Chief digital officer, Gary Wheelhouse, says 60 per cent of the retailer's website traffic is coming from mobile
Harvey Norman’s omni-channel strategy has come a long way since it launched an e-commerce website in 2011, says CDO Gary Wheelhouse.
“I don’t think anyone would suggest that Harvey Norman was an early adopter of online. In fact, I would say there is a last mover advantage strategy,” he told delegates at MagentoLive in Sydney.
“The fact is that we needed a website that connected to our 180 stores.”
When Harvey Norman started its online journey in 2011, it wanted to bring the retail options to online, such as the ability for customers to interact with salespeople using live chat.
“One of the primary reasons customers go into stores is to talk to people. We very quickly understood that live chat was something we needed to do. If you are online and chatting to someone from Harvey Norman, you are talking to someone who has worked in a store and sold those products,” said Wheelhouse.
To improve the online experience, Wheelhouse has focused on what he calls customer journey mapping. This involves using a wealth of information from customer service and social media.
For example, there might be a case where a Harvey Norman customer has gone for the click and collect option. This is where they buy an item from the website and then collect it from the store.
“You might read about a customer who has done a click and collect and has had to go to the store three times. That’s just terrible, you’re telling me another way to go and shop,” he commented.
According to Wheelhouse, click and collect is the perfect meeting of the online and retail experience.
“Our customers are still going into stores but what are they doing? They are researching online. They are also doing click and collect. We benefit from driving traffic into stores because we can upsell the customer in store with an extra warranty or other service.”
Hand in hand with online comes mobile commerce. Wheelhouse said it has put a lot of time into making the mobile website responsive so that customers can shop on their smartphone or tablet.
“It’s great to look at the stats on a Saturday night and see that 60 per cent of your traffic is coming from mobile. I’m expecting that Boxing Day [sales] will be bigger for mobile than desktop,” he said.
Future investment
As a former Harvey Norman franchisee, Wheelhouse says he feels sorry for sales people because they are now “outgunned by customers.”
“As a customer, we walk into a store with more information about the three products that we’re interested in than the 1,000 products that the salesperson will need to have a level of understanding about.”
To solve this problem, Harvey Norman is looking to arm sales staff with more information on a device so that they can assist the customer with an in-store sale.
Beacons may also be on the horizon. Wheelhouse told delegates that he has spent a lot of time looking at overseas Beacon examples from Target and Walmart in the United States to see what works in a retail environment.
“It’s great if you were on the app and walked in store and the Beacon said `Hi Mark, welcome back, and by the way that product you were looking at is now available.’
There are no shortage of [Beacon] players in Australia. That is something we would go out and test and get some results. That isn’t something that I think would be a long way away,” he said.
Follow Hamish Barwick on Twitter: @HamishBarwick
Follow CMO on Twitter: @CMOAustralia, take part in the CMO Australia conversation on LinkedIn: CMO Australia, or join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CMOAustralia
While approaching a customer in a shop and asking what you can help them with is Retail 101, how many of us actually enjoy being approached? Generally, you have to give the forced, fake smile and say, “Just browsing, thanks,” while screaming on the inside, “just leave me alone!” Maybe it’s just me?
Not a day passes by in the life of business executives where digital innovation or the prospect of disruption is not front of mind. This in turn, drives an unrelenting flow of questioning, discussion and strategy papers.
Unless you’ve been marketing under a rock, you’ll probably have questioned whether your media agencies are offering you transparency.
In Episode 10 of this new podcast series, BrandHook MD, Pip Stocks, talks with Country Road GM of brand and customer experience, Col Kennedy, about how brands enabling teams to support the customer no matter what they want to achieve is vital to the engagement equation.
Nice post Brad! very useful information. The retail stores are really mean for every brand I am agree with you. Now Online Service Market...
Srialto
The rise of online retail marketplaces and what they mean for brands
Minor correct Nadia, just wanted to clarify that the "Marketo consultants" that did this work, were actually Hoosh consultants
Fab Capodicasa
What it's taking for Edible Blooms to grow a stronger personalisation strategy
Im not surprise though, been in the industry for couple of years and I feel and see it with my tow eyes how eCommerce platforms innovated...
Jason Smith
Australia Post earmarks $20m for Australian ecommerce innovation investment
For marketers that are "going Agile" I recommend using Ravetree. It's a really powerful suite of tools for Agile project management, reso...
Janice Morgan
7 ways to run your marketing department like a software startup
Over the years very part of our lives has become technological. That’s why I am not surprised to see that Australian home loans are going...
GreatDayTo
Why Aussie Home Loans is embracing digital transformation