Who’s got men’s ready-to-wear tailoring sewn up?
In its half-year announcement in September 2015, high street suit retailer Moss Bros reported a 55 per cent increase in e-commerce sales in Q2. These online sales now account for 10 per cent of the group’s revenue. This has coincided with a stronger focus placed on the company’s e-commerce outlet channel as well as a country-specific website launch for the US alongside other improvements to existing dedicated websites. So why have Moss Bros seen this significant increase in recent months?
When taking a closer look at September’s e-commerce numbers and comparing them to a number of competitors it is clear to see that Moss Bros are doing certain key things well. However, it also evident that others, particularly Burton, have much greater potential. So is it a success story or the result of others in their market failing to compete effectively?
Benchmarking e-commerce performance
E-commerce comparisons give an incisive snapshot and can provide insight to explain the headlines. By comparing traffic and the efficacy of paid advertising you can make some well-founded assumptions as to which competitor is best at converting interest into sales.
By looking at landing pages you can assess who is thinking more about customer needs and by looking at the tools they use to understand their customers you can see who has got the intention to create deep insight against which they can drive sales growth.
Winners are those whose outcomes consistently beat their competitors in every area. Losers are those who, whilst they may have every tool at their disposal, are not using them effectively to drive growth.
James Hammersley is a founding partner of Good Growth. He is also the co-author of ‘Leading Digital Strategy’, a guide to e-commerce strategy