December 13, 2021
This content relates to : DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
Good morning, good afternoon and good evening. My name is Michael Gorman and I’m the Vice President of new product development and product management at Stanley Black & Decker. I wanted to take a few moments today to talk to you about how e-commerce is really a hyper growth initiative and an integral part of our strategy at Stanley Black & Decker.
There’s really three fundamental pillars that we look to e-commerce to help us enable and empower our brands, our people, and our products. First and foremost, this acceleration of our core products, products that are already on the shelves of our end users, or on the websites that the digital websites of our customers that consumers are experiencing today expand in our markets. Be that expand in our markets around the world, or finding new ways to bring our products to our end users and to industry and then ultimately e-commerce as an accelerator of our strategic focus. Again, look into marketplaces that are undeveloped for Stanley Black & Decker, opportunities where we can really bring an exponential growth mindset. The products were already secure in terms of having some support and some distribution and then in certain cases to revitalize, to perhaps helping us repurpose brands to reach new audiences.
Let me first talk about e-commerce as a way for us to really accelerate our core. So much of our partnerships, they were the retailers, are moving from the big box, concrete destination to the digital environment and having the opportunity to partner with them. In many ways, hopefully as the captain of their initiatives allows us to really make sure that we are putting our products in both a complete and comprehensive light for the benefit of our retailer and ultimately for the benefit of the consumers that come to those sites looking for our products. And that’s really a combination of making sure that we have the right content, the right information, the right application photos, the right information in detail that our customers need, as well as what our consumers need. So having the opportunity to accelerate with them through the dot com initiatives. And this is also an investment and making sure that we’re looking at the right analytics because the insights that we can glean that the consumer experiences on the digital shopping place is certainly enhanced from what we see when they walk into the store. Which is more for us to track, more for us to understand, more for us to assist with and there are really more touch points with the consumer. So, that’s certainly an area that we get quite excited about is we think about ways we can continue to accelerate the product that they already support. I mentioned the importance of content and that is really an important takeaway today because having premium content, having the right content where all the information about your product is right, all the relevant application photos are right. That is so critical for us to be able to have success and that’s a big part of where we invest our time and effort when we think about e-commerce as a way for us to accelerate the growth of our core business. Let me move now into how e-commerce is an accelerator for us to expand our markets, specifically globally.
When we think about our brands today, very well known in North America, in Western Europe, in Australia, in New Zealand. But certainly applications and opportunities for us in areas of the world that we just hadn’t been able to reach with as much intention and purpose in places like the Far East, in the emerging markets down in South America. Opportunities for us in the Mid East, in Africa and e-commerce highway is a great opportunity for Stanley Black & Decker. Building on a lot of things I mentioned to you earlier about premium content with the relevant application photos, the relevant languages, the relevant terms for construction that are part of those markets, E-commerce offers us a great way to grow in those markets and on ramps on those markets that we haven’t had before. It also allows us to experiment with different ways that we can reach, reach consumers so much of our business and we’re very proud of this and we plan to intentionally continue it is the partnership that we have with our, with our retailers and our distributors. But, we also realize that in certain segments in markets of the world, the direct to consumer models is an important initiative to experiment with. So, with certain brands in certain markets, Stanley Black & Decker is experimenting there as well and we believe there could be opportunity for us in the future to consider. And what that might look like, not in place of, but the come alongside the partnerships that we already have with retailers, again, to optimize and align the path to the consumer that they’re looking for when it comes to buying their products.
Finally from a strategic focus, I mentioned it is a global marketplace, but accelerating our brands and our products in major global markets like China, e-commerce offers us a great opportunity to do so. And it offers us exponential growth opportunities for our brands. Because not only are we able to reach users with content information about our specific application solutions that our products offer, but we’re able to connect with them in ways that allow us to better understand their lifestyle, their application, their needs. There’s so many different ways that allows us to really come alongside our user and interact with them. Both in the pre-purchase cycle, through the purchase cycle, and then after the purchase cycle with ratings and reviews and making sure that we’re staying close to that. Answering questions when they come our way or handling objections, we’re clarifying for users in terms of challenges that they might have with the product. That all contributes for exponential growth opportunities for both our core and new products. And then finally, the revitalization of certain brands and we talk specifically with our heritage Black & Decker brand, a brand that’s been around for well over a 100 years. It has the opportunity through the digital space in partnership with digital platforms to really reach a new and emerging consumer that certainly prefers to shop from the convenience of their home on their desktop or laptop or mobile phone. And it allows us to really create and send very specific, engaging messages about the Black and Decker brand, which is very much geared to those emerging homeowners and homeowners that are looking for lifestyle product solutions.
So in summary, core acceleration, expanding our markets and strategic focus are all deliverables of what our e-commerce initiative is offering for us today. And we’re going to continue to invest in that alongside with our great talent and people and great products to continue the growth of our brands globally.
Michael Gorman
Vice-President of New Product Development & Product Management
Stanley Black & Decker