were actually doing as a brand we weren’t really living up to that that key term Innovation everything was working really really well but um you know kind of taking that into our hands and pushing it Forward I think the prioritization of the customer experience hasn’t really changed um internally I think everyone likes to talk about how much they prioritize their customer but I think the biggest difference to what we’re doing now versus before is actually showing that we’re prioritizing the customer so render allows us to kind of put our money where our mouth is in terms of saying we want you to get our product quickly we want you to have it on the same day and in that in turn we’ve had to kind of really prioritize prioritize our Tech our Integrations you know Meeting those slas of three hours has been prioritized um standards around packaging and expectations and I guess just delivery on the roadmap completely um so yeah taking that one step further from today from where we were six months ago being able to really deliver on that and we’ve also accelerated our Global proposition to making sure delivery can be really achieved timely and concisely as well absolutely and um I can definitely vouch for that um working very closely with the venroe brand very customer focused and customer Centric um and talking on that confidence Pace I think that’s the biggest one it’s giving your customers confidence uh in their shopping ability so touching on Kate’s Point earlier 85 of customers say that a poor delivery experience would prevent them from shopping from that retailer again so it’s really giving um that com that customer the confidence to return I’m not just purchased there and then but give them that experience to say I want to come back and experience that again and again um and and following on from that I think it’d be good to understand um how you’ve seen your customers react to being able to enable um such an offering like three hour and same day delivery so your customers can literally check out and have their goods um delivered in a matter of hours um how has the customer feedback been um since offering those those fast and reliable delivery options yeah I’m generally not just saying this in terms of this but we’ve seen such a great uptake without really being able to push it and I’ve kind of tied this down to three things and number one is our business model is kind of set up in a way that we’ve really trained that customer to get it or miss out so being able to kind of grant their wishes I think from the offset and get that product in their hands as quickly as possible um I think has been great you know they see the option to check out and it’s just been a really quick win um whilst they’re you know entering all their details they know what they want and they can get that even quicker I think that’s really meeting that customer need um our demographic as I said earlier kind of they’re very Savvy I think it is becoming expectation now and you know some retailers have been doing the same day shipping and things like that for some time um and we know that the customers who shop with us and our loyal customers are shopping with other brands who may offer similar services so we knew that awareness was there so I think that has helped us kind of have a higher propensity to use a service like this because our customers are familiar with it um but thirdly something I think that’s striking all retailers at the moment is there’s so much change um happening now the seasonality or in Winter and it’s really warm it’s cold you know people are going away this year everyone feels like they’ve gone to Europe a lot quicker and a lot earlier in the year than they have traditionally so being able to kind of meet that demand um I think our customers are being a bit more fickle where they’re spending their money if they want it they want it straight away whether they’re going for a winter getaway in the hunter Valley locally or a summer getaway in South and France um I think in terms of our customer knowing that they need that product and eat it quickly and those three things really being able to meet that demand and get it to them as quickly as possible and we haven’t necessarily shouted about it as I’ve said but I think it’s been a great conversion driver for us considering we don’t have that capability or ability to to knock our price down and having their words three hour delivery same day shipping has been so valuable and all of our marketing Communications and really bolstered that I guess psychology of a customer seeing that and um closing that Loop and getting that cell quicker I think it’s been really interesting as a business to report on when this has been used who it’s being used by and what drives that behavior so we’ve been able to make different shifts in our marketing mix or things like emails for example when we see that we have a higher proportion of three hour shipping or same-day shipping happening in a certain region or a certain gender you know we might see that men’s knitwear is trending and customers want it in three hours and that has sometimes mean culturally as a business we’ve been far more um I guess closer to some of these metrics and probably not what we thought having a three hour or same-day shipping capability we didn’t think that I would have such a big impact on our trading Rhythm but it really really has in terms of just being closer and you know the closer you are essentially the better connection you can make with your customers and the closer you can get to that sales number which at the end of the day we all are wanting to achieve um a couple of learnings I think we have found with this is quick is obviously great um it’s not always best and I think sometimes um you know we were fairly cautious with this at first but having if we were to do this again I think we would probably have gone a little bit quicker and we had a plan in place at first um and I think that we probably could have accelerated that a bit quicker just knowing how the Integrity of the service provided has been exceptional we’ve also learned that this is not actually more work so we did think that we’d have to kind of source this um and back this with internal resource from a head office point of view for customer experience and also in store but we’ve actually found that these customers who want their products on the same day and want it fast actually the dream costs customers they order more they spend more and they’re actually pretty quiet so we’re not seeing the Outreach of these customers asking us where is it it’s been one hour it’s not here yet so um yeah I think some key learnings for us is just have some confidence in in what we’re doing and just speed it up from there absolutely and I think um just from the experience thus far it started out of um with Benoit in particular it started out of their warehouse the same day fulfillment and then um slowly rolled out into their stores and obviously um seeing the the uptake um from stories is really crucial because obviously you can hit more customers closer proximity to a customer or k-learnings and and key metrics that you focus on um to be able to get more customers the ability to to take advantage of that same day offering um as well as I think when you talk about those key metrics and those those customers that are actually the ones that you’re trying to hit it’s those average order value and average basket size increases um it’s that idea that I have confidence in what I’m shopping because I’m actually going to get those goods in a timely manner so I’m happy to spend more and I’m happy to buy more if I know those goods are going to arrive the same day or within a matter of hours I think what retails are always on the hunt for um and you touched on it a bit is those cost savings and those improved efficiencies and whilst it might be a bit too early to quantify what those cost savings are it’d be good to understand have there been any efficiency Improvement improvements that have come out from same day delivery in particular some of the learnings that we have is less support tickets due to happy customers or eliminating the risk of refunds and returns um due to those long and expanded shipping times um so yeah it’d be good to understand some of those efficiency improvements you’ve found and also in particular the efficiency you’ve found from unlocking that ship from store model yeah um of course so I think in terms of cost and obviously everyone’s under so much cost from a retailer perspective at the moment dance quite really beautifully around kind of looking at where your money is sweating the assets I absolutely agree and I think for us looking at our costs here and we look at Roi as kind of return on investment but also kind of return on involvement too and it’s been really great to see that we can um really roll this out in our store Network and see what that return and involvement and cost has been not only kind of what we’re paying in terms of invoicing but that cost of that retail store member being on duty in a store that may have a quiet hour We’re of course paying payroll and making sure we can sweat our assets with retailers you know and we our store staff too is really important to make sure we can use every hour in that day and really really strategically so we’ve definitely seen a return on investment in that perspective what we have since the engagement in that store Network you know it’s been great to see for this solution we can tag up our kind of VIP customers and when that store is going to pack that order and send it out and we’ve seen great uptaking things like being able to surprise and Delight that customer even further so not only is that item or those items packed up on with them within three hours we can choose to pop in a gift with purchase or write a note from that store manager which really goes towards that kind of desire and demand that we really from from the outset really want to achieve as a business so there’s a sense of ownership too in that store and culturally you know where that sale goes we’ve seen none of that barrier being an issue for us and less I said decrease Reliance on our 3pl too so of course if that’s that product is in store would much rather sell that style and get that out rather than kind of having it all come back to the warehouse and then moving it around our store Network so I think overall the biggest efficiencies have been in those two things and great that the business also culturally um has seen this just be such a positive uptake in those store team members taking it seriously I even reached out to all of the managers before this to ask them for any feedback or even just being critical and there was virtually none I think it’s a really great solution and have just had just have no yeah nothing nothing bad to say awesome well that’s always good to hear and um obviously thank you very much um for your time and and giving everyone a bit of insight into how venroy has gone about their delivery experience and and met the needs of their customers as I mentioned before a brand that’s very customer focused and very customer-centric and to be able to make those customers needs um through reliable through convenient delivery um it always makes that shopping experience that one step better it’s it’s meeting that that initial experience finding discovering connecting but the final piece of the most critical piece is actually delivering on that promise and and something Fenway does extremely well so thank you very much fam and I’ll hand up to Kate thank you team yeah that was great what I what I really loved hearing there is however I was not just meeting the customer experience but elevating the customer experience uh to learn more about render um QR code is on the screen right now um and um thank you so much for joining us to look into the future is fast um if you haven’t yet already downloaded the ebook and learn how to help Shoppers find discover connect and deliver in more efficient and engaging ways we’re going to do a quick rapid round of questions so the first one um Samantha apart from delivery speed what do you think impacts the customer experience the most in the post purchase stage oh my goodness um well it’s like I said before it’s great for it to get there quickly but it has to get there according to kind of brand standards so we make sure things are packaged really beautifully um and then following on from that you know we’re all familiar with kind of post-purchase surveys reviews and things like that really making sure that you know we’re not just thinking that delivery or service has been good that we’ve actually welcomed the customer to come back to us and also tell us that they agree with that too so yeah it has to get there have to meet that expectation um not just in time but I guess in accuracy and making sure that we’re we’re closing the loop um from end to end yeah absolutely love that next question is for Sarah um build or buy so um the question was we’re planning to implement click and collect on our new website why should we use the solution partner and not just build our own uh why not um for us I’ll use those as an example we’re quite a lean team here at Cook guys so for us it it really made sense to partner with the experts and to partner with the guys who’ve done it um over and over again um where as I mentioned before sitting down to collaborate to work through use cases and more importantly um yeah Andrew and the team being able to share their insights and their learns and you know some of the industry best practices that you as your business can really leverage and be able to um you know work work on that customer experience so for us it made perfect sense to to partner with experts yeah absolutely love that and I think what um Dan spoke about earlier around leaning in to Tech Partners right now um to get the most out of investment in in that technology stack um so then Dan we’ve got a question for you any tips on how to simplify product selection or Discovery for clients um or for Shoppers when you have a large catalog of items yeah look I mean um way back when I worked in officeworks and I was set up and growing their online business we had this category of Shoppers which were called um I think effectively stationary Fanatics stationary lovers and they would walk into officework stores and just stand in front of the aisles and just wonder at all the different colors and highlighters all that sort of stuff and so never be never feel like your product inventory size is a disability you want your customers to love all that choice but at the same time some things to help so obviously I’ve talked about Parisian their Discovery product you know those sort of those engaging set of questions and quizzes and so on that draw you into the site that’s a real option it’s been really supportive for us and many other businesses as well but I also love our content um and our content is across all and you need to have it in multi-formats because people want to consume content in different ways um never make the mistake of making the content editorial so I mean just like this format right now you need to actually give people value so that they are care and want to get in like consumer content so make sure the content’s authentic interesting it’s got personal viewpoints on it as well and make sure it’s in different formats written video audio all that sort of stuff think about Ai and recos that’s just your nuts and bolts but make sure they’re good because they’re crappy recommendations your customers will go oh that’s crappy clearly this store isn’t relevant um make sure that there’s lots of authentic and personal recommendations because just like a store is telling me like a robot this could suit you and I’m like oh that yeah that does suit me I get to how they work that out mathematically you also go to your friends and say hey what do you reckon so you know if you can get personalities and characters and and personal viewpoints on your site and your content people will listen to those I think also then you’ve got to think about reviews and ux Discovery and finally when you’ve got all that content and stuff that helps people get excited by your huge range make sure you promote that content because often it’s like oh well if I send an email with content and it doesn’t convert as well I may as well just stuff it with product remember that if you’ve got all that product you need to sort of do light and shade salt and pepper so sometimes send them all that product other times send them stuff the drills them back in and gets them interested in discovering that product so even though you might not get great direct attribution on you know all your content that doesn’t mean it it’s not driving and supporting all those other emails that are packed full of product yeah all really good tips and advice and plenty of things for people to be thinking of and starting to explore uh further I would like to say a giant thank you um to Sarah Dan and Samantha to learn more about how they are creating those best-in-class online shopping experiences um to go and take a look at the cook I adore Beauty and veneres sites um I would also like to thank our partners Prezi stockings store and render for joining us today we would love to continue the conversation and really look at how we can lean into the concept of the future is fast to help continue to elevate those shopping experiences and drive those e-commerce results thank you so much for joining us enjoy the rest of your day
