E-Commerce helps MARC shrink the time from initial business lead to product delivery to six weeks

MARC Ltd has been in business for more than 20 years and trades predominantly in housing, garden and DIY products. The company has a customer base spread across the UK, the USA, Canada, Europe, South Africa and Australia. MARC supplies to businesses of all sizes, including some of the world’s leading retailers either directly or indirectly through a distributor, including Costco, Wal-Mart, Aldi, Netto, Poundstretcher, Co-Op, Focus DIY, Variety Wholesale and Canadian Tyre.

Having built a highly successful business offline, in 2006 MARC decided to explore the Internet as a new engine for growth and a channel for generating new business leads so MARC launched its own website and joined Alibaba.com. The company realised that it was vital to approach marketing, particularly online marketing, from the position of the customer: What does the customer want and how can MARC help?

Impressed with the early results, in 2008 MARC made the Internet a significant focus of its business development efforts. Indeed, the company now attracts more buying leads from online channels than from offline ones and has entered into new geographies and vertical industries as a result. MARC is now in its fourth year as a paying member of Alibaba.com, and attributes the e-commerce site to being its largest source of new leads and customers and a key tool to boosting sales orders and developing new customer relationships.

Matthew Clements, web marketing manager, says, “It has been vital for us to have a strong presence on Alibaba.com. It has helped us look further afield than our traditional set of customers and has enabled us to generate interest in our new product programmes - Bargain Buys and Factory Stock Clearance.”

In addition to responding to incoming interest in the company’s products, MARC uses Alibaba.com to search for new buyers and market new services. The platform has helped MARC shrink the time from initial business lead to product delivery to as little as six weeks.

Matthew is now focused on enhancing the company’s overall online presence, including improving SEO, in-bound linking and return visits to its website. MARC also intends to utilise blogging and social media to engage better with potential and existing customers.

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