Exploring eCommerce at the British Red Cross
Over the years, many charities have established their online presence. The British Red Cross (BRC) has adapted too. For example, the Digital team created the First Aid mobile apps and Alexa Skill, the eBay team built our reputation on eBay, and Red Cross Training have successfully marketed and sold a range of first aid products.
There still a long way to go.
Which is why eCommerce has been chosen as one of the Innovation Hub’s ‘Big Bets’ going into 2020 (you can read more about this here).
How to solve a problem like eCommerce?
Over the next six months, the eCommerce team (made up of Holly Fielder, Talya Edmondson, and Elliot Fox) are going to be running a number of exciting pilots to test out our ideas across different platforms.
We have a unique opportunity to work with our brilliant teams across the organisation, to locate our niche selling points in the strange world of eCommerce. Our current top priorities are to:
- Work with Assisted Daily Living and First-Aid Training to launch the BRC first-aid products and mobility aids on Amazon!
- Explore ways to expand our influence on eBay and find our own unique selling point using User and Smoke Screen testing.
- Team up with Abigail Jackson and Emily Packham from Retail to redesign the Red Cross online shop and explore the ideas of virtual giving and bespoke ethical products.
As we progress, our team will be blogging about our work and sharing what we discover along the way. To kick this off, I wanted to explain how we define eCommerce and share some thoughts on our work with Amazon so far…
What is eCommerce?
You may have read the title of this blog and found yourself wondering what on earth eCommerce is or what it means. In truth, eCommerce is just a fancy way of saying ‘selling things and buying things’ over the internet.
Whilst online retail may be the norm now, it is a relatively recent phenomenon. It all started in 1994 (two years before I was born!), when a CD copy of Sting’s “Ten Summoner’s Tales” was sold to a man in Philadelphia.
Fast-forward 25 years, and a whopping 18% of all UK retail purchases occur online. What’s more, this retail dominance is set to expand; with some estimates suggesting that 95% of purchases will be made online by 2040.
Although, the BRC does have an eCommerce presence, the Innovation team feel we have a real opportunity to develop our influence, explore new ideas and discover new ways to sell products and promote our brand online.
Trekking through Amazon’s processes
When we first started scoping out the opportunity of eCommerce we naturally began looking at the potential of selling on market places. The stats showed that Amazon hold a third of the UK e-commerce market, so developing the BRC as a verified Amazon seller was a great place to start.
We have already launched some of our products on Amazon and made some sales which is super exciting (46 products and counting!). However, this process has been a little tricky to say the least.
This is what we have learnt so far.
Start conversations early and prepare for delays.
Amazon have meticulous (and quite frustrating) processes in place that are almost impossible to divert. Even though we are a well-known charity, we have spent a huge amount of time proving our credentials, even having to go as far as getting the Ministry of Defence involved to register our brand on Amazon (watch out for a blog on this in the future!). We’re also in the process of getting approval to sell ‘restricted’ items (defibrillators and walking sticks for example).
Some of these things are yet to be resolved, but thankfully, we have an incredible legal team at the BRC (thanks Noel Trew!) and we started these conversations early on so that we have enough time to get back on track.
Customer Service is integral.
Amazon is an incredibly saturated market with huge product competition. This makes listing information, customer response times, brand promotion, and pricing even more important.
The products we want to sell (mobility aids and first aid kits) are sold by hundreds, if not thousands, of other companies and individuals. Making our products stand out from the rest is therefore a top priority.
Part of this is making sure our branding is recognisable and our prices are competitive. We are learning how to use Amazon marketing tools to expose our products to the largest audience possible. We will also be looking into running some workshop design sprints to see if we can meet the needs of mobility aids users in an innovative way — so watch this space for another blog post!
Learn from others.
The great thing about Amazon is that we can learn from other charities’ online successes. Not only in terms of pricing, but also in terms of branding, design, and content which will really help our own venture.
The best part of this project is a lot of the hard work has already been done by the pioneers, volunteers and wonderful Red Cross staff. To be a successful seller, having a powerful, well-known brand is so important — you don’t get much better than the Red Cross! People associate the Red Cross with helping those in need, both domestically, internationally, and in crisis.
We can use Amazon and our other eCommerce projects to cement this message further and, by selling bespoke, ethical, useful, and supportive products, we can provide support to even more people.
Look out for more of our Innovation Hub blogs in the future (give us a follow!) if you want to find out more about the role of eCommerce within the Red Cross. Or if you have any ideas for us or just want to reach out, please get in touch!
