Each one of our clients has a unique niche. Whether it’s pet accessories, organic health food, adventure tours or scuba diving equipment, they represent a wide variety of individual ecommerce businesses. What they all have in common is that they sell a lifestyle, not just a product.
Lifestyle ecommerce is a way for retail brands to positions themselves in a competitive market dominated by digital giants such as Amazon and eBay. It has become very hard for independent retailers to compete against these mass merchants on selling points such as price, product selection, availability or shipping costs. Instead, in order to create a strong brand and maintain a competitive edge merchants must be able to provide an outstanding customer experience.
It’s one thing to build an ecommerce website, perhaps run some advertising and generate some sales. Lots of companies can do that. It’s another thing to build communities, create engagement and provide an amazing service that leads to brand fans with great customer lifetime value.
Our expertise lies in holistically combining web development with service design, SEO, conversion optimisation and marketing to create great ecommerce websites that drive results.
Take Divestock, one of our incubator clients. When researching the market we came across two vastly different types of customers. There’s the price sensitive scuba diver who just wants to purchase a new diving mask. We realised early on that this type of buyer doesn’t represent a likely customer as she will probably just get one from Amazon.
However, someone considering his or her first big purchase before a beginners’ scuba course would be more likely turn to a specialist retailer where they can get personal service with personal, tailored advice. So the focus with Divestock was to create an online shopping experience with the same levels of customer service that you would expect in a physical shop, with comprehensive product information and personal advice and suggestions from a team of qualified dive instructors. This has proved very successful with significant levels of customer retention and repeat orders.
The process
We like to get to know our clients. We like to sit down with them and get a feel for their brand, their dreams and future aspirations. And it doesn’t just end there. Regular brainstorming, planning and feedback sessions are an integral part of the process too.
We want to focus on each one of our clients as individuals and create a tailored approach for them.
If you’d like to find out more about how our strategies can benefit your business, get in touch today.