BUY4NOW:
SUPPLIER OF ECOMMERCE SOLUTIONS TO IRISH & UK HIGH STREET RETAILERS
OVERVIEW
Company name: Buy4Now Technologies. The company existed between 2000-2015, when it was acquired by MWG, a large US ecommerce provider.
Services we provided: R&D, Product design, UX research, project management, development, testing, training.
Founded in 2000 in Dublin, Ireland, Buy4Now Technologies was one of the first software companies to offer a full end-to-end online shopping solution to retailers in Ireland and the UK. Their first clients were from the Irish grocery sector (Superquinn, Musgrave), but the company expanded into offering online ecommerce solutions to a wide variety of general merchandising. Their clients included Currys PC World, Carphone Warehouse, Three Mobile, Woodies DIY, Elverys Sports, RTE, Awear, Lloyds Pharmacy, Smyths Toys Superstores. During this time Buy4Now Technologies invested heavily in R&D and the evolution of their product.
Because of this focus on R&D and product quality, the company was acquired in 2015 by a US ecommerce provider called MWG (formerly MyWebGrocer). All 60 of the former Buy4Now Technologies staff were retained after this acquisition. Buy4Now Technologies then became known as MWG Dublin. (You can read more about MWG here: MWG - PROVIDER OF ECOMMERCE AND MEDIA SOLUTIONS TO IRISH AND NORTH AMERICAN GROCERY RETAILERS).
ROLES
My role in Buy4Now Technologies: Lead designer
What I did:
-
I led the design for creating online customer experiences for our various high street retail customers.
-
I worked closely with R&D developing new product offerings (mobile sites, responsive sites)
-
I worked closely with R&D designing the customer experience for a back-end admin panel application ('Marsantas'), which enabled retailers to manage the daily workings of their own multi-lingual, multi-currency sites.
-
Below is a selection of projects from my 5 years with Buy4Now Technologies before we were acquired by MWG. I hope they give insight into what we did at Buy4Now Technologies, my role in it, and how we evolved our products and services.
LLOYDS PHARMACY
Company name: Lloyds Pharmacy
Project duration: This project 6 months, 2014. But Buy4NowTechnologies had an on-going product iteration relationship with Lloyds Pharmacy.
My role: Lead product designer in Buy4Now Technologies for the Lloyds Pharmacy site.
Services we provided: Product design, R&D research, project management, development, testing, training.
THE PRIMARY COMPETITORS OF LLOYDS PHARMACY, AND WHAT THEY DO WELL
Lloyds Pharmacy is a British pharmacy chain with 1500 pharmacies throughout Ireland and the UK.
its main competitors both online and in-store are Boots the Chemist and Superdrug. In Ireland Sam McCauley Chemists would also be considered an online competitor.
Boots and Superdrug offer a very large range of products and nearly always have promotions running. Many of which run cross department and cross brand. They also offer rapid delivery and store pickup services.
HOW THIS IMPACTED OUR APPROACH
If Lloyds Pharmacy was going to compete with these two UK giants we would have to ensure that their online service would be able to handle high volumes of orders. We would also need to ensure that there was a large product and stock range available and that this was easily navigated and searched by customers.
Delivery and pickup options and order turn-around times would need to be competitive, otherwise customers would abandon the site in favour of competitors.
THE SOLUTION
Screens from the desktop and mobile sites we created for Lloyds Pharmacy.
CARPHONE WAREHOUSE
Company name: Carphone Warehouse
Project duration: This project, 8 months, 2013. But Buy4NowTechnologies had an on-going product iteration relationship with Carphone Warehouse.
My role: Lead product designer in Buy4Now Technologies for the Carphone Warehouse desktop and mobile site.
Services we provided: Product design, R&D research for the mobile site, project management, development, testing, training.
THE PRIMARY COMPETITORS OF CARPHONE WAREHOUSE, AND WHAT THEY DO WELL
Carphone Warehouse's main competitors (Vodafone, Eir, Three Mobile), are also the third party vendors that they themselves sell online and in-store.
In their online channel all three main competitors have a large, and similar, range of products in all sections (phone, broadband, home entertainment, etc). All provide onscreen product comparison tools. All provide pre-booking on upcoming releases of new products.
The key demographic for the telecoms market is young and tech savvy. Few would show brand loyalty to these providers if there are better deals elsewhere. These users will typically hop between telecoms competitors to see who offers the best combination of device and plan.
.
HOW THIS IMPACTED OUR APPROACH
Carphone Warehouse had bright, fun branding, and also had their own avatar called "Mobi". We would maximise the use of this in creating something that would be eye catching and appealing to its key demographic users.
Because Carphone Warehouse is a third party resellers for its direct competition (Vodafone, O2, Three Mobile), we had to ensure that we gave fair product weighting and visibility to all competitors. We also had to be respectful of these competitors' branding guidelines and how we displayed their logos and product advertisements within both Carphone Warehouse sites (desktop and mobile).
We would need to allow for a large number of customisable content areas in which Carphone Warehouse could advertise upcoming product launches and special offers with which to hook floating shoppers from their key demographic.
THE SOLUTION
Screens from the desktop and mobile sites we created for Carphone Warehouse.
CURRYS PC WORLD
Company name: Dixons Group (operating as Currys PC World).
Project duration: This project 8 months, 2012. But Buy4NowTechnologies had an on-going product iteration relationship with the Dixon Group.
My role: Lead product designer in Buy4Now Technologies for both the Currys and PC World ecommerce sites.
Services we provided: Product design, R&D research, project management, development, testing, training.
THE PRIMARY COMPETITORS OF CURRYS PC WORLD, AND WHAT THEY DO WELL
The electrical and white goods sector in Ireland and the UK is notoriously competitive. The main competitors of Currys PC World are Harvey Norman, DID Electrical and Expert Electrical (this was before the introduction of Appliances Delivered to the ecommerce electrical retailers market). All have staff dedicated to monitoring competitors pricing and sales events. They then adjust their own prices across their channels accordingly.
Special offers, sales events, online only deals, and free delivery after x threshhold are key to winning market share in this sector. Product comparision tools and wide ranges of brands/prices available online are also key competitive tools.
.
HOW THIS IMPACTED OUR APPROACH
Currys PC World would need its ecommerce solution to be robust enough to handle high levels of orders and site traffic.
The company was planning to carry a large range of products and brands online so we would need to ensure that these were visible, easily searchable, and easily navigated.
We would need to allow for a large number of customisable content areas in which Currys PC World could advertise their special offers, sales events, and online deals.
THE SOLUTION
Screens from the desktop and mobile sites we created for CURRYS PC WORLD.
CONCLUSION
The three projects above show the evolution of our product and design direction over my time in Buy4Now Technologies, 2010 - 2015 (In 2015 we were acquired by US ecommerce company MWG. (You can read more about MWG here: MWG - PROVIDER OF ECOMMERCE AND MEDIA SOLUTIONS TO IRISH AND NORTH AMERICAN GROCERY RETAILERS). All three clients were happy with the solutions we provided and all saw increases in revenue. Buy4Now Technologies always placed high importance on retaining clients, and towards this aim offered many backend site upgrades and front end redesigns over the life of retailers' contracts.