Growing New Zealand’s first eCommerce scaffold retailer
Problem
After a few years in the New Zealand market, Ringlock’s sales had plateaued. They had a very basic eCommerce store and were looking to grow their revenue and establish themselves as a serious online-first competitor to the two large scaffold retailers who dominated the market.
Project goals
Establish Ringlock as a trusted nationwide retail brand.
Simplify and streamline internal business operations.
Create an industry leading eCommerce website.
- Create a high performing digital marketing system.
Approach
I began by defining Ringlock’s customer segments and identifying the needs, pain-points and opportunities of each segment. This research then became the basis for a range of innovations and tailored content, designed to remove the main pain-points of each segment and deliver additional value.
Scaffold packages: A large barrier for Trade and Residential customers was simply not knowing which scaffolding components they required. We created a range of customisable scaffold packages and targeted them at specific sub-segments, such as a Bricklayers package or Roofers package. Offering packages was new for the market and has been a huge success for Ringlock. All Ringlock’s competitors now offer similar packages.
Business systems: All internal processes were streamlined through the Ringlock website to ensure that the business runs as efficiently as possible, both now and as they continue to scale. The website is built on a leading content management system and can be easily modified and maintained, while adding new functionality is fast and very cost effective.
Sales: All sales, both online and offline, are processed through the Ringlock website, keeping stock and sales data consistent and always accurate.
Accounting: Ringlock’s accounting system is integrated directly with the website so all sales, invoices and taxes are automatically processed.
Stock management: Stock quantities, forecasting and reordering are all managed through the website to maintain consistent stock levels.
Shipping: Freight and courier requests are processed electronically and automated directly into the checkout process.
Reporting: A large amount of data is collected through the website to better understand customers and refine operations.
Marketing system: At Ringlock I developed a marketing system that is targeted, measurable and highly automated. The marketing channels and sales funnel have been refined to the point where they can achieve consistent sustainable results with an outstanding ROI ratio of 75:1.
I put systems in place for the following digital marketing channels:
Direct email
Google Adwords
Google display ads
Google product ads
TradeMe online marketplace
Facebook ads
- Google places
Results (achieved in the first 12 months)
46% increase in organic web traffic.
75:1 marketing ROI.
76% year on year revenue growth.
- 0.015% revenue spent on marketing.
Learnings
In a studio environment there is often a disconnect between the project being delivered and the big picture business outcomes for the client. Budgets are also usually tight and there is little room for ongoing experimentation and refinement.
Working with Ringlock provided a great opportunity to focus solely on improving their bottom line. I was given holistic ownership across the business over an indefinite period of time. By applying a test-measure-refine philosophy across the business we were able to quickly evaluate initiatives, such as new marketing channels, product lines, services or online tools. Finding what didn’t work proved just as important as finding what did and the data we collected along the way became a great resource for identifying new opportunities and reducing ongoing costs.
