At Manchester Digital, we like to interview our members to find out a bit more about what they do and their work in the Greater Manchester digital and technology sphere. This week we're speaking with Marketing Director, Chris Munrow from Aware Digital
First of all, please introduce yourself.
We are Aware Digital, an ecommerce agency specialising in Adobe Commerce (Magento) development, web design and digital marketing. We work with ecommerce merchants to help them grow their businesses online, and do this with a dedicated and experienced team of developers, project managers and marketers.
What inspired you to focus your web development talents solely on the ecommerce space and building customised Magento sites?
It’s what we do best. Across the team at Aware we’ve got a really good mix of agency and in-house experience. By pooling all of that knowledge together and applying it to our clients’ websites means we see some really great results.
As a platform, Magento is a fantastic tool to help businesses take ownership of their products and services. There are so many features that are available from the off that are geared towards building a successful ecommerce store but when you start working with a client to unpick exactly what they’re looking to achieve and implement solutions to suit, that’s when the real growth happens. We’re fortunate to partner with some of the best extension providers and tech solutions in the industry so we effectively tailor a bespoke solution for each client.
Other ecommerce platforms can be quite restrictive with how much customisation is allowed, sometimes that’s necessary to reduce the risk of websites being compromised, but almost every business we work with will have their own unique requirements and Magento provides that adaptability to create solutions to meet their needs.
As you look to scale up operations in Manchester, where do you see the biggest growth opportunities in supporting retailers?
We’ve always spent a lot of time in Manchester with partner events, client meetings and conferences. There’s always something related to ecommerce, digital or tech happening so having a dedicated base in the city is a real opportunity for us now to join the party.
There’s a huge wealth of talent in the marketing and tech space in and around Manchester, so it’s a real bonus for us to be able to tap into that and work with some really talented professionals who can make a difference for our clients and help us grow as we become more established in the area.
A big part of our plan is to grow our digital marketing services, which has already seen above target growth over the last 6 months and doesn’t show signs of slowing down as we move into 2024. So not only are we able to provide ecommerce solutions to retailers but now our marketing team can help them get the most value out of their platforms, and have the support of a full development team on hand.
What ecommerce best practices or technology innovations excite you most right now in terms of shaping the future of digital retail experiences?
The last few years have been extremely volatile for online retailers and almost all merchants we’ve worked with have had to adjust their way of working. The Covid lockdowns pushed a lot of shoppers online when brick and mortar stores were closed, so we saw some exceptional growth figures there. GDPR and data privacy laws have completely re-written the way we can track and report on marketing activity, and that’s been another hurdle to overcome, particularly now GA4 has superseded Universal Analytics.
In general the ecommerce space is a lot more competitive now with things like paid acquisition costs rising, marketplaces and social media taking a more prominent role in shopping habits and customers having to be more careful with what they’re spending as their household costs rise.
All of this leads to merchants having to make more informed decisions about where they spend their budget and how they invest in their website. There’s a big appetite at the moment with retailers focusing on conversion rate optimisation, meaning they can effectively keep their acquisition costs the same but generate more sales or revenue by improving the customer experience on their website. This often doesn’t require a great deal of development work, but instead it can be a cumulation of smaller improvements which reduces those areas of friction that can stop a customer placing an order.
Another issue we see fairly regularly, and another blocker to conversion, is a slow website. Magento websites can be quite sluggish and slow if they’re not configured correctly or there’s unnecessary overhead. Over the years we’ve formed a strong partnership with Hyvä, who provide a really great solution to this problem and help us to get some best in class performance scores on our Magento builds.
As you establish your unique position more in the market, what is your vision for the impact you want to make on both clients and the wider community?
Our whole ethos at Aware is based on building partnerships and providing value. We only succeed when our clients succeed, so there’s a huge element of taking ownership and doing everything we can to ensure that.
We’re in talks with some of our key tech partners to host workshops and events that give retailers advice, best practice tips and actionable steps that they can take to improve their website, get the most out of their marketing efforts or simply see what other retailers are doing. Having a base in Manchester makes it easier for us to facilitate events like that.
And as we grow, we’ll need to invest in our team too. By being part of a growing tech scene means we can work with some experienced talent who are already doing great work and also be able to give budding marketers and developers opportunities to get hands-on experience in a competitive job market.
Thank you Chris!
To find out more about Aware Digital click here.
