Empire EC Plc
www.empiredirect.co.uk
National E-Trading Award winner
Background
Empire EC Plc, established in 1982, is one of the UK's largest independent electrical retailers. It has three major out of town electrical superstores; a clearance outlet; Empire Commercial which specialises in the supply of replacement electric goods to the insurance industry; and Empiredirect, the internet sales division of the company.
Empiredirect.co.uk offers over 3,500 top brand electrical goods. Since inception in 1999, it is now the company's third generation site and attracts over 30,000 unique customers a day, making it one of the busiest e-commerce sites in the UK.
The Business Opportunity
Empire EC has always been forward thinking. It was one of the first businesses to tap into the insurance replacement market some years ago and therefore gained many years of experience in the delivery and service of goods nationwide.
In 1998, Empire EC decided it wanted to build a national brand and increase its growth rate. However it realised that normal retail channels would prove to be an expensive route, with the company encountering the high costs and risks of retail superstores. In addition to this, one the company's main goals was also to become the UK's third largest electrical retailer, after Dixons Group and Comet.
In order to achieve this, Empiredirect.co.uk was set up in 1999, enabling Empire to tap into the £8 billion consumer electrical market.
The Solutions
Once Empire realised the potential of e-commerce, it began to plan ahead for its introduction by putting in place the appropriate infrastructure, including a new national distribution centre capable of handling sales in excess of £200 million.
Using its retail experience within the electrical sector, Empire built a web site to replicate as real a shopping experience as possible. Initially the web development work and hosting service was outsourced, but Empire soon discovered the advantages of bringing both in-house. This enabled the company to save costs and also to keep up-to-date with new developments and technologies.
Empire invested £1 million into the development and implementation of its internal back-office systems. The new technologies allow the company to circulate all live data to any part of its network or web site, and ensures that the web site is updated continuously. This allows the company to publish comprehensive product descriptions and live stock availability that are not readily available through normal retail channels.
A live comparison feed enables customers to compare Empire's prices with other competitors' online prices. The clearance section on the site enables the company to clear end of line and surplus stock at further reduced prices and its Top Ten best sellers are published on the web site with an automatic data feed from its back-end computer system that is constantly updated. Regular customers and registered members are offered exclusive discounts and offers via email marketing.
The site, which is protected against fraudulent transactions, accepts all major credit and debit cards. The integration of an online finance payment option has attracted new non-credit card paying customers and customers can also make payments by cheque or postal orders. Empire is currently working with the Post Office to provide a cash payment alternative too.
Success
The benefits of the web site has been immense. The electrical goods market is very price sensitive and with low operating costs and controlled overheads, Empire has been able to significantly reduce the selling price of products against traditional shopping channels, by up to 30 per cent. The site has also given Empire the opportunity to present a wider range of products without the restrictions of expensive retail space.
The web site has also enabled Empire to accelerate its growth over the last three years, from an annual turnover of around £20 million to over £62 million in the last financial year, with Internet sales accounting for 60 per cent.
On the back of Empiredirect.co.uk, the company is forecasting £120 million turnover for this financial year, thus not only strengthening its leadership position within the online electrical market, but making them the fourth largest electrical retailer in the UK.
Web traffic, a direct relationship to sales, is probably the best measure of its success. Empiredirect.co.uk has over 30,000 unique visitors per day and daily page impressions exceed 500,000, with each visitor spending on over 10 minutes on average on the site. This makes Empiredirect.co.uk one of the top ten most visited e-commerce sites in the UK, translating to over £1 million in sales per week, with an average sales basket of £350.
Amarjit Singh, Sales Director commented: "Although we have developed a very complex and comprehensive site, its look and feel is simple and professional to ensure fast load times, easy navigation and easy order inputting. Our success has reinforced our faith in this new and exciting sales channel and we are confident that e-commerce will continue to prosper and expand rapidly over the coming years. New technologies, like broadband, will only accelerate this growth."
The success of Empiredirect.co.uk, along with its quality of customer services, prompt delivery, credit card safety and great prices, led it to be selected as one of the top 20 online stores in the world by The Net Magazine. It was also a finalist in the Best Value Site in the UK Awards; Safe as Houses Awards in the national Visa Retail Awards; and in the Best e-Tailer of the Recent Revolution Awards.
In addition to this, the company was also named National e-Trading Award winner of the UK online for business/InterForum E-Commerce Awards 2002.
The Future
Empiredirect.o.uk is looking at new technologies that can take advantage of broadband which it feels will revolutionise Internet usage and in particular e-commerce. In the future the company wants to be able to provide live demonstrations of its products, enable customers to rotate and view products from all angles and feed live pictures of its call centres and dispatch operations.
|
