Post by Jon Ellison, Project Manager, OgilvyOne

Shorters Club is an e-commerce site offering wholesale prices to consumers without any membership programme. Their short term goal is to compete with the “big four” supermarkets (Tesco, ASDA, Sainsbury’s & Morison’s.)

Idea Generation

The team initially focussed on the current website, its potential to improve through m-Commerce and how the company could improve on their current social network offerings:

• It was raised that the homepage of the site did not display correctly in Internet Explorers 6, 7 & 8 (which still control a significant market portion.)
• In the same way that consumers check electronics prices online, Shorters Club could position themselves so that a dedicated mobile version of their site could be used to let customers see how much they would be saving when they are in the supermarket.
• The numbers of users recommending products to their friends through Facebook and other social media was relatively low. In the week since Ogilvy had shared a product on Facebook, only 6 other people had shared a product with a friend (according to the widget on the Shorters Club homepage). In order to drive this up, it was recommended that each page not only have a share by email button but also have a Facebook sharing option.
• The current Facebook page had a number of customers complaining that they hadn’t received their orders. At present this only presented a negative with a member of staffing saying that they would try to get them delivered soon – the team suggested that this needed to be turned around into a positive, possibly giving the customer something for their inconvenience. It was suggested that this could be along similar lines to Pizza Hut’s response to US YouTube criticism, or Starbucks’ “My Starbucks Idea” scheme to turn negative feedback into a positive for the company.
• It was suggested that the Twitter feed should be used less as a series of announcements, but more about creating a conversation and getting consumers to interact with Shorters Club. This type of interaction would then better drive followers to convert their interaction into sales.
• As future room for development on the website it was also suggested that repeat ordering functionality and a “let me know when you start stocking…” option could be beneficial.

Moving away from the technical element of the site, a number of suggestions were also made about the general Shorters Club brand and the way they market themselves.

• Owing to the way that Shorters Club mainly has an online presence, it was felt that more should be done to incorporate the URL into branding and around the logo on direct mailing materials.
• At present, the same DM leaflet was placed into each delivery. A variety of leaflets would make the marketing feel more dynamic, especially if targeted DMs were used for the customer’s first order and for retention.
• An actual “Shorters Club” was suggested to offer special discounts for members, as opposed to casual visitors.
• Ogilvy enquired what Shorters Club exactly stood for. It was felt that it stood for:

- A fair price
- A young audience
- Good communication & customer service – they always phone about substitutions, in contrast to supermarkets
- Based upon earlier articles in the Daily Mail it was felt that more of a brand image should be built up around James Shortridge (MD) and his young family, the characters within the company and the way that they are helping other young families.

• The concept of a “mum’s council” was also created, leveraging the popularity of sites such as Mumsnet and creating an affinity between the Shorters Club brand and their customers.

Find out more at http://www.shortersclub.co.uk/