The managing director for grocery shopping and comparison site mySupermarket.co.uk, Kim Ludlow, has joined product content company Brandbank to help FMCG brands do a better job at bringing their products to life on shopping websites.
Ludlow, a former Tesco.com head of sales, will head up digital and business innovations at Brandbank, who help FMCG suppliers in 16 countries create and distribute product content, mainly for e-commerce purposes.
She will be responsible for helping brands, which include retailers’ own-label products, better understand how people shop online, what information they require to make a purchase and how to meet these demands.
“It’s gone way beyond the point of simply sticking up a picture and pasting in the ingredients list,” says Ludlow. “Consumers now demand a richer experience when it comes to products online, such as serving suggestions, alternative ingredients and different usage ideas. It’s that extra nugget of info that can make the difference between what products they buy.”
Ludlow points to the “disconnect” between the fact that three-quarters of British households have bought groceries online but that it still only accounts for 6%¹ of grocery sales, “clearly there’s an appetite for it but maybe their initial experience has not helped,” she says.
“Yes, there’s a convenience factor to online, but frankly it’s quite dull, not like in-store when you can pick up and touch the products. So the key to growing grocery e-commerce is to get the virtual online experience as close to the in-store one as possible. Consumers are now demanding a more consistent experience across different channels, which is true for all sectors not just retail.”
US retail giant Walmart recently selected the Norwich-based firm to improve how FMCG products were displayed across its websites. Ram Rampalli, Walmart’s global head of content acquisition, said obtaining high quality product content is “one of our highest priorities.”
Ludlow will report into CEO Rob Tarrant who says that “her experience at Tesco and mySupermarket will be invaluable as she’ll be responsible for helping retailers who don’t have an online presence to help them make the move to online as well as focusing on helping brands in fast-growth product verticals, such as baby care and pet food, improve their online display.”