Starting life in the 1950s as a printer and office stationery supplier, Egan Reid has a long standing reputation for providing great customer service. Now operating across a number of different sectors, from commercial furniture and interior solutions, to print and promotional services, workplace and education supplies, innovation is at the heart of the business
While customer demand has changed significantly over the years – driven by the invention of the internet in the 1990s, the introduction of mobile phones and portable devices to the workplace in the early 2000s and the more recent shift to cloud-based systems – it’s clear that no single event has had such instant repercussions to match that of the COVID-19 pandemic.
With offices suddenly closed, and teams working from home, Egan Reid had to quickly adapt, diversifying what was being sold, as well as introducing new systems to help manage and fulfil orders.
Expanding into eCommerce
As many businesses will understand, the journey to becoming a successful eCommerce business isn’t necessarily a straightforward one. Over the years, we’ve used a number of different eCommerce solutions, however we were never quite satisfied with the flexibility that they offered. We knew that if we were to offer a great customer experience, we needed access to good-quality data and this became even more of a priority when the pandemic hit.
We’d achieved as much as we could with our previous B2B eCommerce platform and got to its limits in terms of back office integration, functionality and design. Having already worked with ECI on implementing EvolutionX with our education store pre-pandemic, we decided to migrate the B2B store to EvolutionX too in late 2021. Each store has its own bespoke identity, content and strategy – really highlighting how dynamic and adaptable the platform is.
The ECI software has enabled us to address so many pain points, including various time-consuming administrative tasks, now all automated. We’re also able to tailor the platform to our clients’ needs much more and accommodate how they need it to work for them.
Up-selling and cross-selling has also become much easier, so the average online basket is increasing steadily, and we’re converting more customers every month. We’re also achieving higher margins selling online, than offline.
We understand that the majority of furniture orders won’t be purchased online, as they tend to be bespoke and project driven, however we have noticed these numbers increasing since investing in new systems.
The ability to meet the needs of our different customers has been key to our success over the years and we knew that this needed to be replicated online. The numbers certainly speak for themselves and our turnover is continuing to climb.
Evolving with the industry
Providing enhanced descriptions across all product categories when selling online is no longer a luxury, with the bar being set by the likes of Amazon.
Now, customers expect multiple pictures of a product, information around the specification and a full breakdown of its capabilities. This information needs to be easily accessible, or there’s a risk that they will shop elsewhere.
Since implementing the FusionPlus catalogues – a solution designed to do all of the above, around 18 months ago, customers are able to access all of the information they need online. The ability to evolve with the industry has always been our top priority at Egan Reid and this functionality is one of the many benefits of the ECI offering.
As we continue to grow and compete against the industry giants, maintaining exceptional customer service and operating as efficiently as possible are two of our main goals. There’s no doubt that the ECI software will enable us to achieve this, with the support team always on hand to answer any questions or guidance.
By Flo Turak, head of marketing at Egan Reid.
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