Finding a digital solution that works for your merchant business and your trade customers can be confusing. Andy Scothern, Managing Director of eCommonSense, the digital transformation specialists for the building materials industry, plots a route through the digital maze.

Imagine if I offered to open a new branch for you. Not only that it could be your flagship ‘one-stop shop’, be near to everyone, never be closed, have the highest branch turnover and feature the full range of products. It would have the lowest operational overheads and be the cheapest to build and quickest to open.

That store, of course, is not a physical branch - it’s a fit-for-purpose digital branch that can offer everything that a physical branch can.

The digital dream sounds almost too good to be true, and for many the reality falls well short of the promised holy grail. So, why is that?

Well the short answer is that while many can see a simple path to getting online and starting to trade, they soon realise that unless you have an optimised solution that works for your business and your customers, it will never deliver the expected returns and may even drive your existing customers elsewhere. In other words, it could do more harm than good by damaging your brand through poor customer experience.

Rather than bamboozle with the science behind the tech, I want to simply present a practical ten-point plan that will show you what steps you need to take to get you trading online in an optimal way.

1. Choose the right digital partner

This is arguably the most important step. Get it right and you will be able to focus on what you do best - selling building products, while your digital partner can provide a solution that works for you, your customers and your business.

Get it wrong though and you could be watching through your fingers as existing customers go elsewhere to competitors with slicker online experiences and new customers visiting once, but leaving quickly.

So how do you find the right digital partner? The short answer is that you need someone who understands digital AND your merchant business, with all the unique complexities involved with multiple pricing, deliveries and product data. Once you apply that criteria the list will shrink considerably.

2.  You get what you pay for

The cheapest solution is rarely the best, but you can easily waste more than you need. A fully integrated solution will allow automatic data transfer between your website and back-office systems and fewer mistakes. The biggest cost will always be that of lost opportunities because your website is just not good enough. Sorry, no short cuts here.

3.  Make your customers happy

If people go to your website and have an easy and frictionless experience, they will stay and return to buy more. Good websites are good for business but it’s important to remember, the reverse is also true. In terms of customer experience, you want your online customers to have the same level of service as if they were to walk into one of your physical branches, if not better.

4.  Stay safe online

Security is a huge issue in today’s digital world. If you compromise your data or your customer’s data, then it can be hugely costly. World class security solutions are essential and they need to be continuously updated as criminals do not stand still. This should be a given with any system that you choose.

5.  Keep ahead of the competition

Websites and digital solutions need to be constantly evolving to ensure that you stay ahead of your competition and up-to-date with the latest functionality. Check that this is something that your digital partner does as a matter of course and doesn’t charge you for every small improvement.

6.  Don’t make me think

Customers want to be able to find the right products easily. To do that, they need to be able to find what they are looking for with ease, get their price and all the essential product data. The structure of your site needs to be intuitive so that visitors don’t get lost or confused.

7.  Product data

Even with a great website, bad product data will hamper all your efforts to make it a success. This is usually the biggest part of the project, so working with a partner who not only understands the products and the associated data, but has a product database you can access, relationships with suppliers and understands how to clean and organise data efficiently.

8.  Don’t forget mobile

If your website is not optimised for mobile, you will be missing out on more than half of your potential customers. 

9.  Content is king

Quality content can make the difference between a good experience and a bad one. When customers visit your website, they do so with a clear purpose in mind. Make the content reflect and support this journey. Get rid of the irrelevant and only include the useful.

10.  Extras make all the difference

Offering the functionality that your customers find useful and that saves them time can be the difference between them coming to you and your competitors. 

Customers may want access to their invoices or their account, the ability to build instant quotes or get help in being able to narrow down a search for a product with 1,000s of options such as bricks by simply uploading a photo.

Summary

If you have tried trading online and it has not gone as well as you’d hoped, remember that there’s no such thing as a bad idea, just bad execution, but that does not mean that online trading is bad for your business. 

Quite simply, you may just need a better solution than the one you have.For more information please contact Andy Scothern, Managing Director of eCommonSense at [email protected].



This article appeared in the Winter 2019 edition of One Voice
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About the author

Andy Scothern has spent the majority of his working life in the building sector, initially as a joiner before establishing his own property development and home improvement company.

In the mid 1990s, he become interested in the internet and saw the commercial potential for the building supplies sector. After developing an in-depth and cutting-edge expertise through working with a range of international multi-channel businesses, he joined Jewson as Director of eCommerce and Digital with the responsibility for developing and launching the company’s online offer.

After leaving Jewson in 2013, he set up eCommonSense, a company that provides specialist builders merchant website solutions.