A vision fulfilled: Retail growth through e-commerce

Glasses Direct’s IT team developed a virtual mirror tool to allow customers to “try on” glasses

Boarded-up windows and closing down sales have become common features on high streets up and down the UK, as consumers continue to tighten their purse strings. But not all retailers are mired in the gloom. Online spectacle retailer Glasses Direct continues to grow, and it credits its success to a commitment to offering value for money and high levels of customer service – ­ both of which are dependent on the creativity of its in-house IT team.

“Despite the recession, business is good. Glasses are not a luxury and with some high street stores giving quotes of about £200 for a pair of glasses, many customers come to us for value,” says Matthew Pontefract, chief technical officer at Glasses Direct. “Each product is bespoke and we use technology to ensure that it is what the customer wants. Uptake rates only increase if we provide the exact glasses and lenses in the first place.”

Pontefract says that sales targets are being maintained and year-on-year growth is “in the high tens of per cent,” but this success is founded on a clear-sighted e-commerce strategy, which focuses on what needs to be done in-house and what can be outsourced.

“I have an in-house team of eight people and we look at where we should be doing work and where we should be outsourcing to give a client the best experience,” says Pontefract.

A dedicated team of opticians check prescriptions and is available to discuss customers’ needs, while technology works to enhance the buying process. An order system automatically flags up any potential problem early on so it can be dealt with promptly and double-checked by a Glasses Direct optician.

Glasses Direct is also acutely aware of the need to streamline operations, and has embraced IT outsourcing through a hosting partnership with NTT Europe Online. The deal allows the firm to keep costs of maintaining its web presence down, while ensuring site availability and scalability as it grows.

“Five years ago, we had a smaller hosting partner on one box, typical of a startup business. We needed to move to a solid hosting platform, which could grow with the company and allow us to expand into other countries. NTT Europe Online provides us with reliable hosting that can scale up,” says Pontefract.

Hosting deal to support global expansion
That scalability will be tested further as the company expands operations into Europe and the US. “When we expand outside the UK, we don’t want different hosts in many datacentres, so we need a content delivery network we can switch on easily. NTT Europe Online has dedicated fibre around the world so we do not have to deploy physical hardware all over the place, which would be expensive and inefficient,” says Pontefract.

The UK operation will act as a blueprint, but e-commerce in new territories must comply with local regulations.

“We sell a medical product and will have to go through each country’s legal and local issues regarding dispensing. It will not be a simple cookie-cutter process,” says Pontefract.

In the longer term, expansion could also include a shift to cloud computing services, says Pontefract, as it may be suitable for a business with geographically dispersed users.

“Running our site primarily in the cloud could be a viable option provided cost, management and security constraints could all be satisfied, but we would certainly also have some fixed infrastructure,” he says.

While Glasses Direct is committed to providing high levels of customer service, competing online inevitably creates pressure to keep costs low. That, in turn, has persuaded Pontefract of the benefits of open-source technology: the firm’s e-commerce platform runs on Solaris, web pages are written in the PHP scripting language which works with a MySQL database, and its web server is Apache.

But for Pontefract, the most important benefit of open source is the support.

“You can have service-level agreements (SLAs) with a software vendor with spe cified response times, but you have to pay for it. If there is an open-source problem, I can Google it and in half an hour the problem is solved,” he says.

Keeping costs down where possible by outsourcing and using open-source technology leaves the internal IT team to concentrate on where it can add value, he says.

“E-commerce technology is very commoditised. My team focuses on where it can make a difference to the user, which increases the conversion rate from browsing to sales. We also create tools for the business internally as they are our clients as well,” says Pontefract.

The site has a “virtual mirror” where potential customers can upload a photo of themselves and “try on” different glasses to help buying decisions and the tool has gone through several versions to improve usability.

“Each product is bespoke so it takes time, but we try to make the buying process as painless as possible. We tweak the site to improve the user experience and increase sales by putting together a package that makes sense,” says Pontefract.

Email campaigns are of vital importance to a purely online business and Glasses Direct uses Mailtrack’s ProDigital marketing platform to target customers with offers.

“The technology exploits our email database very effectively and our marketing manager spends a lot of time using it to realise promotional ideas. We are finding new ways to understand different demographics based on order history,” says Pontefract.

Attracting the customer’s eye is one thing, but even if it translates to a sale, the intensely personal experience of wearing glasses means that some customers will change their mind.

To overcome this problem, the company has recently launched a home-trial scheme where customers can order up to four frames for trial. This brings its own challenges from a technical perspective.

Managing the supply chain
“Warehouse management is a very big concern for us. Our order management system is bespoke and we have bent it to our particular needs and processes. The home-trial scheme meant we had to upgrade it so that orders did not go straight into fulfilment. It is an efficient system and we have the skills to support it, but we will keep an eye on what is going on in the market. I guard against having all bespoke systems so that we concentrate on what needs to be done in-house,” says Pontefract.

Although reducing the amount of bespoke systems in the business is on his list of priorities, Pontefract says that an enterprise resource planning system such as SAP is too costly. He is doing other things to improve supply chain optimisation and order management.

“We have a supply chain manager who looks at how we can optimise the supply chain. We have recently bought an industrial edger, which cuts pre-made lenses to fit glasses,” he says.

“The aim is to speed up delivery, cut costs and improve quality control. Our aim is to fulfil orders within 28 days and we often do so in under 10 days.”

Looking into the future, Pontefract is keen for the web site to harness the power of social networking.

“Buying glasses is a social experience and we want the site to reflect that. For example, we use Twitter and the home-trial scheme is an example of bringing the social experience into the physical world. We will continue to look for other opportunities to enhance this aspect,” says Pontefract.

Read how Agent Provocateur and Evans Cycles have both used e-commerce to improve their online strategies

In part three we will explore how technology can be used to maintain a competitive edge online