Lessons From The Crisis – The Growing Power of Ecommerce with Debbie Propst, Herman Miller; Gregg Brockway, Chairish & Todd Nickey, Nickey Kehoe
Ecommerce was seeing exponential growth as a means to sell and interact with customers well before COVID-19. Since the start of the pandemic this means of doing business has grown at an even more rapid pace, from double to 10x depending on the company.
For those brands that already had an ecommerce presence, they have seen a great deal of success selling and engaging with customers and creating a lifeline for business when physical locations were closed. Brands that had begun to setup an online infrastructure or had just recently revamped before the pandemic are finding these investments are paying off quickly.
Home has become more important – and used in different ways – than ever before. Many homes are not only places to rest, relax and eat but now also function as offices and classrooms. “Home is now the heart of everything we do,” says Debbie Propst. This presents an opportunity not only on the consumer product side, but also for design. The industry can leverage ecommerce as a tool as it rethinks how to meet the shaping needs of customers who are using their homes in new ways.
It’s important to understand where customers land when navigating your various ecommerce channels. There is a tendency to focus all effort on the homepage experience, but as customers are increasingly landing directly to product pages be sure to develop that experience as well. Meeting a customer where they are on their ecommerce journey and using tools to help such as chat or appointment scheduling is critical to success.
For some brands, ecommerce has not only grown but even made up for projected losses for the 2020 fiscal year. For marketplaces like Chairish, they support access to e-commerce for 10,000 unique sellers such as galleries and smaller artisans. As people look to the home and home goods as a tonic for world events, there is a massive sales opportunity through ecommerce. Notably, online gives brands an opportunity to grow exposure and build familiarity with entirely new customer segments. As our world is changing, the power of ecommerce is growing.
Watch the full discussion by clicking below.
