In this era of digitalization, one cannot fathom starting a business without making use of the internet. In fact, the internet is the most valuable tool for any business nowadays. But according to the successful entrepreneur Myles Broom, simply being online is not enough. Businesses need to do more than that because your customers don’t want to just find you online; they want to be able to connect with you, be a part of your brand journey, and buy your products or services whenever they want, on their own terms. That’s where e-commerce comes into play.
Myles Broom is a 25-year-old entrepreneur settled in the U.K. He is the co-founder of The Normal Company, a marketing agency that specializes in scaling e-commerce brands to their highest ever returns, mainly through paid advertising and intricate email marketing flows. So far, the company has helped several brands, as well as top Instagram influencer-owned labels from all over the world in increasing their monthly revenues from a few thousand to seven-digit figures in very short time spans.
Since all of Myles’ clients are from the e-commerce industry, most predominantly fashion and beauty, he has a lot of knowledge about it and is up to date with the latest trends in the industry, which enables his agency to be one of the top and most sought after players in the e-commerce game for those seeking strategic growth. Myles believes that the majority of e-commerce businesses have one thing in common: they know that their online business has a lot of potential for growth, but they do not know how to discover it, and maximize it to full effect – and that’s what he helps his clients with. The growth seen for clients at The Normal Company is incomparable, with their portfolio being host to top tier brands across Beauty, Cosmetics, Fashion and Athleisure to name just a handful.
According to Myles Broom, e-commerce has impacted the whole world in a positive way for the most part and has shifted how larger long-standing brands view their market. “From buying your weekly shop to booking tickets for your next trip, almost everything is done online due to convenience and ease. This means that in order to stay relevant, businesses need to create a strong online presence, and know-how to consistently scale it, or else they won’t be able to survive for long. It now more than ever needs to be digital-first as the paramount strategy – the high street and shopping centers are just becoming graveyards, and we will see this become even more so in the current situation we see the world economy is due to the pandemic; online is the only route that can be relied on, and it’s time to double down on it or fade away.” Myles says, adding that businesses need to keep altering their presence, and staying ahead of the curve not only to thrive but now to survive.
He briefly adds “If we look at the brands at the top, LVMH as the worlds largest luxury group have seen drastic declines, 15% down on their first-quarter revenue due to what we are currently facing in the world, this is because of their previous reliance on international tourist shoppers. However, their e-commerce sales have increased during this timeframe.”
Myles started his entrepreneurship career very early, at the age of 16, with his own ‘All Saints-Esque’ t-shirt store on the platform Big Cartel. Although he went on to start a couple of other ventures till he found his most successful venture; The Normal Company, Myles believes that his first venture would’ve been very successful if e-commerce was common at that time. He launched back when the only brands playing with e-commerce, were those who were multinational big players, not like it is today with brands being founded by anyone with access to a laptop and Wi-Fi trying to get a piece of the e-commerce pie.
In 2019, global e-commerce sales amounted to almost $3.5 trillion, and this figure is expected to increase further in the future. The best part about online selling is that the investment required is much lesser than brick and mortar, and this leads to a higher return on investment (ROI) for online selling. Myles believes that in such a situation, it is vital for businesses to focus more on online selling and less on brick and mortar selling approaches, to stay competitive.
It is important to note that Myles didn’t refer to business to consumer (B2C) selling only, he talked about business to business (B2B) selling as well. Businesses are now allocating more funds for online B2B purchases, and it is expected that these sales will grow by $6.6 trillion this year. This shows that e-commerce is equally important for businesses involved in B2C as well as B2B ones to take advantage of this powerful tool.
Although nothing is for certain, history has taught that when one channel or device goes obsolete, another one comes and takes its place. That is exactly what’s happening with retail stores and e-commerce, and as Myles said, businesses should brace themselves for this change.