How To Drastically Increase E-Commerce Sales
November 2012 Integrated Solutions For Retailers
By Erin Harris, associate editor
Henry’s Camera increased sales nearly 80% after implementing a SaaS e-commerce platform.
Henry’s Camera is a successful, 100-year-old retailer with 35 locations across Canada. As early as 1997, Henry’s Camera implemented a commercial website, which was considered cutting edge at the time. Yet, by 2008, the site had become outdated, as it was difficult to make realtime updates and keep up with increased traffic around the holidays. After a series of website-related issues, including negative customer feedback on shopping cart reliability, Henry’s Camera chose to overhaul its homegrown platform with a SaaS e-commerce platform under the management of Sen Kanthaswamy, manager, e-commerce and e-marketing.
Kanthaswamy states that the Henry’s Camera website had been experiencing reliability issues for too long. “We were experiencing consistent pain points that led us down the path of investing in our website to improve scalability and future company growth,” says Kanthaswamy. “We determined that our website had organically reached the extent to which it could support the business line. We needed to create a more robust site with more functionality and the ability to increase sales.” For example, Henry’s Camera surveyed its customers just prior to upgrading the website, and the results were shocking. “There were a significant number of customers who did not shop on Henrys.com simply because of the unreliable checkout process,” laments Kanthaswamy. “Customers were not completing transactions because they were worried the site might crash halfway through.” There were no alert emails notifying the customer of the different stages and statuses of the order (i.e. the order has been received, the product has been shipped, etc.).
In addition, payment options were limited to MasterCard and Visa. Kanthaswamy wanted to introduce PayPal and other forms of payment options such as gift cards to the mix but couldn’t due to limitations in the homegrown system.
An E-Commerce Platform Creates Opportunity For Growth
Supporting a homegrown, legacy website proved to be a costprohibitive investment in terms of labor and capital expenses for the limited IT staff at Henry’s Camera. “When considering solutions, we had one of two options,” says Kanthaswamy. “The first option was to upgrade the entire infrastructure and add additional personnel to the IT department to support our growing website. The second option was to research a third-party provider of an e-commerce service.” Kanthaswamy determined that a vendor-provided solution would be the most efficient, most cost-effective solution for the retailer. After considering three different vendors, Henry’s Camera chose E-Commerce SaaS Platform from OrderDynamics. The vendor offers Henry’s Camera an e-commerce platform management tool, and that tool manages multiple front end websites from one platform. “We manage all of our orders, product information, stock and price information, etc. in one consolidated platform,” says Kanthaswamy. “When we moved to OrderDynamics, not only did we replace the existing Henrys. com website, but we also spun off four additional websites to support the business. We went from just Henrys.com to a Henrys.com for Canada and Henrys.com for the United States. We also have a School of Imaging, a branded arm of Henry’s Camera, which focuses on in-class and hands-on training in photography. We also have a professional and rental arm through our Headshots brand. We were able to spin off this entire website and consolidate them on one platform.”
Since launching the new websites in 2010, Henry’s Camera has seen a significant increase in sales. In the first year alone, the retailer saw a 50% increase in sales. Last year, Henry’s Camera enjoyed nearly an 80% increase from the previous year’s sales. “I believe the primary success point is the stability of the site,” says Kanthaswamy.
For More Information On OrderDynamics Go To www.orderdynamics.com