One Customer. One Haldane. — printable handout
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One Customer.
One Haldane.
Ecommerce & omni-channel marketing strategy. Diagnosis, demand engine, Rewards & Trade Pro, and a 12-month roadmap — built on the stack you already own.
Starting where you told me the challenge is
The stack is working. Stock and pricing are solved — genuinely rare among independent merchants. The opportunity is front-end experience, growth and continued evolution.
The hard part is done
Reliable stock and pricing are the foundation most merchant sites never properly reach — while 92% of sector trade sales still happen over the counter.
Your words, not mine
“Our challenge is really front-end functionality, how we improve the UX and continue to evolve the offering.”
So this starts there
An experience and growth programme built on the stack you already own — mature at every layer except customer-data activation.
One engine, five stages
Fix the journey. Capture existing demand. Create new demand. Activate the base. Branch, web, phone, sales team and site visits are interfaces — not channels.
enquiry rate
search success rate
trade accounts
reactivations
member frequency
The market has already voted
The benchmark is no longer another independent merchant. It is the fastest buying experience the customer already uses.
Sources: Kingfisher FY24/25 results; Chadwicks Click & Collect FAQ; Insider Trends trade sector survey; Builders Merchants News.
What this is worth — and how to check my maths
Three levers, each one a mechanism you can price with your own data. I have used placeholder inputs because I do not have your numbers yet; the arithmetic is deliberately visible so you can replace them in the room.
Online share of trade accounts
Active trade accounts × share ordering online × the uplift in order frequency that self-service reliably produces. This is the cheapest revenue in the model — same customers, more orders.
+X% frequency ACTIVE ACCOUNTS × ONLINE SHARE × Δ ORDERS/YEAR × AOVReactivated lapsed accounts
Accounts that stopped buying and were never called. CRM finds them; the branch phones them. Revenue you have already earned once.
£Y saved / yr LAPSED ACCOUNTS × REACTIVATION RATE × ANNUAL VALUECross-category penetration
Accounts buying timber but never insulation, tools or plumbing. Share of wallet is the single biggest number in merchanting — and the easiest to move with data you already hold.
+Z categories ACCOUNTS × Δ CATEGORIES × MARGIN PER CATEGORYThe customer, not the channel
One data strategy underneath. Different propositions on top.
Small trade
Sole traders — plumbers, joiners, roofers, landscapers.
Speed · availability · their price · credit
Ordering that beats phoning the branch.
~80% run their day from a smartphone — speed is loyalty.
Contractors & developers
Planned, project-led purchasing.
Supply certainty · logistics · account management
Commercial pricing and rep relationships.
Volume and programme buying — supply certainty beats price.
Consumers & self-builders
Problem-led DIY through to months-long self-builds.
Confidence · guidance · inspiration
Budgeting and specification help.
Journeys last months — content and calculators build the basket.
I shopped the site. Navigation should narrow, not expand.
Every click should remove options and bring the customer closer to the right SKU — the standard our own customers already use every week.
Branch context persists. Live stock and trade pricing work on login. Checkout is capable — the transactional layer works.
Navigation exposes the internal taxonomy. The sidebar stays a sitemap when it should become filters — too many decisions between intent and SKU.
Benchmark drill-down navigation, sidebar becomes filters (length · width · thickness · brand · stock), enriched in the Akeneo PIM you already run — mobile-first.
Search when I know it. Navigate when I know the category. Guide me when I know the job.
Where you rank today
Observable from the public site in August 2026 — no inside access needed. This is the gap a customer feels, stated plainly. I would welcome corrections on anything that sits behind login.
I did not describe it. I built it.
A working homepage concept on your own catalogue — trade search first, branch stock on every tile, and the account jobs the counter cannot do after hours.
The whole journey, narrowing at every step
Category → listing → mobile. The same three rules applied end to end: filters instead of a sitemap, branch stock on every card, and one price with one add-to-basket.
How we win search — the first five plays
Search is the first marketing battleground because merchant intent is already high-intent. SEO and SEM run as one system, not two silos.
Branch pages that rank
A real page per branch: live local stock, hours, team, directions — wired to its Google Business Profile.
Category pages rebuilt for intent
Buying guides, structured attributes and product schema — the pages Google actually wants to rank.
Stock-aware shopping feeds
Live price and stock from Magento to Google Shopping — spend only where there is margin and stock.
The Ask Haldane engine
Ten filmed answers a month with branch staff — each becomes YouTube, Shorts and the product page.
Kill the zero-results
Synonym map (4x2 → 47×100 C16), SKU search, trade slang — reviewed weekly.
WATCHED FROM DAY ONE: zero-result rate · search→product time · PLP→PDP rate · enquiry volume
One brief through every door
A campaign calendar — not a content calendar. Spring landscaping · autumn insulation & heating · trade essentials year-round · supplier brand campaigns.
Landscaping Season
Decking · fencing · paving · aggregates
Planned quarterly with category, purchasing, branches and suppliers. One revenue target versus last year, tracked weekly by branch.
Suppliers help fund it · branches sell it · digital measures it.
Make ordering faster than phoning the branch
Every step already exists somewhere today. The strategy makes them one journey.
A collection promise
Move from “click & collect” to a stated time a customer can plan a job around — the Chadwicks standard, then better.
Habitual reordering
Saved lists and “my materials” — the second order takes three taps from the van.
Self-serve account
Statements, invoices and credit notes at 9pm — the jobs the counter cannot do after hours.
Quotes & job lists
Build a quote in the account, share it, convert it to an order in one tap — the bridge to Trade Pro.
“Where is my order?” is costing you counter time
“Cheap delivery, and good quality. The only minus is that no contact from them when delivery will arrive. I send an email about when should I expect delivery…”
VERIFIED TRUSTPILOT REVIEW · MARCH 2026Because nothing pushes a proactive digital update, the customer has to chase the branch by phone or email to find out where a load is.
Note what the review does not complain about: price or quality. The product is right — the communication is missing.
Counter time lost
Every “where is my order?” call pulls a yard worker or rep away from a trade customer standing at the counter.
Failed deliveries
Without a window, nobody is on site to take heavy materials — fuel, time and a return trip, all absorbed by Haldane.
A cap on growth
Manual enquiry volume scales with online orders. Left alone, it breaks the branches' ability to cope.
The missing layer is customer-data activation
Klipboard and Phocas know what customers bought. CRM decides what happens next. The purpose is not “more emails” — it is knowing who needs what, when, and whether a person should act.
New account — day 0 / 3 / 30
Welcome and meet your branch → how online ordering works → the categories they have not bought yet.
MEASURE: time to first online order
Lapsed — day 45/60
A £2.5k/month buyer goes quiet → the alert lands with their branch manager, with history and talking points. A phone call, not a discount email.
MEASURE: reactivation rate & revenue saved
Cross-sell — monthly
£18k timber · £7k insulation · £0 tools → a share-of-wallet target and a supplier-funded offer aimed at that gap.
MEASURE: categories per account
Rhythm & self-build journey
Adhesive every 21 days → a day-18 prompt at account price. Groundworks → blocks → timber → get to roofing and bathrooms first.
MEASURE: purchase frequency
Every location a local growth engine
Central strategy, local relevance. The branch is not the opposite of ecommerce — it is the physical conversion layer.
Google Business Profile per branch
Products, hours, posts, reviews, service areas and campaign offers. Every branch a local search asset — not a contact detail.
Counter, screens and QR journeys
Digital POS, staff talking points, supplier promos and local event hooks. The counter closes what search opened.
Branch managers armed, not bypassed
A local offer pack every month: paid search radius, social assets, an email segment and a rep script. Central builds it; the branch owns the result.
Haldane Rewards — one currency for the whole relationship
Only once identity and CRM foundations exist. Status recognises loyalty and engagement — not just spend.
Purchases, with bonus categories.
Digital behaviour — app orders, linked account, e-invoices (each cuts cost to serve).
The relationship — years, frequency, breadth, referrals.
Supplier bonus events.
Trade → Trade+ → Pro → Pro Elite
Unlocks the branches: priority collection rack, delivery windows, early access, training and events.
Tools and workwear.
Business services and training.
Delivery credit and account benefits.
Donate points to local clubs.
Milestone rewards, not just year-end.
Trade Pro — the app their business runs on
Get the job. Get the materials. Get paid. Haldane becomes embedded in how the tradesperson runs the business — not just where they buy materials.
Measure customers, not channels
The board dashboard measures commercial change. Channel metrics explain performance — they never lead it.
The first 12 months
Visible improvements first. Scalable foundations next. Big ideas only when the base is ready.
One Customer.
One Haldane.
Make Haldane the easiest merchant to find, buy from, return to and recommend.