While so many dotcom businesses are losing their lustre, one is bucking the trend with impunity. Although only a few months old, Wooltru and Woolworths` online shopping venture, inthebag, has outstripped expectations and the pace of growth looks promising.
"It`s because we`re not a dotcom company," says CEO Jessica Knight. "We`re a service company. The key differential is that technology is not the focus of the business, but it enables us to give a fresh twist to the old-fashioned concept of neighbourhood service."
According to Knight, the `high-tech/high-touch combination` has been a major draw card to the service, which offers a wide range of gifts, leading branded goods, from Coke to Kellogg`s, and Woolworths` groceries and perishables. The site was launched in selected suburbs in Cape Town and Johannesburg in October and has already notched up over 9 500 registrations.
"Shopping on the Internet is generally a very alienating experience," she said. "We`ve worked hard to make inthebag just the opposite. We`ve used technology, not to complicate people`s lives, but to bring service and convenience back. Customer relationships are crucial."
"We`ve taken the best retail skills, combined them with the heritage of the traditional shopping experience and added additional levels of service", Knight said. "I see it as yin and yang. We have to be both customer-centric and good at harnessing technology - and we have to be very good at both." "One of the greatest advantages we have over a traditional retailer is our ability to communicate with the customer and respond quickly," Knight said. "For example, an online customer can give us feedback in a 30-second email. That same request would take far longer in a shop where the customer firstly has to locate the right person to talk to, and then possibly the effort required or perhaps the threat of confrontation may put them off. Based on our customer input, we`ve just added a further 200 products to our range and extended deliveries to include Saturday mornings."
But Knight readily admits that open communication creates its own responsibilities. "We`re only at the start of a very steep learning curve, and we`re having to constantly adapt our business model to meet consumer needs. The time required to complete an average shop has already been reduced to between 20 and 30 minutes, and we`re working on further improvements and upgrades all the time."
A key success factor has been the added value services which have been a hallmark of the traditional Woolworths` shopping experience, including the money-back philosophy and guarantee of quality. And, in stark contrast to the majority of online shopping sites, customer accounts are only debited after the delivery note has been signed.
"Shopping online needn`t be a harrowing experience," Knight added. "We`ve really tried to make it simple, easy and quick - to give people time for the more important things in life."
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