An interview with Urchin

Let's jump back in time for a moment: A period of slow catalog sales, plus a regrettable out-sourcing decision, left Urchin hungry for growth and cautious about choosing vendors. Undaunted, Urchin saw itself as having a promising brand and smart products. The potential was there. They imagined getting back on track and growing market share, supported by a quantum leap in web sales.

To make it happen, Urchin's managing director Murray Kenneth sought out a firm that could be his company's Internet marketing expert. Someone offering marketing guidance wouldn't be enough, though. Murray needed a technology solution, too. Shopping cart software, hosting, everything. And it had to integrate with Urchin's order fulfilment system Mail Order Manager for maximum efficiency. At the suggestion of a trusted industry consultant, Murray contacted E-business Coach in 2005.

Murray talks with E-business Coach founder Patrick Pitman, to look back and scan ahead:

E-business Coach Question: If there's one big difference in your company since working with E-business Coach, how would you describe it?

Urchin Answer: We had no visibility on Google before. Our on-line strategy was really all about driving people to the site through off-line methods. It was email marketing and catalog mailings. The email marketing worked quite well, but it was very expensive. Catalogs are also expensive. Now a good share of our growth is from new customers discovering us on-line. Our customer acquisition costs are going down as you help us find new ways to grow web sales. As for profitability, we're most profitable when taking orders on-line. Today our ratio of web sales compared to other channels is at least double compared to when we first became a client. So in more ways than one, it's been transformative for Urchin.

Question: While we describe E-business Coach's product as an all-in-one package, it's rare to find something that truly does it all. Can you identify a component that's missing from Total Blue System that you'd like to see added, or that you'll go elsewhere to get?

Answer: It's never possible to please all of the people all of the time with a shared-platform solution. However, Total Blue does the important things and it does them well. As a business, we feel in control of our own destiny on the web thanks to software that enables us to continuously polish and enhance our online offering. In situations where Total Blue has not provided a turn-key solution to all our needs, the team at E-Business Coach have helped us select and integrate the functionality we need Ð for example, integration with an Affiliate Marketing tool.

Question:We describe Total Blue System as a continuously updated software product, and by implication, your website is continuously updated because of it. What's an example of such an update that mattered to you?

Answer: One attractive feature of the Total Blue System was that if included an integrated email marketing tool. However, the email marketing landscape was changing rapidly. Facing a squeeze on deliverability and a desire to send personalised and more targeted messages to individual segments of our list, E-Business Coach took the initiative and decided to replace their own system with a fully integrated 3rd party solution - at no extra cost to their customers. After thorough research and planning, the new system was rolled out and clients such as ourselves are setting about the exploitation of the new functionality available to us.

Question:The word "coach" is in our company's name. How important is that to you?

Answer: At the outset, this was not a huge consideration for us. However, as time went by we began to understand the importance and relevance of the name. The "coaching" we receive in terms of day-to-day maintenance as well as strategic planning is now an aspect of our business relationship that I value most highly.

Question: You're in the United Kingdom. E-business Coach operates in the United States. There's a 7 hour time difference. Looking back, can you think of an example when you needed support ASAP and describe what happened?

Answer: One busy morning in November there was a problem in downloading our overnight web orders into MOM [Mail Order Manager]. I can't remember what caused our confusion, but I had to leave the office shortly and was nervous about this being unresolved in my absence. It would have been about 1 a.m. your time when I logged into your support website, entered a bug report, and marked it urgent. Apparently your tech support team was paged because you replied and fixed my problem in about 15 minutes. You also contacted my operations manager about it as I had asked, so I could leave and be out of the loop. Problem was solved almost as soon as it began.

Question: You're growing web sales at a triple digit rate. You've got big plans. What's one reason you can imagine someday outgrowing Total Blue System as your e-commerce package?

Answer: We're jealous of the size of the US market! On this side of the Atlantic we are faced with complex language and cultural challenges if we decide to expand our business into the rest of Europe. At present, the Total Blue System is English language only and this may be a consideration for the future.

Question: Let's think about a prospective client of E-business Coach, someone in a position like you were in in 2005. Can you name a couple attributes about your company that made E-business Coach right for you?

Answer:We became interested in E-Business Coach when we heard that they had experience of integrating their Total Blue System with our back-office system, Mail Order Manager (M.O.M.). I regarded this integration as an area of real risk, so first-hand experience was a great comfort and it turned out to be a totally painless process. E-Business Coach also suited our position on the growth curve. As an established and growing business with under-realised online potential, it felt like we were just the type of business that E-Business Coach specialises in working with.

Call us at 1-877-816-8161 or submit a question

Ask us a Question

What question might you want answered by E-business Coach? By our client? Ask it now and get one step closer to the kind of sales growth experienced by our clients.