Ni Viewpoints Investment in technology is critical Heading heading heading
Gerad Barclay, Managing Director of EDPA, new owner of Oliver’s Babycare
Gerad Barclay
We were delighted to acquire Oliver’s Babycare, one of the longest established and respected names in the nursery industry. We look forward to strengthening the brand further. EDPA owns several other nursery websites (
www.babymonitorsdirect.co.uk,
www.babysecurity.co.uk and
www.nursery-furniture.co.uk) therefore Oliver’s will benefit in many ways from being under the EDPA umbrella. For example our strong buying power and exclusive relationships with some suppliers allow us to offer a wider product range than smaller independents, and some great
deals. EDPA’s philosophy is always to offer a combination of good deals, wide product range and high quality service, and we can do this because of our size. Almost every major high street and online retailer has taken a position in the nursery industry in the last few years. This means the independent retailer is fighting larger retailers for an ever decreasing share of the pie. The Internet is a fabulously convenient shopping medium therefore it is hardly surprising that customers now reach for
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their mouse rather than their car keys. The Internet is especially suited to the nursery industry as it allows
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parents to have the bulky purchases they need for a baby delivered to their homes. The speed of the ‘professionalization’ of the Internet has caught out some independents that do not have the skills, finance or resources to plan and implement a unique marketing strategy. There has been a tendency to believe that a customer’s primary motivation for choosing a store is price. This cannot be true any longer, if it ever was. Independents selling simply on price are unable to sell cheaper than the majors who have massive buying power. If price was the only determinant then premium retailers would not exist. Customers want good deals, wide product range and great service. There is room in the market for independents providing this. I would add a word of advice to new small businesses, setting up from their
homes.Customers are more savvy now and suspicious of a residential rather than a commercial address. Try using a serviced office which does not need to cost a lot, but looks more professional. Investment in technology is critical for online nursery retailers. The number of customers placing orders via mobile devices is growing fast as online payment security becomes more trusted and customers more familiar with the technology. There is no option for independents but to make sure their online store is formatted for mobile devices. This was one of our first priorities after taking over Oliver’s Babycare. Many customers also like the option of instant ‘live chat’, something we offer at EDPA. It is important, as well, to respond quickly to all forms of contact from customers. We reply to emails in 2 – 3 hours or 24 hours at weekends. When customers ring our stores they talk to real people. In order to survive in the current market place, retailers regardless of size must offer what customers want.
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Shopatron bridges the gap between brand and retailer
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Mark Grondin, SVP of Marketing
For branded manufacturers, selling online these days isn’t as easy as flipping a switch.
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It’s arguably financial suicide to ignore the rising popularity of eCommerce, but it can be just as dangerous for brands to neglect their retail partners by selling directly to consumers online. Success for branded manufacturers in this evolving digital world comes through striking a balance between online and offline sales channels. Some brands attempt to achieve this goal by implementing dealer locator buttons on their marketing website, or with the addition of “product-to-product” links to big eCommerce sites. Still, some others will ignore their retailers and sell directly through their websites to consumers. Unfortunately, none of these solutions work well. And any one, or even a
Mark Grondin
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Xhead
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So what’s a good brand to do? Retail-integrated eCommerce.
Retail-integrated eCommerce allows branded manufacturers to sell online and pass orders to local retailers for delivery to the customer. In this unique process, when a shopper purchases from a brand’s website, that order is placed into an order exchange. Then the order is awarded to the retailer nearest to the consumer who has the ordered products in stock. That retailer then ships the items to the customer or puts them aside for in-store pickup. This simple process has some great benefits. It guarantees more sales for the brand, both online and through stores, because retailers stock more product. Retailers love retail-integrated eCommerce because it gives them incremental sales and new customers who can come into the store to pick up online orders. And customers get the product they want, quickly, from a local retailer they trust. Shopatron is the largest provider of retail-integrated eCommerce globally. The company has a growing clientele of 35 nursery brands and 650 dealers in North America and Europe. According to a survey by one of Shopatron’s clients, Young America, half of mums went online to purchase new products for their baby in 2011. So it’s no surprise that nursery brands who use Shopatron increased year-over-year sales by 14%, to date, in 2012.
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combination of these options, can damage the brand. Giving shoppers a list of local dealers to call just puts the effort on the shopper to find the product they want—a bad experience for them. Sending shoppers to a big eCommerce site leaves no guarantee that the shopper buys a brand’s product, and it annoys all of a brand’s other retailers. Sell direct, and all of a brand’s retailers will be angry. (In a 2011 Retailer Survey conducted by Shopatron, 64% of retailers said they would reduce or stop buying from brands that sold directly to consumers online.)
14 • NURSERY INDUSTRY
• NOVEMBER 2012
•
www.nursery-industry.co.uk
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