E-commerce strategy for 140+ y/o organisation
Getting stakeholders excited about ecommerce in a 143 y/o organisation
Client: SGS (via Mobiquity)
Duration: April 2021 – May 2021
Role: Strategy, service design, qualitative research
Overview
SGS — a 143-year-old global inspection and certification company — had an online store that wasn't generating profit. The task was to find out why and propose a new strategic direction for ecommerce.
Outcome: Stakeholder alignment on a shared vision, 8 guiding principles, and 17 identified opportunities for further investigation.
Challenge
"Figure out why the current online store is not bringing profit and propose a new direction for ecommerce."
Research & Discovery
Documents analysis
Reviewed strategy documents, roadmaps for the client portal, business cases, market analysis, and competitor research across regions.
Regional store reviews
Despite selling similar products, SGS's regional stores varied significantly in design, functionality, and sales process:
UK store
New Zealand store
China store
Stakeholder interviews
Interviewed 10 stakeholders from both high-performing and reluctant online-selling regions. The interviews exposed fundamental misalignments around business purpose, target clients, and product selection.
Journey mapping
Two journey maps were created to capture the full picture:
- Customer shopping experience
- Line of Business selling experience
Synthesis
Friction points and root causes were documented across both journeys, using fishbone analysis to distinguish symptoms from underlying problems.
Solution Development
Workshop 1 — Problem Identification
Facilitated exercises surfacing what was working and what wasn't. Fishbone analysis helped the team uncover root causes behind underperformance.
Workshop 2 — Direction Alignment
Designed sessions to establish guiding principles and generate solution ideas using customer journey frameworks and "How Might We" questioning.
Proposed Direction
Ecommerce vision — defined based on stakeholder interviews, SGS's innovation strategy, and industry best practices.
8 guiding principles — a decision-making framework for all future ecommerce initiatives.
17 opportunities — identified across different ecommerce framework components, with a high-level roadmap for prioritisation.
Results
- SGS Board received the presentation positively
- Managing Directors of Lines of Business aligned on a hybrid global-local direction
- Direct team reported increased awareness of pain points across business areas
- Next steps discussions underway
Methods & Tools
Methodologies: Qualitative research, journey mapping, fishbone analysis, workshop design and facilitation, stakeholder interviews, "How Might We" ideation
Tools: Airtable, Miro
Team
| Role |
|---|
| 1 Designer |
| 1 Senior Product Manager |
| 1 VP Digital Strategy |
| 1 VP Creative |
| 1 Senior Digital Consultant |
Testimonial
David Vaghi, Senior Product Manager @ Mobiquity
"She brings extensive experience from both field and theory, and delivers with enthusiasm… a well-stocked facilitation toolkit."