ACEHARDWAREUAE
Launching digital inside a complex family-owned group.
How a store-led retail business created its first ecommerce operation, aligned 30,000 products and multiple business units, and built a 20m AED digital business in two years.
We had 30,000 products and no ecommerce. Dave helped us build something we didn’t think was possible. Wayne — Managing Director
The opportunity was clear.
The route was not.
ACE had brand strength, physical retail presence and a broad product range. Customers were moving digital, but there were no live websites and no shared digital operating model.
Thirty thousand products sat across different categories, systems and areas of ownership. The ambition was significant; so was the organisational complexity behind it.
The challenge was not simply getting online. It was bringing the business together around a new way to grow.
Complexity existed before the first customer clicked.
Product information was distributed across the organisation. Business units had different priorities, processes and ways of working. The existing systems and teams had not been designed to deliver one connected commerce experience.
Every digital decision depended on operational, commercial and organisational choices elsewhere in the group.
This wasn’t only a technology problem.
It was a commercial-alignment problem.
And a capability-building challenge.
Build the business behind the website.
We defined the digital model and customer proposition, then built the commercial and operational capability required to deliver them.
The platform mattered, but progress depended on aligning product, data, operations, people and ownership behind one direction.
- Digital model and customer proposition
- Product and data foundations
- Platform and ecommerce operations
- Team capability and ways of working
- Governance and commercial ownership
- Shared trading and decision rhythm
A new revenue stream.
A new capability.
in two years
A new ecommerce team, operating knowledge and confidence to grow digitally.
Multiple business units aligned behind one commercial direction.
A scalable platform and operating foundation for continued digital growth.
The lesson
Technology can launch a website.
People, processes and shared belief build an ecommerce business. Transformation becomes real when the organisation develops the clarity, ownership and capability to deliver together.
Ask yourself three questions.
- Is ownership of digital growth clear across the whole business?
- Can our product data and operations support the experience we promise customers?
- Are we funding a website—or building a new commercial capability?