As online retailers tackle the challenges of economic uncertainty after the sales boom of the pandemic, the advice from one leading growth expert is to use 2024 not to push for revenue growth but to set the foundations for 2025 and beyond.
Rob McKenzie, Managed Services Director at growth agency Heur, which has offices in London and York, says that now there is less disposable income available than three years ago, brands that were seen to thrive in the pandemic can remain in a good position as long as they focus on improving their cash position and managing debt, rather than chasing top line revenue growth.
He said:
“As awful as the time was during the pandemic, government programmes and the inability to spend money on leisure activities meant a lot of money was flowing through ecommerce sites. That flood of money made the sector as a whole grow, or some would say swell, in quite an unsustainable way.
“Today we’re facing a different type of uncertainty and it’s having an overall negative impact on ecommerce performance. People are saving money, scrutinising discretionary spending and generally being much more considered with their finances.
“This is making ecommerce success much harder now compared to during the pandemic, so retailers need to continue focussing on improving their offering, but there needs to be some realistic expectations when it comes to performance.”
Heur, which specialises in direct-to-consumer ecommerce, recently won Best eCommerce Agency (under 30 employees) at the eCommerce Awards 2023. Behind the agency is a team of more than 25 highly skilled experts in all things marketing and ecommerce who provide a portfolio of ‘done for you’ services: from fractional leadership and CMO provision, to a fully embedded trading and customer service team and the deployment of holistic blended growth marketing.
Founded by Chris Raven and Chris Nawrocki, Heur works with businesses and founders both nationwide and internationally to help scale their D2C brands. The agency has helped brands such as Union Hand-Roasted Coffee, Drake’s, Jaded London, and many more since opening their doors in 2019.
The award win came as a result of a successful year for Heur which has seen the agency acquire Brighton-based marketing agency Out-To-Sea; appoint and bolster the senior leadership team with five new members and collect three other award wins.
Rob McKenzie’s advice for retailers looking to maintain a strong position in ecommerce is very much centred on a combination of product quality and market fit.
“There’s definitely saturation in the ecommerce space, but at the same time there’s always room for brands to rise to the top of the mix. In those situations, it’s really important that you find your audience and craft your entire offering around them. Ignore everyone else.
“It can be a difficult choice to make, but as they say, ‘He who walks in the middle of the road gets hit from both sides’.
“A great product will sell on a terrible website, but the best website on the planet couldn’t help a bad product. Your website and marketing can help you gather information on who your customers are and the relationships they have with your products. If you can gather this information and get it back into the hands of your product development team you’ll be a winner. Everything else in ecommerce and marketing is window dressing in comparison.”
The biggest question mark, according to Rob, is around availability. With a lot more people living and working outside of major cities compared to five years ago and with diminishing high streets in most smaller cities and towns there simply might not be the option for consumers to browse their favourite brands in their local area.
“Whilst I think people prefer shopping in person for certain types of products (clothing being a big one) I think the gradual climb of online purchasing will continue and high streets will shift to more leisure focused areas,
explained Rob.
“But it’s certainly going to be a challenge. We’ve had a very strong period of growth, where brands could be successful without really caring about the details, but that’s definitely changing now.
“Right now, retailers should be focusing on improving their cash position and managing debt as opposed to top line revenue growth. That doesn’t look as exciting on an annual report, but it looks far better than having to go begging for finance because you’ve run out of cash.
“Set the foundations for profitable growth in 2025 and beyond.”
To find out more about Heur visit www.heur.co.uk