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How to Rock eCommerce
John W. Hayes
Gibraltar’s size means that shoppers don’t have too far to go to shop. Schools, supermarkets, entertainment, eateries and healthcare are all within easy reach. That hasn’t stopped Gibraltar’s business community from wanting to meet its customers’ needs online. I met three local businesses that have embraced the online shopping experience.
Covid as Catalyst
Like many other local businesses worldwide, Gibraltar’s traders embraced eCommerce urgently during the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns. According to Guy Povedano, associate director at Saccone and Speed, the pandemic was the driving force behind the company’s rapidly adapting its online offering. “The online selling platform was set up during Covid as the only means of sale directly to the consumer at the time,” says Povedano. Before this, Saccone and Speed’s website was purely for information purposes, advertising the brands the company represents.
“The eCommerce site was essential during the Covid crisis, but it proved very useful and popular with certain customers so we decided to keep it going.”
According to Povedano, the online store is particularly popular with customers with mobility issues. Saccone and Speed’s online store is built on the popular Shopify eCommerce platform. Shopify offers its users a scalable, fully-hosted eCommerce solution that is flexible enough to cope with the demands of businesses of all shapes and sizes. This allows the commercial team at Saccone and Speed to manage their entire eCommerce operation in-house.
“Our eCommerce sales are solely for the local population and delivery within the territory of Gibraltar,” says Povedano.
But this hyper-local approach doesn’t mean Saccone and Speed don’t adopt sophisticated marketing strategies to promote their online offering. Highlighting the power of global social media brands like Facebook and Instagram to reach a local audience, Povedano says, “We operate an Omnichannel approach with cross-promotion across our social media platforms.”
From Online to In store
Carlos Electronics is another well-known Gibraltar business to harness the power of Shopify and social media to sell to the local community. Raju Alwani, director of the Alwani Group of companies which operates the Main Street store, cites its online store as very important to the business. The online store has been designed to drive footfall into the company’s ‘brick-and-mortar’ store and attract online orders from local customers. “The online orders come mainly from locals,” says Alwani. “Currently, it’s very difficult to ship outside of Gibraltar.” While fulfilling international orders can be problematic, marketing to the local community in Gibraltar is relatively straightforward. Carlos Electronics relies primarily on social media advertising to promote its online offers to its target audience on the Rock. “We use high-quality ads on social media to target consumers in Gibraltar and the surrounding area,” says Alwani. “Then it’s just a case of offering our customers attractive, competitive prices on a wide range of products.”
In many ways, eCommerce platforms like Shopify and social media networks including Facebook, Instagram and TikTok have democratised the web and enabled businesses of all shapes and sizes to run viable and profitable online shops and services without relying too much on expensive technical support.
Low-cost, laser-focused social media advertising, which allows brands to target consumers using their location and other demographics, also means there is very little waste in marketing spend. This is incredibly important in a location like Gibraltar.
The Food Delivery app
Hungry Monkey was founded in 2016 by Mat Caldwell. Initially a business idea he had set aside in his native Liverpool several years before moving to the Rock, the concept became a reality with the emergence of app-based technology platforms and the support of an investor in Gibraltar’s gaming industry. The company, which started with just a handful of restaurants on board and four delivery bikes, has since become synonymous with life on the Rock, delivering every imaginable type of cuisine to local residents and businesses.
Speaking with David Revagliatte on the Gibraltar Business Podcast, Caldwell remembers one of the first orders to come through the app was a single popadom which the team successfully delivered in one piece. Caldwell believes the success of Hungry Monkey is down to the app solving a problem.
One of the unique challenges that Caldwell faced when building the business was its delivery network. For many eCommerce companies, delivery is outsourced to third-party providers, and the experience could be better. “We wanted to own the bikes,” says Caldwell. “We believed it was our responsibility to maintain the bikes, to commercially insure them and make sure they look great and are safe for our delivery riders.”Caldwell believes that his responsibility to take care of the finer business details extends to the local restaurant businesses that Hungry Monkey partners with. “We are independent,” says Caldwell. “We don’t have any bias towards any restaurant or client at all. We are there to support their businesses.”
Although small, Gibraltar’s eCommerce ecosystem is perfectly formed to serve the needs of the local population. Saccone and Speed, Carlos Electronics, and Hungry Monkey’s online success demonstrate that eCommerce doesn’t have to be a faceless operation. These companies have different personalities and the local community firmly in their hearts.
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