Chris Gallacher: ‘We think this is pretty groundbreaking in the wholesale industry.’

UWS has extended its partnership with TWC, commissioning a suite of additional reports that track online purchasing behaviour on the UWS app and website.

The reports are available to suppliers now via the existing TWC/UWS sales reporting platform. They show how retailers interact with the wholesaler’s e-commerce sites and how brand activation and sales performance compare online versus offline.

Chris Gallacher, managing director of UWS, commented: “There is plenty of information available in the marketplace on how consumers interact with digital platforms but B2B insight is far harder to find, so we decided to find out ourselves from our own customers.

“TWC Group is our data partner for reporting wholesale shipments out of depot so it was natural to ask them to develop an online solution to sit aside our existing data infrastructure. They have done a fantastic job for us, in super quick time.”

“We had a load of questions before starting the project, like, how do our customers use our e-commerce solution?  When do they shop with us? What devices do they use? But once we got started, we became even more inquisitive – how is ‘paid-for-media’ influencing spend and purchases? What campaigns are driving greatest click-through rates? and so on. Knowing the answers to these critical issues was important for us to develop our e-commerce strategy for 2024, in partnership with our suppliers.”

He continued: “We are delighted with the quality and depth of insight we are now getting from our customers who order online with us. Connecting retailers’ online behaviour with their off-line behaviour has meant we can now get one clear view of a customer’s total purchasing behaviour with us.

“We think this is pretty groundbreaking in the wholesale industry and are grateful to our data partners, TWC, for delivering this project on time and on budget.”

This initiative coincided with UWS recruiting an e-commerce & marketing director in October 2023. Louise McKenzie was formerly ecommerce director at Rightdose and she also previously worked at Powerhouse Fitness and The Boxoffice Company.