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Bourne Sports have been in retailing for over thirty two years. Fifteen years ago, Bourne Sports set up a mail order division which has developed into the largest in the UK. Bourne Sports recognised that their existing client list could be used as a platform to establish an online trading site. This could be used to communicate with their existing customers in a more cost effective and efficient way, as well as attracting new clients.
Objectives
The scope of the project was to;
• Design and build the online presence.
• Enable existing staff to manage the website content without the need. for external support or specialist training.
• Implement secure online trading.
• Provide access to new markets, i.e.
o Export
o Web literate audience
o Niche markets
• Provide the ability to respond quickly to changing market conditions. e.g. new product ranges, overstocks etc by targeting specific customers with relevant product offers.
• Display over 5500 products in a structured, easy to find way.
• Devise an efficient and cost effective alternative to surface mail as the preferred method of communicating to their customers.
The Solution
Digital Refresh fulfilled the objectives by;
• Designing an aesthetically pleasing website with an instinctive to use navigation structure, ensuring that the website visitors can find products easily.
• Developing powerful content management tools that enable Bourne Sports to quickly and easily publish information into their website.
• Implementing a secure online shopping basket, integrated with an uncomplicated fraud control strategy.
• Developing a straightforward marketing strategy helping Bourne Sports to grow sales.
• Enabling the personal details and preferences of customers who have subscribed to the website to be stored in a database. Bourne Sports can retrieve a list of specific customers they wish to contact (e.g. all footballers with a foot size of 7 to 11) and automatically e-mail the list of matching customers with a relevant message.
Results
Since implementing the Digital Refresh solution, Bourne Sports have;
• Seen online sales exceed all other areas of the business and become the area showing the largest growth.
• Used customer profiling to increase sales and reduce stock holding times.
• Been able to respond to the market by managing their website content easily and effectively.
• Restricted online fraud to an absolute minimum.
• Received complements from the national press and customers about the ease of use and general appearance of the website.
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