Watch Shop stays top in the specialist e-tailers category, with 48% of traffic coming from the United Kingdom alone.
Unsurprisingly, the majority of traffic comes from shoppers searching for watches, with jewellery not making it in any of the online retail giant’s top search terms.
While people may not be coming to Watch Shop for jewellery necessarily, it is worth taking a look at this retail website because it also commands more attention than all of its watch-focused competitors.
Over the last 12 months Watch Shop has had a new CEO at the helm — one that knows how to win business through a strong digital strategy.
With a career that spans being the director of e-commerce at Waitrose and director of omni-channel at Boots, Robin Phillips is well positioned to grow Watch Shop’s reach.
In a recent interview with Essential Retail, Phillip hints that it is actually his financial background that provides the greatest strength though.
He shares: “I was a finance director in the venture capital world for years and I fundamentally understand the economics of business which I think is extremely important in areas like digital. Some brands have thrown money at it without looking at what the return is going to be.”
Early career stints at Diageo and John Lewis Partnership gave Phillips what he describes as an understanding of the importance of data and insights.
It is this background married with his most recent digital-focused roles that makes Phillip a leader to watch as he helps Watch Shop storm ahead.
Despite being a leader in the market, Watch Shop continuously embraces change and this year the retailer unveiled a brand new website.
The new website sees Watch Shop operate a mobile-first online retail operation for the very first time, and the business has entered this market with fresh innovations.
For example, key partners like Swarovski have their own dedicated sections that include bite-sized mobile-friendly content, embedded videos, main product ranges, and a ‘Shop the Look’ section.
So not only is Watch Shop doing a good job of driving traffic to its site, the business is also turning searchers into shoppers by investing in experience.
