How Barbeques Galore plans to triple ecommerce sales

Three months after doubling conversions through a new ecommerce, ordering system and website overhaul, Barbeques Galore is looking to cook up even bigger sales with the debut of its third-party marketplace strategy.

Over the last couple of years, the Australian retailer has invested $7 million into bolstering its digital capability. This has seen the group move off an outdated tech stack, replace its ordering management system and deploy Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Barbeques Galore has also rolled out Salesforce Service Cloud for its customer support team, integrated with its ecommerce and website set-up, and will bring on Salesforce Marketing Cloud. The longer-term plan is also to tie this into a customer loyalty offering.

The name of the game is embracing a fully omnichannel approach to the retail experience, Barbeques Galore general manager of marketing, Mike Ainsworth, told CMO.

“Our former commerce approach was quite outdated. Salesforce is a major opportunity for us and gives us the ability to move from an outdated tech stack and straight to a best-of-breed, cloud-hosted solutions that gives us a big step forward in capability and performance,” he said. “It’s a stronger foundation for enrichment of our brand experience as well.”

Three months into the new digital and website capabilities go live, Barbeques Galore has already seen a doubling of ecommerce conversion rates and a visible improvement to its Net Promoter Score, Ainsworth said.

Next step: Building a marketplace

But there is more to come. The next milestone is rolling out the Barbeques Galore marketplace, leveraging Marketplacer’s platform. Helping the retailer with its overall digital capability overhaul and this latest step is Amblique. The company provides access to Marketplacer’s technology via its recently launched ‘connector’ with Salesforce Commerce Cloud.

“The opportunity with Marketplacer ties right into who we are: We are Australia’s leading BBQ and outdoor retailer. This technology allows us to provide an even more complete destination for everything in the backyard and entertaining products, extending our offering well beyond our current existing product ranges,” Ainsworth said.  

Through the marketplace strategy, Barbeques Galore plans to onboard new suppliers, scale its range quickly and provide more personalised, integrated shopping experiences. Range expansion will focus on outdoor fun and entertaining, with categories including tableware, outdoor products, rugs, lighting, toys and yard games.

“The opportunity with Marketplacer is obvious – it’s a challenge we have had and something we were looking to address,” Ainsworth said. “Having Amblique work with us to deploy the Salesforce Commerce Cloud, it made sense to partner on the next step. It gave us the opportunity to move quickly and work with a trusted partner.”  

The first extended range is expected to go live shortly. Key to the marketplace being successful is ensuring the team curates the right complementary range of products and brands aligning to the Barbeques Galore brand and position in market, Ainsworth said.

“The journey of this will develop over time. But making sure we curate that range is critical to us. It is about complementary ranges to our core BBQ and outdoor furniture, such as accessories and complementary offers in supporting categories,” Ainsworth commented.

“If you go down the path of anything everything, it is less interesting and it diminishes your brand value. We need to curate a range that complements us.”

The overall goal is that ambition to be a complete destination for everything in the backyard, Ainsworth said. The company has set the goal of growing online sales by 300 per cent.  

Alongside technology, Ainsworth said an important and early part of the digital journey was ensuring teams were set up internally to support omnichannel retailing.

“We are very mindful we are able to support in the existing business frame and didn’t get caught out. So early in the piece we set up the omnichannel team to focus on this space. We have made those changes to support that future state,” he said.   

Marketplacer co-founder and executive Chairman, Jason Wyatt, said the business was happy to be partnering with a like-minded Australian company in Amblique to enable more retailers to build out a marketplace approach.

“Our connector program with Salesforce Commerce Cloud provides an easy way for companies to create a best-in-breed third party marketplace strategy quickly, without having to navigate the complexities of multiple systems that don’t talk to each other. We are thrilled to be a part of Barbeques Galore business transformation and support their team in reclaiming the backyard space.”

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