success stories

Background

RS Components (part of Electrocomponents plc) is a high service level distributor of electronic and electromechanical components to industries all over the world.

RS leads the market in product range, availability and reliability, offering customer's significant purchasing cost savings when trading via eCommerce. Its award-winning eCommerce makes more than 130,000 products available online across 70 websites in 17 languages.

RS wanted to use email marketing to win new business and direct existing customers to the websites but did not have an effective way to send marketing emails other than through group email software using in-house servers.

That meant that measuring the success of deliveries and open rates was impossible and this limited learning in how to use email marketing successfully. The system was also inflexible which created delays in when they could send emails.

RS contacted Pure for a tailor-made solution.

Solution

Pure provided a single system to allow RS to send marketing emails and newsletters to all their clients around the world with a full reporting system to monitor the delivery and opening rates.

The comprehensive reporting and analysis provided by the Pure system enabled RS's marketing teams to learn how to use email marketing effectively and they were able to share best practice with marketing departments in other countries.

The Pure system also gave RS the flexibility to send emails when they wanted and, by measuring the opening rates of emails, they were able to learn the best times to send marketing material by email.

As a result, RS were able to drive more custom to the websites and have had a direct increase in sales.

Result

David Annels, Global eCommerce Manager for RS Components, said:

'Live reporting has got marketing teams and senior management more interested in what email is capable of. As a result, email is now seen as a key part of our marketing strategy.

Consistent, live reporting in a flexible system has also allowed us to increase the learning and sharing at a detailed level to decide what is important in email marketing.'

He added: 'Pure are a flexible team that listen to our requirements and deliver quickly and the Pure system is very user friendly and the reporting suite is the best we have seen.'