Taking on the digital space to bring car enthusiasts together
Inspiration
In a nutshell…
- Car styling retailer Maxton Design launched with a range of around 2,000 products and has now expanded to offer over 10,000 parts for most car models.
- The company has recently increased its warehouse space from 6,000sq ft to 34,000sq ft and implemented an automated email communication process and order processing system.
- Maxton Design was supported by Digital Enterprise with a Digital Growth Voucher worth £2,700 to put towards the development of labelling software to automate the shipping process.
- The increased space and automated systems are making operations more efficient, reducing the risk of errors and improving communications between the warehouse and customer service teams, which are now processing more than 700 orders per week.
For many motorists across the UK, being able to separate their car from others on the road through aesthetic improvements is something that’s incredibly important to them. Car styling retailer Maxton Design also puts a lot of value in standing out from the crowd and is investing in digital to leave its competitors in the dust, as Office Manager Billy Clayton explains here.
Investing in digital is not always an easy decision to make when the benefits of doing so can only be fully understood after you’ve already committed your time and money.
However, if there’s one company that should encourage you on why taking on the digital space is worthwhile, it’s Maxton Design.
Founded in 2012, the Leeds-based business is one of the best-known and fastest growing retailers in the UK car modification market, having made a name for itself as a trusted provider of eye-catching car body styling kits.
Through a slick website and ecommerce platform that enables customers to browse and buy aesthetic products for a wide range of car makes and models, Maxton has a broad base of retail and business customers that keeps growing year-on-year.
For the company’s Office Manager Billy Clayton, the success it has enjoyed both in the UK and increasingly abroad, is down in no small part to its investment in digital marketing, ecommerce, and other aspects of digital technology.
Billy, who was originally brought in to lead on digital marketing activity, says: “We had a lot of steady growth in the years since we were founded and then it’s just blown up over the last few years and I really put that down to taking on the digital space and growing our presence on social media.”
Across its social media channels, the number of people following Maxton Design has increased tenfold to around 100,000 followers in the past two or three years.
Key to this growth has been Billy and the team’s ability to bring different communities of car enthusiasts together around the Maxton brand.
This is no mean feat as typically car owners tend only to speak to others with similar models to their own, whether it be a Volkswagen Golf or a Honda Civic.
“We were able to bring different car communities together to communicate, offer advice and make reviews and suggestions about improving our products,” explains Billy.
Taking on the digital space has also seen a big shift in order volumes at Maxton Design, with an increasing amount of demand coming from other body shops and car styling retailers who are driving a lot of growth in international markets.
While this demand has been brilliant for the company’s bottom line, meeting it has presented some challenges that the team have had to work through.
“One of the biggest challenges is just keeping up,” says Billy.
“Our USP is the number of products we offer, so every time a new car is released, we’re trying to put out new products and stay ahead of the competition.
“When you’ve got so many projects on at once, it’s a challenge to keep up.”
Another challenge comes in the form of meeting customer expectations, which due to the advent of next day delivery through things like Amazon Prime, has also been difficult to keep up with.
“Customers nowadays expect products on their doorstep the next day. When you’re working with lead times of 4 to 6 weeks, the challenge is making sure the customer is getting the best experience possible.”
Billy Clayton, Office Manager of Maxton DesignFortunately, whether it be meeting demand for new models or faster delivery times, digital tools have helped rise to these challenges and keep Maxton Design firmly on the growth path.
For example, an automated email communication process was recently introduced to help Billy and the team keep customers up to date on delivery timescales and the progress of orders.
The company has also invested in an order processing system that automatically prints out labels and shipping information for the 700 to 800 orders that come through Maxton’s warehouse every week.
Billy says: “We used to literally print all of the orders as it was the most cost-effective thing to do.
“But since we had the expansive growth, automating that process has been massive for us. Now, we just have orders come in throughout the day and all we have to do is stick each one that is ready to go on the boxes as soon as they’re packed.”
Not only does this massively reduce the room for human error, which could further delay the delivery process, it also enables much better communication between the office and the warehouse so that the former knows exactly where orders are and can provide customer updates accordingly.
Looking ahead to what looks like an incredibly bright future, Billy and the team are hoping to use digital to improve their aftersales process even further so that they have a better grasp of customer sentiment and feedback.
He says: “Every business is dependent on customers and so we are going to focus a lot more on aftersales, asking for feedback on orders when customers receive their products and because we want to have more of a personal touch.”
Next steps...
- This interview features in the Digital Enterprise TOP 100 publication.
- If your business is based in the Leeds City Region check out the support you can get from Digital Enterprise for your digital transformation project.
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