Big New Zealand retailers step up multi channel marketing
Hubsta multi channel shopping platform expands sales potential and exposes products to multiple audiences, say Lighting Direct and Barkers Clothing
26 February 2010 - The opportunity for retailers to market their wares across multiple channels is growing, says Hubsta Ltd. CEO Paul O’Shannessey.
In an economic downturn, a retailer’s ability to reach a wide and diverse audience can be the difference between success and failure, O’Shannessey says. He notes the experience of a number of prominent New Zealand retailers who he has seen make use of the Hubsta platform’s ability to expand an audience. “Their products now feature in front of crowds who would not have seen them before, and already-loyal customers get another opportunity to interact with the brand.”
Significantly, these shoppers are migrating online, en masse. As online shopping becomes more and more popular, offline retailers must meet customer demand with online offerings as well. But, says Bill Fulford, founder and CEO of Lighting Direct, ecommerce is significantly more costly and difficult than most retailers have ever imagined. “Not only do you need the specialised ability to design and set up ecommerce, you have to run it on a daily basis, manage email campaigns, attempt to improve your search engine rankings, and a lot more. That’s a stretch, even for some of the bigger players.” Fulford says that retailers are attracted to putting their products on Hubsta-powered online shopping sites because of the convenience and cost effectiveness. “All we have to do is upload the one spreadsheet to Hubsta”.
Even when a business has invested in its own ecommerce solution, the products have to be promoted. “That’s where multi channel marketing is crucial,” says O’Shannessey. “It’s about getting your product in front of as many people as possible.” Fulford agrees. “In the past, if we wanted to put products in front of the enormous audiences of media portals like NZ Herald and Yahoo!Xtra, we had to invest a lot in advertising – and even then, the data says that 99.8 percent of viewers don’t click on the banner ads. Because Hubsta runs the shopping platforms of these large media portals, our products are seen by millions of visitors at no cost except for the regular commission.” O’Shannessey says that the possibilities for integration into Hubsta’s media partners are endless. “Suppliers can choose which products to feature on which sites, and we can target products to the exact right segment of the audience – we can put golf bags on NZ Herald’s sports page, and perfume on Yahoo!Xtra’s lifestyle page. And as we continue to add more media partners, this ability to target the right audience will increase.”
Retailers who put in the effort say that with multi channel marketing they can achieve near total market saturation. “When we ran our up to 70 percent off sale, we promoted it heavily in store, in print, on our own site and with outdoor advertising,” says Barkers Clothing CEO Zac de Silva. “But we saw an opportunity to do even more on the Hubsta platform.” Both Yahoo!Xtra Shopping and NZ Herald Shopping featured integrated Barkers sale stores with large banners on their front pages, promotions across both portals and email promotions to subscribers. “Within 60 minutes, we got nearly four thousand click throughs just from the email,” says Hubsta’s Fashion Manager Tanja Seselj. “We sold over two hundred pieces of clothing in that one shot.”
While multi channel marketing comes with unprecedented opportunities, retailers who attempt it can trip up. The key to an effective multi channel strategy is keeping the brand experience consistent across channels. But when the brand is spread across these different outlets, inconsistencies can creep in, according to researchers like Arvind Rangaswamy and Gerrit H. van Bruggen. “Multi channel customers often complain about the inconsistency of information across channels,” they say, “and the lack of inventory visibility across channels is a major source of inconsistent responses to customers.” O’Shannessey notes that Hubsta identified this problem early on, and decided to offer its suppliers full integration. “The integration is seamless – suppliers just have to keep their inventory systems up to date. They can then maintain prices and branding across all of the platforms they use.”
O’Shannessey says that this integration not only irons out inconsistencies, but it is also the most cost- and time-effective solution. “When the product actually has to be delivered to the customer, there is no middle man. The product goes straight from supplier to customer, so there is no doubling up stock or warehouses.” Because Hubsta uses the same back end platform across its various partner sites, inconsistencies cannot creep in. “A retailer only has to plug in the details once to sell on all the channels, and can therefore maintain consistent branding,” he says.
About Hubsta
Hubsta provides the platform to enable a wide range of leading brands to sell products to millions of consumers on the largest and most trusted websites in New Zealand. Hubsta is New Zealand's leading online shopping platform expert. First and foremost, Hubsta is a consumer advocate, firmly committed to providing online consumers with three critical values: price, selection and convenience.
You can contact Hubsta at:
info@hubsta.co.nz
www.hubsta.co.nz