Case Study: Readicut

Today, rug canvases are still stenciled by hand and hand knitting, needlecraft, tapestry and counted cross stitch have been added to the range of craft products. Readicut is the largest mail order craft company in the UK, with over 2.5 million catalogues covering needlecraft, knitting, crafts, rugs, jigsaws, gifts and household items mailed each year.

Like many companies in this market, the management had taken a very cautious view of the Internet potential until the market seemed to demand it: “As a traditional long-standing craft company with a ‘mature’ database it just didn’t seem necessary to follow the trend of dot.com companies for many years. However, the growth in the number of ‘silver surfers’, requests from customers for us to go online, the ability to process orders more efficiently and the ability to reach new markets all lead towards the decision to go ahead with a website.” says Sarah Eaves, eCommerce Manager.

With the potential of online sales now clearer, the company had two main concerns. Firstly, while they understood their traditional mail-order buyers, they were not at all sure of what the profile of new customers would be, what products they would want to purchase, and whether the existing product range would be well matched. Other concerns were similar to other companies launching their first eCommerce web site: not having much knowledge or experience of the subject, the need to control costs and to be able to manage things in-house without committing too many resources.

The new eCommerce service had to be easy to use by existing customers while at the same time appeal to a slightly more modern market. The site also had to be easy to manage using not-so-technical resources at Readicut. There were other challenges too: The company offers a diverse set of craft products in its portfolio, with reasonably distinct sets of buyers. Some of the products are simple to purchase – such as needlecraft, whereas hand-knitting products are more complex and need a different approach to sell. The range of products sold also changes season to season with a large percentage of products being replaced by newer designs and fashions.

The next step was to find a partner the company could work with to develop their understanding of what they required and to then create the eCommerce service. “We saw 12 companies, must have spoken to at least 12 more and then short listed 3 companies to pursue further – each with very different attributes. We chose Paraspar, who we saw as the market leaders.” says Eaves.

Together with Paraspar, Readicut built up a clearer picture of what the web site could offer and how the concerns previously held offered a great opportunity to further enhance the service offered by the company. Readicut tested some of these ideas with traditional buyers and based on the feedback Paraspar created the structure and flow of the new web site.

The approach taken was to split the entire range into the four logical product groups and make each group a distinct area of the web site, whilst encouraging cross-over. This has allowed each section to carry sufficient depth of product to satisfy customers, while at the same time creating a comprehensive ‘one-stop’ craft shopping centre. The site has also simplified the way knitting products can be purchased.

The eCommerce web site provided by Paraspar is based on the Elite Merchant eCommerce platform, providing advanced catalogue merchandising, marketing and content management capabilities.

The site was launched in August 2004 and so far the results have exceeded expectations. The existing market has responded well to the new web site and there are very positive signs for further potential. The company is now able to react more quickly to market trends, run more creative special offers and offer clearance items for sale.

The management team is confident in the ability of their web site to convert visitors into buyers and is investing resources into driving more traffic to the site. The expectation is that they will be able to recruit buyers through this channel that traditionally they would not have been able to reach. The eCommerce channel has opened up a whole new set of direct marketing techniques for targeting and promoting customers which Readicut are preparing to use.

The move to online sales has taken planning and effort; the outcome has been excellent and the future is promising. Commenting on the project: “What we got was Paraspar’s e-commerce and mail order experience, a system which was set up by expert professionals but one we could manage ourselves. Paraspar listened to what we thought we wanted, understood our requirements and provided what we actually needed!” Eaves.