I had the pleasure of interviewing Keith McCormick, President of the Bishop Company, on his recent ecommerce project to talk about the challenges of technology, and how to compete in this tight market of online retailing.
Primarily a mail-order company, The Bishop Company first started selling their products online in 2001. Understanding the competitive nature of the online shopping environment (think Amazon) and the need for mobile optimization, Keith decided to give his online storefront a major boost with Mobiecom, a mobile-first, blazing fast online storefront which operates on both IBM Cloud and Amazon Cloud Services, powered by IBM Commerce back-end.
Keith McCormick – Bishop Co. Owner
“In this current eCommerce space, technology is changing so quickly. Consumers are demanding more – they want their shopping experience to be fast, easy and seamless on their phones. We decided to give Mobiecom a try because we knew we needed a truly mobile-first site and the need for speed!”
With Mobiecom, Keith has noticed some changes. “Our buyers’ shopping patterns have changed. Our buyers are typically arborists, landscape designers and gardeners so they are constanly out in the field. Before our site was mobile optimized, many had to wait until the evening to shop. Now we’re seeing purchases made during the daytime, right from their mobile devices. It’s great for the customer because we get the order before 2pm, we will ship same day. This has also led to a decrease in shopping cart abandonment and an increase in sales. We’re also seeing an increase in our professional demographic, as well as DIY weekend warriors who appreciate good quality gardening tools. People who weren’t finding us before, are finding us now.”
Customers are on their laptops, phone, and tablets throughout the day getting email, checking social networks and shopping both in store and online. Make it easy and seamless for them to jump between all those channels and pick up right where they left off on every device.
To learn how we can help your online storefront, please contact us at sales@zobristinc.com!
About The Bishop Company:
The Bishop Company is a family owned business since 1946, that specializes in heavy duty outdoor recreation equipment, professional grade landscape tools and clothing/footwear for outdoor enthusiasts. Please visit their website at bishco.com.
About Zobrist Consulting Group:
Zobrist has helped well-known companies such as, The North Face, Vans, Timberland, Toshiba, and Mazda, with a variety of eCommerce solutions and merchandising tools. Projects that have awarded us several accomplishments, include the 2008 IBM Leadership Award for the Best B2C deployment for TheNorthFace.com, the 2009 IBM Leadership Award for Foundational Leadership for Wrangler.com and Lee.com, and The Best of Show Award for Smart Merchandiser in 2011. To learn more, contact us at info@zobristinc.com.
