Online Store for Your Stores

I started selling online before Y2K (in the 1990's) from our family's downtown retail store.  But I'll fast forward to the last decade to provide context for my hardware, lumber & paint journey of selling online.  In the mid 2010's, selling online was just emerging for our industry.  In order to test it out for our three stores, we decided to simply take the items that were in the circular and present them in a way online that a customer would expect to see them and measure the results.  We learned that our customers absolutely would shop our items online.  Based on that study, we endeavored to deploy an online shopping site only to have our marketing firm spend six months and over $50K without success.  We  took the effort back in house and pivoted to a Shopify solution that we were able to fully deploy in 90 days for $15K.  Our focus was on progress over perfection and we were fortunate to have the site live just weeks before March 2020 when retail changed overnight.  The site performed very well for many years.

One of the elements that made this rapid and efficient deployment possible was the availability of an industry PIM (Product Information Management) database that we subscribed to.  Through my industry roundtable involvement years prior where we collaborated on these topics, a hardware industry PIM effort was born.  The lack of a PIM was the single biggest factor keeping retailers in our space from having an effective online shopping experience available.  

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Another key element I developed was 1:1 attribution capability.  Since we had Shopify integrated with our CRM solution, we were able to see when a person viewed an item online and then came in the store to make a purchase.  Over 75% of in store purchases were made to a known customer on the Epicor Eagle loyalty system.  We were able to positively identify that over 25% of all in store purchases were influenced by an online engagement within 24 hours prior to purchase.  This was an amazing validation of the online shopping efforts.  We were finally able to clearly demonstrate that the online site was driving in-store sales.

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Years later, I worked for a retailer with over 100 stores and a very complex tech stack supporting their online shopping experience.  The architecture and approach was similar to the one that I had stopped years before.  As I developed intimate knowledge of this architecture, it affirmed the decision years earlier and led me to wonder if there may be a better approach for this larger organization.  As it turns out, there was.

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My objections to traditional ecommerce offerings were that they were too big, too expensive, too complex, and way too difficult to operate.  As independent retailers, we're still a long way from having a significant number of our transactions take place online, so we need a lean, economical solution to get the relevancy we need to serve our local customers.

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Today, EZ Commerce fills that exact niche for the independent operator selling lumber, hardware and paint to their local communities.  First, it provides a comprehensive list of millions of Google optimized items for the retailer removing the item list quality concern.  Second, implementation can be completed in a few weeks including integration with most POS systems and maintenance overhead is minimal.  For more complex operations with custom needs, full development services are available at very reasonable costs.  Third, it works!  Retailers find customer growth when local folks can find the items on their shelves with a simple Google search.  Finally, because the costs are so low and the effectiveness is so high, it's profitable.

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I often say I've been doing eCommerce as a retailer for over 10 years and I have the scars to show for it.  It's been brutal at times!  But I'm very fortunate to have finally found a partner who understands our industry and can bring online shopping to paint, hardware and lumber dealers in an efficient and effective manner that makes it a joy to bring to life.