BHS may have vanished in a rather dramatic fashion from the high street, but its name lives on online with BHS.com.

BHS.com website homepage

However, many industry observers that Retail Week canvassed for this piece had forgotten all together about the reincarnation.

And if the industry is unfamiliar with the new business, you can bet the public aren’t all over it.

In fact, data shows a distinct drop-off in website traffic, which is down by one third since BHS.com’s launch according to digital agency Good Growth, symptomatic of a general lack of awareness from the public.

A start-up mentality

The low profile does not bother BHS.com managing director Kevan Mallinder however.

“We are a young business,” he tells Retail Week.

There’s no debating this – the website started trading at the tail end of September 2016. That may feel worlds away given current political and economic shockwaves but in reality it’s just over six months.

“The key thing for us is that we are here to rebuild the brand in the eyes of the British public”

Kevan Mallinder, BHS

“We are a start-up business,” continues Mallinder. “That is how we think of ourselves.”

BHS.com is approaching £3m in sales over that time, which Mallinder readily admits is “small”. But he says he is more focused on brand-building than stratospheric sales.

“The key thing for us is that we are here to rebuild the brand in the eyes of the British public,” he says. “We want to make it strong, sustainable and dynamic.”

Toxic association

Run as a new business with small sales, it also has to deal with the legacy of its former incarnation.

Some of that is advantageous, such as greater brand awareness than retailers of equivalent turnover enjoy, but some is less so, such as trying to detoxify a brand so poisonous it has infected retail’s reputation for the best part of a year.

“The name has been tarnished by all the bad press … I think it is seen as a lost cause more than anything else”

Rebecca Marks, Retail Week Prospect

Retail Week Prospect senior analyst Rebecca Marks believes that BHS.com has been tarnished by the toxicity of the old business.

“It’s almost a lost brand in the UK,” she says. “The name has been tarnished by all the bad press, not just on the business itself but also everything to do with Sir Philip Green [and the BHS pension deficit]. I think it is seen as a lost cause more than anything else.”

Mallinder says: “There is nothing we can do to control [negative headlines surrounding the old BHS]. What we can control how customers see us now. We have a new lease of life.”

That sentiment is laudable but some industry observers believe that BHS.com should strike while the iron is hot.

Market position

James Hammersley, founding partner of Good Growth, which boasts clients such as the Financial Times the National Trust and O2, believes that “any goodwill in the market is quickly eroding” and that BHS.com needs to move fast to capitalise on residual brand awareness.

Since BHS.com was established in June 2016, Good Growth estimates that its organic and paid traffic has dropped off by 32%.

“The observation that they are a start-up is right. They are absolutely right to recognise where they are”

James Hammersley, Good Growth

By comparison, category competitors Habitat, Made and Wayfair have seen traffic rise 10%, 50% and more than 100% respectively.

Hammersley says: “The observation that they are a start-up is right. They are absolutely right to recognise where they are.

“They are not a high-street stalwart with a massive balance sheet to throw money at the problem but that gives them an interesting strategic advantage, it forces them to do things differently.

However, Hammersley questions whether BHS is constantly improving its website like some of its rivals.

“The fastest growing companies test to death the changes in their execution and BHS is not doing that. They do not have the analytical tools to do that or to curate customer feedback properly. They need to think about the KPIs and metrics that a start-up would be demanding.

“They are right to recognise where they are but the challenge they have now is to operate to those standards.”

Customer proposition

While BHS.com may need to work faster to capitalise on brand awareness, some experts believe that its presentation and proposition are flawed.

Practicology director of strategy Mark Pinkerton says despite BHS.com investing in a top end web platform, the consumer interface is “pretty basic”.

“It has remarkably little content to engage consumers, there is no editorial at all. It is more of an online catalogue at the moment”

Mark Pinkerton, Practicology

“There is not enough reassurance for the consumer. There is no real information about where they’re based and who is behind it,” he says.

“From a consumer point of view there is no prominent phone number of email, the customer care numbers are there but hidden.

“It has remarkably little content to engage consumers, there is no editorial at all. It is more of an online catalogue at the moment. It doesn’t feel like it’s there yet.”

Marks believes that the BHS.com website is much more modern and appealing than its predecessor but questions whether its products, particularly within homewares, are ”too pricey”.

“Aside from the website, what else have they done to really show the rebrand? The market is so saturated that they need to do more,” she says.

Marathon not a sprint

Mallinder disputes this.

“This is about us doing the right things over a long period of time rather than sprinting for short term gain”

Kevan Mallinder, BHS.com

“This is about us doing the right things over a long period of time rather than sprinting for short term gain,” he says. “You don’t do it over night, you keep chipping away at it. We are still at the stage of making big changes – we are not fine-tuning yet.”

He believes that its customer recruitment strategy is right in targeting website users via email rather than via mass market advertising.

“Like any start-up business, you start small,” he says. “You start by targeting through email, and people you have a relationship with already.

“Then, as you grow you begin to use more mass market advertising. Made.com waited two to three years before using mass marketing. The right approach now is to be much more targeted.”

While BHS.com may not have mounds of cash to play with, it has chosen to give itself the luxury of time – something which most established retailers can only dream of.

“Our brief is measured in years not quarters,” Mallinder says. “Many others have to contend with [the latter].

“Of course, we sell nowhere near the range of product we sold before. That is because we would rather have a smaller range of good products than a large range that we are not so proud of. We will build the company over a period of years and we will excite customers.”

But while the team and its backers have decided they have time to spare, the market may not be so forgiving.

BHS.com review by eCommera: Some way to go to revive its “iconic brand” online

When BHS International managing director David Anderson relaunched the retailer online late last year he said he wanted to bring “this iconic brand back into the UK”.

Since its revival as an online-only retailer, BHS.com has enhanced its online retail offering, particularly with regards to its product range, online promotions and user experience.

However there is still some room for improvement, as the retailer’s “iconic brand” alone is not enough to convince today’s brand agnostic online consumer.

Improving the customer experience is a continuous journey for every retailer, and with BHS initially making a simple restart with a very limited product range, the retailer had a long way to go. The site has continued to progress, but the road ahead is long, with competitors well in front.

Enhanced product range

Since the end of October 2016, BHS has introduced a more complete product range to include a fashion range spanning 400 products in addition to its pre-existing homeware items across bedding, curtains, rugs, cushions, bathroom mats, towels and lighting.

The new fashion range initially offered fashion for men and women with kidswear added in November. The range includes a relatively wide product range for men and women; however the kidswear range is small at only 18 items in total, mostly including clothing for girls. The online retailer’s boys clothing range is rather limited, as it offers only seven items in its ‘Boys Character Shop’.

As expected and as part of the remodelled business strategy, best-selling items from the traditional BHS stores have been carried through to the new business, such as the ‘workwear’ range in womenswear.

Competitive service proposition

BHS’s service proposition remains competitive: customers can currently get free standard delivery on items over £50, as well as 10% off the Sale. For items under £50, customers pay a delivery fee of £3.50.

With regards to the competition, BHS’s free delivery threshold is on par with M&S, however it is slightly higher than that of Debenhams, which caps at £40. However, whilst both M&S and Debenhams offer click-and-collect, BHS does not. A lack of physical stores is not necessarily a barrier to this, and the retailer could compete by using third-party services like Doddle and Collect+.

A basic user experience in need of improvement

Product pages are generally uninspiring. Aside from featuring product images, they have very little content; price, size and quantity selection options are the only content visible above the fold. There are no product videos, and the number of images is inconsistent across products, ranging from one to seven images per product.

Adding additional content would therefore encourage customers to browse on BHS.com. We would advise considering:

  • User-generated content to show what products look like in real life, together with relevant outfit/homeware combinations
  • Customer reviews to communicate further information on quality and fit
  • Related product recommendations to encourage browsing and increase average order value
  • A sizing tool such as TrueFit, which gives customers a more accurate idea of what size to buy, thus decreasing returns
  • A live chat feature to answer any questions or concerns on specific products or general enquiries

The search results across BHS.com filter too many options across fashion and homeware items, and do not consider a specific range when filtering search queries. As such, the search bar is prominent across the site; however results need to be improved. For example, search results for ‘red dress’ include all colours of dresses, as well as cushions and a dressing gown.

The navigation could additionally benefit from a makeover. The current categories within the top navigation are Sale, homeware, lighting, fashion, sign in/register.

Although sign in/register is given this prominent position in the top navigation, no incentive or information on benefits is given to encourage customers to sign up. In a similar way to the Debenhams and M&S websites, the sign in/register callout could instead be featured above the current navigation, instead of taking up as much space as it currently does.

The current homeware section moreover contains too many sub-sections to choose from, and this particularly slows down the mobile experience. Removing the sign-in/register callout from the main navigation would give more space to introduce and call out groupings of the popular homeware sub-sections and thus streamline the navigation for the homeware range.

Opportunity to combine content and commerce

BHS’s website is generally structured more like a catalogue than an inspirational site. There is an ‘edit’ subsection within the fashion section, presenting collections such as workwear and nautical; however, these lead to product lists rather than dedicated collection pages featuring any engaging content.

BHS could introduce the inspirational content it is missing via a blog, encouraging visitors to shop suggested looks, thereby increasing purchases.

Overall, if BHS.com is to effectively revive its “iconic British brand” online, the retailer should look to further improve its user experience, introduce inspiring content and engage with customers.

eCommera director of consulting Annabel Thorburn