One of the things I really enjoy is coming into businesses and identifying just what they are and are not doing to drive forward their E-commerce operation. Every retailer is different and has different dynamic in terms of what they need – not to mention understanding their market, channels they use and technology they utilize.

My focus in the early days of working with someone is to understand these before then looking at a strategy which could implement growth. A few years ago I worked with a retailer whose sales had really flatlined - following a rethink of their strategy, I managed to recover sales and get them both back on track. Achieving 60% YOY sales increase is no mean achievement and to drive this, a new approach was needed to. Website functionality was a little clunky with a website which challenging in terms of functionality – with key functionality such as product reviews missing. In addition, the backend operational side of trading the website was trading at max capacity with challenges in terms of tracking stock, order tracking and customer support ability to manage orders.

Despite the challenges and missing functionality, the increase in YOY sales actually came from a fairly simple decision – to open up ALL store stock to be available online. This is fairly common challenge for many online retailers – especially of larger bulkier items / household goods – how do you open up your full in store inventory without it affecting the P/L? With added focus now on the next stage of their E-Commerce setup, I expect the next stage of their web development to focus on a new site, new functionality, focus on conversion improvement and bringing together some of the areas which were more peripheral in their recent E-Commerce setup.