How COVID-19 transformed Dah Chong Hong’s e-commerce strategy

The COVID-19 pandemic has only increased the pressure on retailers, with consumers wanting even more engaging, responsive online shopping experiences because it’s now harder to go shopping in person, if at all.

Rethinking their approach to e-commerce has been critical for retailers, as they look to stand out in this constantly evolving landscape. A solid technology foundation allows companies to incorporate innovative features before competitors to encourage more frequent and longer customer visits.

Hong Kong-based conglomerate Dah Chong Hong (DCH) has made digital transformation a core part of its e-commerce strategy. The company operates across diverse verticals, including motor vehicle sales and repair, logistics, healthcare solutions, and consumer retail. CIO Tony Mok recognized that answering customer demands across such diverse industries would require a forward-thinking approach to digital transformation built on the company’s guiding principles, known as the Three A’s:

• Agile
• Access anywhere
• Automated

For DCH, Adobe Experience Cloud, including Magento Commerce and Adobe Campaign, became a cornerstone for its e-commerce transformation because it supports the Three A’s Principles.

“By following these principles,” says Tony, “DCH can better meet the needs of our employees, partners, and customers while standing out from competitors – technically, operationally, and culturally.”

Agile

For DCH, the most important aspect of “agility” is how it benefits customer experience. An agile customer experience is one where customers have the freedom to easily shop across DCH brands and view all of their interactions with brands on one platform. With Magento Commerce as a central platform for all DCH e-commerce sites, the company finally has a way to look at customer experiences under one umbrella.

Now when customers log into a DCH site, they can see all of the orders and services associated with their account in one place. They can check when they last had their vehicle serviced, look at deals on appliances, and shop for healthcare products—all without needing to enter new login information or switch between sites. New membership registrations increased 63 percent after DCH started working with Magento Commerce—a sign that consumers see the value in the centralized experience.

“From the moment customers landed on the site, they were able to register and self-identify their interests under the DCH brands,” says Raymond Lai, Senior IT Manager at DCH. “Moreover, customers could see all the membership benefits and new flash deals available to them. It was a completely new experience.”

The improved agile experience also applies to employees. Using the integration between Magento Commerce and Microsoft Dynamics 365, DCH teams now see a complete view of customer interests and activities across all DCH brands, giving them quick insights into best-selling items and customer trends for better decision making. Unlike the company’s previous platform, Magento Commerce also has an agile and user-friendly interface that makes it easy for teams to build interactive shopping experiences for any of its e-commerce sites. Teams can quickly create new content and experiences based on their understanding of customers and what they’re looking for.

Access anywhere

With more consumers turning to mobile devices to shop or book services, DCH needed to drastically improve the mobile shopping experiences and promote access anywhere for its e-commerce sites. With built-in support for responsive design, DCH can easily create e-commerce pages that display beautifully across any device. Consumers clearly love the new, accessible design, DCH saw traffic increase by 50 percent after migrating to Magento Commerce.

DCH is also looking at ways to improve customer contact across channels. Rather than focusing on marketing campaigns built around physical mailers, the company is increasingly communicating with customers through e-mails, SMS, call centers, and other channels. Adobe Campaign provides a unified platform for marketers to build personalized digital campaigns that reach customers and provide a consistent customer journey across whichever channel they prefer.

Automated

Artificial intelligence, cloud-based technology, and automation can deliver strong efficiencies for internal staff, giving them more time to experiment, refine customer experiences, and find better ways to reach customers. Magento Commerce automatically pulls DCH data together from across platforms and solutions, eliminating time previously spent manually collecting and analyzing data. DCH also takes advantage of the Product Recommendations capability powered by Adobe Sensei to automatically recommend new products and services to customers based on their interests.

Marketing staff use the automation in Adobe Campaign to spend less time managing email campaigns. For instance, when customers reach the end of an electronics warranty, Adobe Campaign automatically triggers a series of emails designed to retain customers and increase renewals through custom discounts and offers. Since marketers spend less time managing these types of regular emails, they can spend more time creating new campaigns and adjusting messaging depending on the changing e-commerce landscape.

“Our digital transformation provided customers with a beautiful, easy-to-use website, but equally important, we wanted to ensure our employees and partners also had experiences that translated into immediate benefits,” says Tony. “One of the powerful ways that Magento Commerce allowed us to do this is was by giving DCH teams quick access to meaningful data and analytics so they could truly understand how our business runs – and how they can better run their business lines.”

By adhering to the three A’s, DCH has gained momentum on a digital transformation aimed at supporting all DCH e-commerce innovations now and in the future, regardless of the challenges that lie ahead.