Birdsnest’s Competitive Advantage: ‘It’s very important for retailers to understand their place in the ecosystem.’

“Industry insights are what brought us to Switched On,” says Liam Bligh, Digital Marketing, Birdsnest. “Having the power to understand where we sit in our ecosystem is both humbling and extremely motivating. It has assisted us in determining anything from top level health checks to identifying marketing channels that need a little bit of love.”

Birdsnest utilises the Benchmarking Data to identify gaps and opportunities to improve top-level e-commerce metrics. “We’ve also used the benchmarking data to assist us in assessing and setting goals at a channel level,” Bligh adds.

The Switched On Membership is used mainly by the Birdsnest marketing and e-commerce team. “Typically we incorporate Switched On at our higher-level strategy and planning sessions. We recently used this tool to forecast potential growth for Organic traffic.”

Users also tell Power Retail that Switched On helps with performance reporting and Birdsnest agrees. “It’s perfect for the top-level view—if we notice any anomalies in our day to day reporting, jumping into switched on can yield insights as to whether it was an industry-wide anomaly or something we need to address,” Bligh explains. “It was particularly helpful to monitor shifts in sales during different COVID lockdown stages.”

The Switched On Membership was created to help online retailers understand how they are performing relative to the Australian market. “If we see our place in the universe, our inclination to grow and improve deepens. Having insight into what your peers, or even the market as a whole, can achieve is both inspiring and motivating,” says Bligh.

Yet the Benchmarking Data is vital not just for external comparisons but also for building business cases internally. “I think seeing the potential for growth at a KPI or channel level has been very helpful to make business cases for areas of focus,” Bligh explains. “Knowing where we fall short for things such as average channel conversion rate has assisted us in allocating resources to reach our goals.”

As well as real-time data and Trajectory Reports, Power Retail also releases member-only Shopper Profiles. As a fashion retailer, how have these ongoing reports assisted Birdsnest? “Having access to this data has assisted us in building refined customer personas and empathy maps. Which in turn has allowed us to refine our messaging, better strategise and improve overall customer experience,” says Bligh. 

The Power Retail Top 500 dataset provides up-to-date performance rankings and analysis for Australia’s top-performing retailers. Birdsnest consistently appears in this ranking of top Australian retailers. How does knowing information about competitors assist them with strategy? “We’re constantly working on ways to improve our customer experience. This is typically driven by the things our customers tell us. Having access to the Top 500 data is helpful to see how the changes we make are reflected in the industry.”

“I feel it’s very important for retailers to understand their place in the ecosystem,” Bligh adds. “As retailers, we should put our customers’ needs first, then seek to understand others in our industry. It can also be very humbling, motivating and inspiring to see how far you’ve come and where you can go!”

Want to know more? See how Power Retail Switched On can give you an edge here or contact us today: [email protected]