Gutters Online GO ONLINE

We were pleased to catch-up with Steve Stroud, Head of eCommerce at Gutters Online to find out how they are getting on with their new eCommerce site.
Steve manages the digital strategy to make sure Gutters Online sits well in the marketplace, meet customers’ expectations, provides a seamless online experience and continues to expand.
We were delighted to help Steve and his team with their latest project.
Company
Manufacture and supply a range of metal rainwater systems and drainage solutions.
INdustry
Construction
Target Market
B2B and B2C – architects, self-builders and DIY enthusiasts
Integration

THE CHALLENGE
Gutters Online had always planned to drive online growth for their brand but the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated this need.
They wanted to make their products accessible in a time when the UK was going into lock-down and traditional sales were beginning to cease.
“We are in the construction industry and provide an important service to the trade. Provided we could do so safely, we were able to carry on throughout the pandemic and it was clear an updated online presence for Gutters Online would be the only want to make this possible.”
Gutters Online cater for both trade and domestic customers. The aim was to have an eCommerce website that was easy to use for all their customers to use as well as a wish list that included:
- Hosting all their products online.
- Pull through pricing, SKU details and stock from their accounting software.
- Orders processed automatically.
- Enable customers to build, save and have their orders checked.
- Enable them to provide top quality customer service
- A site that is going to evolve and develop as the business grows
They also had a tight deadline to ensure they could remain trading during Covid-19 restrictions which was to GO LIVE! in 8 weeks.
That’s where we came in…
delighted to be asked to work with Gutters Online, we jumped right in!
THE SOLUTION
Gutters Online, like many businesses have plenty of product lines and SKU’s and wanted the process to get online to be as straight forward
as possible.
GOb2b’s unique eCommerce platform, provided a feature rich website and higher personalised customer experience. GOb2b is fully integrated with their Sage 200 accounting software to sync orders, stock information, product data, customer records and pricing.
The integration connection enables Gutters Online to have up-to-the-moment data to both the front-end customer view, trade portal, back-office functions and warehouse.

THE RESULTS
SAVE TIME & MONEY
By reducing team intervention and eliminating manual data entry, the GOb2b platform frees up both time and money – resources that can be funnelled directly back into the Gutters Online brand. This integration reduces the risk of human error, avoids costly mistakes, and improves their bottom line.
50% OF ABANDONED BASKETS WE CONTACT NOW GO ONTO PURCHASE
GOb2b analysed the Gutters Online customer journey and a lot of people put items in the
basket and did not go onto purchase them.
“This is an important KPI of ours, how much of what gets put into a basket actually goes through the checkout as a sale! In terms of levers in the business, if you can get more baskets through the checkout, this increase could be worth a lot in terms of sales.”
More insight into the basket was provided and specific actions were made visible:
- How much had people left in their baskets?
- How long had the items been in the basket?
- How much had gone through to checkout?
Gutters Online now have a ‘follow up’ campaign with a series of touch points to nudge a reminder to the customer and in some cases offer an incentive to take their items through the checkout.
IMPROVED CUSTOMER SERVICE
Like the whole eCommerce industry, Gutters Online don’t want customers buying items they are not going to be pleased with and want to avoid returns. The more they can support our customers to ensure they have bought the right products, the more confidence they get and the more likely they are to go through checkout and complete their purchase.
One of the features of GOb2b is order adoption, where Gutters Online can support their customers on the phone or live chat with their order in real time. The team can see the order in the basket so they can be proactive to help process the order including taking payment details and selecting shipping. This also helps to reduce the number of abandoned baskets which has proved to be a really powerful tool as it gives our customers the confidence to go ahead with their order!
“It helps us maintain rapport, show we are interested in them and help them out through the checkout.”
BUILT TO GROW
The GOb2b platform creates sites which are built to last with regular updates as part of the monthly fee as well as support from our team of experts during the life-time of your site.
“It has already proved to be very reliable and we have had good feedback from our customers. It is by definition a SaaS platform which is going to evolve and develop with us rather than remaining stagnant like some online projects so obviously we can develop with it and we are very pleased so far.”
“We can’t be sure who would come back to their basket and finish the purchase without us contacting them. GOb2b allows us to capture customers contact details when added, which means we can follow up with those customers. 50% of customers with abandoned baskets we contact go through the checkout which is a big number and we’re really pleased with the results!”
A LEARNING EXPERIENCE
“From my point of view I had the opportunity to learn about the GOb2b platform and become more involved with the content management system.
The GOb2b team provided us with training, and we worked together well throughout with good communication. They have got a very experienced team and we have learnt a lot from them to become increasingly experienced at what we do online.
The experience with GOb2b is a real partnership. It is fantastic and I found it a very rewarding experience, you can become more and more self-sufficient to be able to grow the site with your business but you must be prepared to invest time in the process.”
WHAT'S NEXT?
“We are confident to continue to develop the site now. The requirement was to get the site launched so we can put a big tick next to phase 1.
Now we’ve got exciting plans for phases 2, 3 and 4 working with GOb2b.”