Confer With

Like many businesses during the pandemic, Bridgman was forced to shut their stores for months. As Commercial Manager, Emma explains: "We were in very high demand because everybody was using their outdoor space, but with our shops closed the best way for us to show our product was to use a live selling channel".

Their mindset as a business to test and try new things also contributed to the decision to introduce live one-to-one shopping on their website.

Prior to Confer With, Snug's salespeople were sitting at home and unable to work due to the pandemic. They also didn't have a way to directly communicate and engage with their customers, aside from digital marketing efforts.

Matt explains: "Confer With was a great solution because it enabled the sales team to work remotely. They could continue to sell the products to customers from home, which they did very effectively. Now showrooms are open, it's allowed us to sell outside of showroom hours. In the evenings, first thing in the morning, early evening; it has extended the trading hours. Confer With has also allowed us to engage with the consumer and move the conversation from a light touch enquiry to a sale, increasing online conversions."

During the pandemic, Digital Piano saw an acceleration in interest of getting information and knowledge online as customers couldn't just turn up to a physical showroom. As Team leader Søren Nørregaard explains: "Being a hybrid type of business with online and offline appearance we thought that giving customers the same expertise online is equally important. We also believe that this is the future of retail, and given that less and less stores like ours exist, we wanted to be first-movers."

As an aspiring eCommerce business, they face similar challenges to most of us . Whether that be proliferation of marketing channels, evolving customer journeys, disruption to retail, multi-channel revenue attribution , market dynamics, a looming recession, how quickly products and the market can change. Yet even the complexities of the modern world, some fundamentals still hold true – there isn't a better shopping experience than walking into a shop and being met by a helpful colleague – Digital Piano decided to bring this personalisation to their online experience.

The challenge that Hughes previously faced was a common one; before integrating Confer With's platform, they were running a virtual shopping platform that consisted of many restrictions. The main one being, it was essentially a one-way video call.

As described by Henrico Doward, Hughes is an omni-company that sells to businesses, commercials, customers, and even offer rental services; they wanted to create an in-store environment with the same service, online. Their goal was to set themselves aside from regular online businesses and provide their customers with a unique and bespoke service.