Wunderman Thompson Commerce: The Works

The Works was one of the UK’s many high street retailers that was forced to shut its doors to customers in March 2020 in a bid to contain the spread of COVID-19. While the stores remained shut, demand for its products surged. From toys and books to paints and educational resources, families across the nation looked for ways to beat the boredom during lockdown, leading to an unprecedented spike in the store’s website traffic.

Before COVID-19 struck, Wunderman Thompson Commerce had been working with the retailer to help maximise digital revenues. Using a new ecommerce platform on Salesforce Commerce Cloud, The Works was able to manage existing orders and refunds as well as receive new orders – this offered a unified view of the customer. Two-thirds of the way into the project, the UK went into lockdown, resulting in the closure of its 530 stores. In order to minimise the impact and to cope with the sudden increase in demand online, Wunderman Thompson Commerce scaled up capacity on The Works’ existing ecommerce system.

At the peak of lockdown, the average order value went up by a staggering 41%, with conversion increasing by 300% and revenue rising by 150% – an outstanding example of how to turn a challenge into an opportunity.

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