How e-commerce app transformed Sugro’s offering

Sugro’s Head of Trading & Marketing Yulia Petitt reveals why switching on to digital has benefited the buying group’s members

Sugro’s trading and marketing strategy is to concentrate on developing business for our members, with the Sugro app and e-commerce being the centre piece of that.

E-commerce is a long-term strategy for the group and we are very pleased to see such a good uptake within the group, with 15 wholesalers already taking the advantage of the digital app since launch and 10 more members set to go live in 2022.

Amid the current pandemic situation that wholesalers have been dealing with over the past two years, it is imperative that Sugro members remain at the forefront of the move towards digital ordering.

The b2b.store app has proven to be very successful for the group and helped members to do business with their customers more efficiently. It allows retailers to browse product catalogues and add products to basket on the go, scan the products using barcode and pay online via the in-app payment method.

The platform gives members an opportunity to provide the best customer service and experience via the app-ordering facility and personalised marketing capabilities, such as product advertising, push notifications, interactive interstitial videos and full-screen animated trade ads that are already available on the app platform with more bespoke features going live this year such as personalised targeted segmented promotions.

Since taking up the group app offering, members advised that they have seen a substantial increase in average basket size with their customers as well as a significant reduction of in the order taking costs. Wholesalers have been reporting 100% customer satisfaction driven by efficiencies of 24/7 ordering system capabilities as well as accuracy in capturing the orders with fewer mistakes in comparison with other order capturing methods such as phone or email.

Wholesalers have seen an increase in average online sales of up to 50% since adopting the group app, with up to 30% of their turnover now being generated online via the app. They have also reported an increase in active online users of over 200% year on year (2021 vs 2020).

Members have seen new customers placing orders via the app platform with up to 20% of incremental sales driven by the app.

Digital is the fastest-growing channel in the wholesale industry. Digitalising wholesale business can often result in huge benefits such as increased sales, fewer order mistakes and, most importantly, increased customer satisfaction and loyalty which leads to increased sales, so it’s well worth the investment – in time and money – to get started.