When I joined Notcutts, one of the UK's most established garden centre retailers, the ecommerce function required a fundamental reset — not just a few incremental improvements, but a rethink of the entire commercial proposition and how the digital channel was being run.
The website was underperforming. Functionality was clunky, key conversion drivers like product reviews were missing entirely, and the operational backend was already at capacity — creating friction across stock visibility, order tracking and customer service management. These weren't small problems. They were structural constraints that limited both scalability and the ability to deliver a customer experience good enough to compete.
Starting With an Honest Diagnosis
Before doing anything else, I mapped the full picture — what was working, what wasn't, and where the largest commercial opportunities sat. There was also a clear gap in external growth levers: minimal use of strategic partners to drive acquisition and scale. That gap presented an immediate opportunity.
I outlined this in an initial plan presented directly to the board. The plan covered three interconnected areas: improving the on-site experience, investing in MarTech to close capability gaps, and addressing a major opportunity within the product proposition itself.
The Biggest Opportunity — Full Inventory Online
One of the most significant decisions we made was to move the full store inventory online. This is a common challenge for garden retailers, particularly for bulkier or store-led categories — products that have historically been sold only in physical centres because the complexity of putting them online felt too high.
The opportunity was significant. Customers were visiting the website, not finding what they'd seen in store, and either converting at a lower rate or abandoning the channel entirely. Making the full range available online required careful commercial modelling — delivery pricing, margin protection, weight and dimension logistics, and clear customer positioning to ensure profitability was maintained throughout.
This single initiative alone fundamentally changed the nature of what the website could offer — moving it from a partial catalogue to a complete digital store.
The Growth Framework — Five Execution Pillars
With the expanded proposition defined, I developed a focused execution plan across five areas. Each pillar was linked to a specific commercial outcome and tracked against measurable KPIs.
Reduced over-reliance on any single acquisition channel by diversifying the traffic mix across organic, paid, email and affiliate. New traffic sources were prioritised based on conversion quality, not just volume — measured by revenue per session, not sessions alone.
Introduced missing conversion drivers systematically — product reviews (Feefo), trust signals, payment options including PayPal, and Google Certified Shop accreditation. Each addition addressed a specific point of customer hesitation that the data had identified.
Rebuilt the email programme around customer behaviour rather than broadcast. Segmented by purchase history, category interest and engagement level. Relevant communications to the right customers at the right time — rather than one message to everyone.
Addressed the most commercially significant friction points across the customer journey — navigation, product pages, search, and mobile experience. Prioritised by impact on conversion rather than ease of implementation.
Identified and systematically addressed the key exit points across the funnel — product page abandonment, basket abandonment and checkout drop-off. Each had a specific intervention: better content, retargeting, abandoned basket sequences.
Making the Case to the Board
To support the investment required across these five areas, I implemented a structured waterfall-based investment model — linking each initiative to its expected commercial impact and showing how the individual improvements compounded into overall growth.
This waterfall model proved highly effective in securing board alignment and investment. Rather than asking for budget for a vague "digital improvement programme," each pound of investment was connected to a specific commercial outcome — which both made the case clearer and created accountability for delivery.
The Results — What the Data Showed
Not a one-month spike from a single campaign. A sustained 70% year-on-year improvement in conversion rate, delivered by addressing the structural problems rather than papering over them with short-term traffic spend.
The broader impact went beyond conversion rate. The programme created a strong foundation for further transformation — team structure, content capability, platform evolution, and a more integrated online and offline experience. The conversion improvement was the headline number. The real value was the commercial system that produced it.
- An honest diagnosis before any execution — understanding the real problems, not the assumed ones
- A board-level plan that connected investment to commercial outcome, not just activity
- Making the full product range available online — removing the biggest single barrier to conversion
- Five execution pillars, each with a clear KPI, rather than a long list of unfocused improvements
- A waterfall investment model that made the business case clear and maintained board alignment throughout
- Treating conversion improvement as a structural programme, not a series of one-off fixes