Digital Transformation in the Pacific: Boucherie Traverso, Vanuatu
We’re shining the spotlight on the Digital Transformation of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Pacific. Pacific Digital Transformation (PDT) Consulting Ltd based in Port Vila, Vanuatu is the first of Business Link Pacific’s business advisory service providers to share their story about enabling business growth through technology.
PDT Consulting Ltd specialises in providing quality digital marketing advice to SMEs in Vanuatu, through the BLP Subsidy Scheme we’ve connected PDT with eligible SMEs in need of business marketing advice and assistance.
At Pacific Digital Transformation Consulting Ltd, we believe that the “digital transformation” has barely begun in the Vanuatu region, not because of the lack of demand, but rather because of the lack of offer including poor electronic payment solutions, and few modern IT providers.
Despite the issues, increasing connectivity is enabling local business to access new and global markets in all industries. At PDT we are determined to support local businesses to take advantage of technology as much as possible. Business Link Pacific has supported us to bring a few local businesses on the digital transformation journey; we share their stories to invite others to come along.
Based in Vanuatu’s lush farming plantations, Boucherie Traverso is a family owned business famous for its organic beef production and imports of quality European food brands. The Traverso family has been in the country for four generations, with both Ni-Vanuatu and French nationalities.
The Boucherie Traverso shop is located on Teouma Street in Port Vila, Vanuatu. Opening 18 years ago, Boucherie Traverso is now an emblematic shopping destination offering both top quality meat and an exclusive food product range including pasta from Italy, cheese from France, beer from the UK, organic certified products and specialised products such as gluten-free snacks. Everyday the shop offers freshly roasted chicken and cooked dishes such as lasagnas, beef stew, fruit salad, or poé; attracting many loyal customers.
In 2017 Boucherie Traverso’s main communication channel was a billboard on the street. Willing to modernize its marketing, the management team met Pacific Digital Transformation Consulting Director, Marc Gérard, and discussed options to make the company more client centric, using all relevant channels.
To define a strategy four workshops were necessary to validate the company’s digital transformation roadmap, reviewing good practices in the Retail industry and discussing corresponding resources (investment, tools, key processes). We then selected appropriate tools and implemented the following:
A] Web presence
Webpage www.boucherie-traverso.com has been developed with a focus on key categories: Butchery, Pasta, Cheese, Takeaway. Functionalities include mailing, order form, search bar. The E-shop is available too.
We also implemented classic Google tools: Google Drive to easily share documents, Google Analytics to understand audience, Google Ads to get more traffic.
So far, 400 single users (people) have visited/used the webpage www.boucherie-traverso.com
B] Community management
Facebook is by far the most popular social media channel in Vanuatu and the Pacific Islands. We hired Groovy Banana to get professional pictures, and started promoting product arrivals at the shop. In such a small island, entire communities/clients segments are dependent on those product imports (dairy brands for instance). They “suffer” when shortages occur, and are more than happy to hear that their favorite brands are back in town.
In Vanuatu, Instagram is not a popular social media channel yet, the reach is not comparable with Facebook. Yet, as we know that many “important” customers are already active on this qualitative social network, so we created an Instagram account as well, posting only qualitative adequate content.
C] Client centricity (omni-channel CRM in particular)
The guideline here is to “think client”. This means segmenting customers, and adjusting accordingly communication (as a start). Some customers are very interested in Gluten free products, others in premium wine. It is easy to use transactions details in order to understand customer’s needs and expectations.
We implemented a solution that easily allows to:
- Segment customers according to their purchases & profile. Example: clients who bought wine during those last 6 months.
- Send an email to those clients, through Mailchimp (powerful tool to send emails). Example: communicate a promotion on New Zealand Pinot Noir this week.
- Measure the real campaign’s impact on sales: how many of those clients came and bought wine? How much did they spend in other categories? Did the campaign “reactivate” some clients in this product category?
This customer centric approach is meaningful as the main objective is to better serve customers.
Pacific Digital Transformation Consulting Ltd ‘s partners are Marc Gérard and Martin Saint Hilaire. Currently most of our clients problems are concerning digital transformation (strategy, processes, tools), but we work on other topics such as Due Diligence, Marketing Analysis, Supply Chain, Category Management. We’ve hired an expat and 3 Ni-Vanuatu consultants. There is a lot to do in Vanuatu!