Leading brick-and-mortar retailer QBD Books set out to revitalise its digital presence and increase online sales. Removing friction from the checkout process and personalising the experience were some of the strategies for delivering results.

As one of Australia’s leading brick-and-mortar retailers, QBD Books is on the cusp of opening its 87th retail outlet. Forty head office staff and 900 passionate booksellers support its formidable national store network.

Head of marketing at QBD Books, Margaret Milton, says they’re one of the best in the business, providing loyal customers with a great experience, and supporting writers through its world-class book of the month program, among other initiatives. 

QBD Books has been busy revitalising its digital presence to support increased online sales. That included rebuilding its online facilities to meet customers’ expectations and exemplify great customer service.

In its effort to securely enhance the customer experience, QBD Books has ‘plugged in’ CommBank’s PowerBoard e-commerce solution. This provided single-point access to switch on a broad array of payment methods like traditional cards, digital wallets, and Buy Now Pay Later options, and supported by fraud management services.

Removing friction across the customer journey

Once QBD Books had turned its attention to streamlining the shopping experience, the checkout came into sharper focus. As Milton explains: “We’re upgrading our e-commerce presence to make the customer experience as seamless and personalised as possible. From a back-end perspective, PowerBoard is a big part of that journey.”

According to QBD Books’ webmaster, Scott Moss, this includes reducing the number of steps to purchase. “We can see the industry is moving to have fewer pages and actions along the purchasing journey.

“We had about five actions, which we’ve refined to three. We wanted to strike a balance between ease of buying and verifying intended purchases,” Moss says. “When we learned about PowerBoard, we thought the solution had magically landed in our lap.” 

“Customers wanted a quicker checkout process to get on with their day, but it needed to be safe and secure. PowerBoard offers a one-click payment button and a process that doesn’t take the customer off the site. It drops them straight back into the completed cart.” 

Milton adds that simplifying the checkout process has led to an uplift in completed sales. “This growth is attributable to many factors that make customers’ checkout process faster, and PowerBoard is absolutely one of them.”

The benefits of easy integration

Moss and Ben Murray, QBD Books systems and network administrator, were already exploring options to streamline the implementation processes required for the multiple payment services when they discovered PowerBoard.

Describing the proposition, Murray says: “It’s pretty close to drag and drop implementation, and we were attracted to the back-end reporting capabilities and the flexibility it gives us down the track.”

“When we heard PowerBoard would handle the integrations with the payment providers, this was a relief. Negotiating with each one and setting up all the APIs is daunting. All we needed was to hand PowerBoard the keys, and they would handle the integration to make it work,” Murray says.

Moss agrees, adding they no longer need to worry when payment platforms like Afterpay update their APIs. The time it takes to set up a new payment option has been reduced from up to a month to as little as a day.

Discussing the implementation process, Moss says: “The integration was simple, even with our custom site and setup for card payments. For anyone with limited knowledge, it would just work out of the box.

“Apple Pay and Google Pay will be the next options we drop in and introducing them should be as simple and easy as launching the previous four payment methods. We had very little to do post-implementation. It just worked, and even minor issues are resolved quickly.”

Gaining deeper customer insights

Milton said it is not uncommon for customers to use PayPal for one purchase, a credit card next and Afterpay for another. Now, QBD Books “can go to PowerBoard’s dashboard to see that information rather than logging into the three or four different payment providers”.

Gaining a single view of customer spending has also benefited QBD Books as the retailer seeks to better understand preferences and shopping behaviours. Murray says: “Having a single reporting source rather than multiple is better from an admin and a customer service point of view, simplifying the process end-to-end.”

Milton says this supports broader efforts to consolidate customer data in pursuit of creating the ‘golden record’ or a single view. “We’re looking to do that across data sources, but we see PowerBoard as the payment portion of that golden record.”

Always looking ahead, the QBD Books team is already considering how to further expand its customer base, noting that using additional PowerBoard features is on their roadmap. They are also thinking about how PowerBoard can help them bring their online and in-store experience closer together.

• PowerBoard is an e-commerce solution that delivers payment choice, operational efficiency and security via a single integration point. To learn more, visit commbank.com.au/powerboard

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