Creating innovations
The benefit of e-commerce was once again underlined by the Covid-19 pandemic , as it filled the vacuum left in the absence of commercial trade . “ That business took off hugely in the first period of lockdown , because everyone was at home undertaking various DIY projects ,” James says . “ Since then , it ’ s continued to perform very well . We took the view that e-commerce was a new business stream in its own right , and that we therefore should invest in it and work hard to make it best-in-class . That investment is just about finished . We ’ ve integrated the whole process with our ERP system , from taking the order , to getting it out the door in one seamless flow , and we will keep building on that . We ’ ll also bring out some added B2B functionality in 2023 , which will enable our larger customers to easily check our stock levels and create their own product catalogs .”
150