The ecommerce company cooking up a storm in Gloucestershire
ProCook are invited along with other award winners to a special event here this evening – but no, we won’t be asking them for a hand in the kitchen.
ProCook scooped the Ecommerce Business of the Year in 2018 at the Gloucestershire Business Awards after a particularly palatable growth in sales as well as customer satisfaction.
Here’s what they served up to the judges:
ProCook – Winner of Ecommerce Business of the Year 2018
Key business points:
- Multi-channel specialist kitchenware retailer with customers in the UK and Europe
- Started over 20 years ago and is still owned and managed by one of the original founding family members
- The first company to sell cookware sets by direct mail in the UK
- 350 staff across over 37 stores nationwide and HQ in Waterwells, Gloucester
The winning entry:
ProCook saw double-digit growth in its web channels in the year prior to entering this award. With the addition of more European delivery destinations, Amazon Seller Fulfilled Prime, better personalisation and a move away from deep discounting, ProCook’s online channel was set to contribute more than 50% of its overall sales for the first time in 2018.
ProCook have seen a 25% growth in their customer base which is due in part to improving on-site personalisation and the relevance of email communications so that customers are seeing offers and products based on their own preferences and browsing behaviours.
In the run up to Black Friday ProCook hit their first £1 million week and headline sales grew by an incredible 28% in the eight weeks of peak trading, incorporating Black Friday, the Christmas build up and post-Christmas sale. This was driven by a significant 35% increase in online sales and 17% increase in retail sales.
2017 saw the introduction of television adverts in a variety of lifestyle and cooking shows and have delivered a huge response from a new audience.
A more customer-focused approach offering content such as introductory videos, how-to guides and recipes via the ProCook blog, has taken ProCook beyond a sales platform to become a knowledge provider too.
