How Furniture Boxs’ Tech Stack Helps Them Launch New Channels

In episode 120 of the Customers Who Click podcast I spoke with James Ewens, the Head of Ecommerce at Furniture Box. We had a great chat about how businesses can use their tech stack to help them grow. Not just from a marketing point of view, but also creating efficiencies within the business, and removing mistakes and errors. All of what we do is based around using tech to further improve the speed at which we can list or the efficiency with which we can sell. If you can make efficiencies in key areas of the business, such as Product Information Management, it can significantly speed up the process of listing products on new channels, and it also reduces the likelihood of mistakes being made. This in turn then gives you more time and resource to dedicate to other areas of the business where you havent yet made these efficiencies. James is the Head of Ecommerce at Furniture Box. You can connect with him on LinkedIn or head over to https://www.furniturebox.co.uk/.

Key highlights:

01:57 - 13:57 - Biggest Opportunities for D2C Growth - Selling in more places. There’s a limit to what you can achieve if you only use your own website. Mainly limited by your ability to advertise and drive traffic, but also down to the fact that there are large audiences who will always go to a marketplace website first. Amazon, Ebay, Wayfair, there are plenty of massive websites out there that you can list your products on.

You need to be where your customers are. Which also brings an additional benefit to being on certain websites. They have their own authority, their own audience which trusts them. If they list your product, then you gain that reputation by association. If your products are good enough for a huge brand to stock, then they must be good enough for the customers.

14:10 - 20:22 - What are the Big Challenges? - The PPC bidding war right now is crazy, its got so expensive. Not only are more and more small brands moving into the space, but the bigger brands seem to be moving spend away from offline and in-store, to online. iOS updates, and the upcoming changes to Chrome are also having impacts. The data is missing to really critically analyse performance, its done more on a blended ROAS basis.

20:23 - 29:14 - Leveraging Tech for Growth - All of what we do is based around using tech to further improve the speed at which we can list or the efficiency with which we can sell. Whether its their central order management system or product information management, they’re always looking for ways to be more efficient, and automate processes that would take some time manually. It’s allowed them to expand from 5 channels to 13. Integration partners are key for this, and its becoming more and more common. Its got to the point where they can roll out a new channel so quickly and effortlessly, that it doesn’t really need a trial or test process it to, you just launch, and pull back if it doesnt work. The investment to do so is now so low.

29:42 - 44:25 - Using AR and QR codes to Enhance the Customer Experience - AR can be used to enhance the customer experience pre-purchase, by allowing them to really understand the dimensions of a product. They can see how a sofa or cabinet will look like in their room, get a feel for the size and the style. QR codes are great for providing information to customers. You can keep them updated with the latest manuals, guides, product advice, and other content. Furniture Box have a hub for all their products, but each product has its own QR code linking you to the right place for it.

44:34 - Who Would James Like to Take For Lunch in the D2C Marketing World?

Someone from Sofology, or Made.com, a real leader in the ecommerce space. Find out more about what they do differently, but also what works and doesnt work for them.

45:23 - James’s Must-Have Ecommerce Tools:

Klaviyo
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If you’d like to hear more from James, you can connect with him on LinkedIn or head over to https://www.furniturebox.co.uk/