From humble beginnings in 2009, Electrical World have outgrown the small shed at founder John’s home to become today's ambitious company supplying electrical, home and garden products worldwide. A growing business meant new issues to overcome - warehouse expansion, logistics, customer support, ecommerce platforms and thousands more products to sell online - all whilst trying to control costs and protect profits.
Electrical World is located in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland - but their remote location was no barrier to their ecommerce ambition and drive of owner John Coalter.
John commented, “There are a lot of decisions to make in ecommerce. Electrical World wanted the platform that delivered us the most sales and profits. We were unsure what the best platform was - against IRPs advice - we ended up running IRP and Shopify side by side for nearly 3 years.”
“We quickly learned a lot about ecommerce platforms in the real world. We had ambition, so it all came down to which platform - IRP or Shopify - was going to deliver us the most sales and profit.”
“We ran two parallel sites for nearly 3 years - one on IRP, one on Shopify.”
John Coalter, Electrical World CEO
When you line up two - on the surface - similar sites selling the same products and using the same services - which one comes out best? By ‘best’ - John means only one thing - which one made the most profit for the Electrical World?
John commented “Features are much the same on platforms. But it is the things that cannot be seen that drive the revenue growth - internationalisation, trading information, shopping feeds and email marketing - then of course traffic from PPC etc. and the ease of doing all of this.”
"WHICH IS THE BEST PLATFORM? The one that delivers the most profit."
Says John Coalter
“The power of IRP meant we could access international markets immediately on one storefront. The implications and depth of this issue started to become apparent very quickly and IRP made it simple and financially viable for us. IRP Feed Manager opened the door to 40+ Google Shopping Channels.”
“IRP Email Manager allowed us to then attack these markets and get our Customer Lifetime values up and our costs down - without any additional complexity or plugins. We could then closely track profits and traffic costs on Trading Terminal - this ability was invaluable for trading.”
“Shopify Apps were supposed to solve the same problems - but the time and money trying to wire together what was needed proved to be too much for us. We spent a lot of time on Shopify - thinking 30 apps later we would find the answer. In the end I just realised apps are not an answer.”
“IRP was global immediately - it allowed us to wire up the distribution of data to Google Shopping and other key channels on Day One"
Says John Coalter
John continues, “We put serious time and resources into both systems. The differences are subtle but had profound impacts. We got to a point where we had to pull the plug on the loser. It is challenging to run even one shop well and we had to focus all our energy where we made the most money.”
“We lost time but what we learnt was not possible to know in advance - the ultimate result of a platform for Electrical World is simply Sales and Profits. IRP delivered 149% more sales for us - therefore Electrical World chose IRP."
IRP 149% More Sales IRP
2.4X More eGross Profits IRP >10X Export Sales
What drives success in ecommerce for merchants is first-party data, ecommerce technology, services and a trading ethos all wrapped in a will to win by taking market share.
IRP is a paradigm shift putting the Merchant First
Other ecommerce platforms think of their own profits first which drives their strategy and product roadmap - with their shareholders and investors needs coming first.
"IRP is a paradigm shift in ecommerce thinking by putting the MERCHANT FIRST."
"IRP invested over £30M in the Platform. That RnD went into the single concept of Merchant Profit - making IRP a highly effective global trading platform."
Dan Loughlin, IRP CEO
From the approach to International Sales and Feed Management, to a performance Service Marketplace, IRP delivered where it matters most - in Sales and Profits. Visibility and control sets us apart from other platforms.
Dan Loughlin Commented: “We would love to have a competition with Shopify and others head-to-head in real time. We have ideas on how that can happen. The platforms can show in front of the whole world their true ability to drive Merchant Profit.“
IRP Products are built MERCHANT FIRST
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IRP advised Electrical World against running a second platform to compete with IRP but the merchant was determined to run parallel sites.
Electrical World ran two parallel sites, Phairs.com and ElectricalWorld.com, from August 2020 to August 2023. The sites were selling the same products and using the same service providers for Design, PPC, Facebook and Email Marketing. Electrical World believed Shopify would transform sales and set up a Shopify site in parallel - the plan being to fully replatform to Shopify.
Both sites were built to generate revenues with the same team behind them. Both sites had equal ROAS based budgets. The Shopify site, Phairs.com, had an additional major advantage being the companies main focus for the 3 years in question. It also had marketing literature inserted to all marketplace orders.
Metrics like Conversion Rates, AOVs and CLVs were all examined - these varied overall due to the platforms differing abilities to access different markets . These core metrics were seen as inputs into an accounting format - with profit as the key objective.
The Agency involved was Flat White Digital who helped orchestrate strategy.
The data is real and has been verified by a number of independent third parties including Flat White Digital and PPC NI. The full information may be supplied to third parties by request and authorisation from the owners. No party has received any payment for their part in this case study.
Since giving up on promoting parallel systems - Electrical World's sales have increased by over 200% on IRP.
