Revealed: outlook for e-commerce in the food and drink industry

Totnes-based e-commerce specialists Webselect brought together leading food and drink business leaders for a round table perspective on the South West’s Food and Drink industry including attitudes to e-commerce and selling online.

The food and drink industry in the South West is facing numerous challenges, and one of the biggest concerns is the supply chain with the recent fuel crisis and ongoing supply delays for rural properties and businesses having a significant impact on success. These challenges have forced businesses to raise wages and product prices multiple times to retain staff, while labour gaps have emerged due to the lack of seasonal workers since leaving the EU. Additionally, the monopoly of courier services and their strikes have impacted the market significantly.

Despite these challenges, e-commerce channels are a must for any business, and the benefits that come with using e-commerce platforms, hiring digital agencies, and shifting to online operations due to the pandemic are becoming increasingly apparent. The growth of online sales during the pandemic has been significant, with many businesses seeing a definite increase in online sales, even as foot-to-floor purchases return. People are enjoying the convenience of a product being delivered to their door, and this trend is likely to continue.

The ‘as a service’ platforms such as Shopify do a perfectly good job for the here and now and can be built quite quickly at relatively low cost, but there were concerns voiced over how to have the site grow with their businesses or support a business change and way of working. The platforms can be very linear, limited templates that don’t always sit cohesively with the brand and without experts time and talent to do it yourself can run out quickly. There are many charges too - monthly subscriptions, security levels, payment charges, extras for additional functions for example sale banners, increasing Stock Keeping Units (SKU) numbers - they all add up to an unexpected sum each month. The time it can take to build, maintain and support a site yourself can and does take up a disproportionate amount of time away from running the business and is a frustration.

‘What makes me really nervous is when I expose myself to a cost that I can’t control, trust with a partner is everything’ Greg Parsons, Sharpham Cheese

SME business owners are quick to put their hands up and state wholeheartedly that they do not know how to do everything - but when they don’t fully understand what they don’t know, they’ll often give it a go. This is the very reason that GoDaddy, Wix, WooCommerce and Shopify exist. Why buy from an agency when you can complete a template yourself and you have full autonomy over it. This is perfectly acceptable until… the business grows, you cannot give the website the time to grow with you, you need to add a new function to your e-commerce page. Digital Agencies are full of all these people who have the skills to complete these tasks in the click of a finger - but you don’t know what you don’t know, until you find out you didn’t know it. Frustrations lay with agencies failing to be transparent with the client or not listening to the clients specific concerns. Not being able to tailor services to each business’ timeline or area for growth development. There’s no point growing a website’s SEO and the digital presence if the business is unable to scale up production in the same timeframe.

The solution to these challenges is to find the right partner who understands the needs and budgets of the business. Whether businesses choose to use e-commerce platforms or digital agencies, the key to maximize return is to find a partner that can help build strong relationships with customers. This is especially important for small businesses, as they often don't fully understand what they don't know and may be tempted to complete a template themselves, but this approach can lead to limitations in the long run.

Webselect, an e-commerce agency based in the heart of South Devon for the last 25 years, provides retailers with tailored and consistently solid e-commerce software solutions for accelerating online sales. Webselect builds the technology and user experience, the ‘secret sauce’ behind brands online success, and it's all engineered by a team who’ve been perfecting it for years. Taking the time to understand a client's business, advising towards appropriate solutions in digital channels now and for the future is key to building success for online businesses and their

In conclusion, the food and drink industry is facing significant challenges, but e-commerce channels offer a way forward. Businesses and their leaders must find a partner that understands their needs and budgets to maximize their return on investment, and it is an investment, thinking needs to be in the 2-5 year timeframe. By doing so, businesses can take advantage of the convenience of online sales while building strong relationships with their customers

The full 6000 word report can be downloaded for free from Webselect at https://www.webselect.net/surviving-or-thriving-report