Brightpearl sparking customer loyalty for Love Shopping Direct

A flicker of an idea

Love Shopping Direct is a large UK online retailer of LED lamps, lighting, heating and ventilation products. Selling to consumers and businesses, from public sector to FTSE 100 companies, Love Shopping Direct caters to every market.

The business was founded over ten years ago in Birmingham by two brothers and a childhood friend. They started by selling light bulbs from a bedroom and launched EnergyBulbs.co.uk. The website immediately saw great traction and steadily continued to grow over the years. Today, Love Shopping Direct runs multiple webstores with the assistance of the Shopify Plus platform, including www.airconcentre.co.uk and www.ledbulbs.co.uk and stocks over 10,000 products.

In 2013, the company was awarded The Sunday Times Fast Track award, which ranks Britain’s top 100 private companies with the fastest-growing sales over the last three years. The national recognition the company achieved spiked growth in sales. However, the business struggled to keep up with the influx of orders, with some customers calling and chasing their items as well as leaving negative feedback.

Love Shopping Direct needed technology that would support the firm’s rapid expansion while also allowing them to meet customer expectations for speed and convenience.

Key Challenges

• Improving the customer journey – and customer feedback

• Ensuring control and easy management of orders

• Automating processes to save time

• Implementing a scalable solution to run alongside Shopify

A light bulb moment

“One of the biggest challenges we used to face was customers calling and chasing up orders,” says Andy Lockley, Head of Ecommerce at Love Shopping Direct. “We knew that as the business grew, this was an area we had to address, particularly as we were beginning to receive negative feedback due to customers not getting their items on time.

“We were using a stock management and inventory system to manage customer orders, but the system was complicated and difficult to manage. As the business offers a next-day delivery option, we had to make improvements so that customers always received their orders on time. We needed software to not just cope with order volume, but demanding delivery schedules too.”

Love Shopping Direct also wanted to develop its overall customer journey as the brand recognized that consumers’ expectations stretch beyond the website, to factors such as fulfillment, delivery, returns and post-purchase customer service. Andy explains: “We wanted to take the experience we offer to the next level with new delivery options and service that would offer a real wow factor for shoppers while helping to drive customer loyalty. To do that, we needed a reliable, user-friendly system that would streamline our order and fulfillment process – Brightpearl seemed the perfect fit.”

Making sparks fly

Brightpearl made an immediate impact on the business, with shoppers amazed at how quickly Love Shopping Direct now handled next-day orders.

Andy explains: “Using Brightpearl allows us to process orders twice as fast as before, giving us the confidence to introduce multiple delivery options, including late next-day delivery services, as we now know that we will be able to fulfill our service promises effectively.”

The improvements to the customer experience have translated into a huge increase in positive reviews. “We’re now flooded with 5* Trustpilot reviews, most of which quote ‘fantastic, ‘great’ or ‘excellent’ customer service,” says Andy. “With Brightpearl, we don’t just meet our customer delivery expectations, we’re now exceeding them, with an experience that both surprises and delights our shoppers. It has become a key competitive differentiator for our brand.”

It’s clear that Love Shopping Direct is now keeping customers happy, as the company has also noticed a significant decrease in the number of customer calls querying orders. Ryan Kandola, Commercial Director at Love Shopping Direct, says: “We no longer have calls coming through from our customers, which is great because it means that everything is working as it should be and that our shoppers are getting orders on time.”

Operational benefits illuminated

Since implementing the Brightpearl platform, and as a result of automation, Love Shopping Direct have seen a staggering 50% time-saving on the process of allocating and fulfilling orders.

“Brightpearl Automation has saved us so much time operationally,” commented Leo Dennis, Operations Manager at Love Shopping Direct. “The main use we have for automation is for allocating and fulfilling orders, which leaves our orders ready to print without any manual intervention.”

“Brightpearl Automation also greatly reduces the need for manual checks throughout the various steps in our order process – and the chance of human error. Overall, automation has been a great success for us,” Leo concluded.

The solution also enables Love Shopping Direct to run an external warehouse, which is powered by Brightpearl technology. Customers can order right up until midnight and still receive next-day delivery. Essentially, this means that the business doesn’t have to keep its own warehouse open late, but can still process deliveries throughout the night.

Integration with Shopify

One of the other key benefits of the Brightpearl platform is its easy integration with Shopify. Love Shopping Direct needed a solution that enabled its existing software solutions to run seamlessly with a new operating platform.

“The integration of Shopify and Brightpearl is the easiest I’ve been a part of,” said Andy. “It was a seamless transition that got us up and running in hours; a testament to how well Brightpearl and Shopify work together, as one end-to-end solution that acts as the centerpiece of our entire business.”

“The reliability and constant evolution of the Brightpearl and Shopify connection also gives us the ability to scale at the rate we want to – which is hugely valuable. I would suggest using Brightpearl and Shopify Plus to any growing business that’s looking to extend channels or marketplaces while adding efficiency into their operation.”

The future’s bright

Love Shopping Direct has been working with Brightpearl now for over five years, and the relationship continues to grow from strength to strength. Ryan concludes that it’s now an everyday part of the team’s lives.

“I’m trying to think of what it would be like without Brightpearl, but to be honest, we wouldn’t even want to consider it.”

Love Shopping Direct’s Trustpilot scores:

• Energybulbs.co.uk > 9.4 | 86% of scores are 5 stars

• Airconcentre.co.uk > 9.3 | 89% of scores are 5 stars

• Ledbulbs.co.uk > 9.4 | 86% of scores are 5 stars

• Meacodehumidifiers.co.uk > 9.6 | 90% of scores are 5 stars