Using the tagline “Outwork. Outwit. Outwin,” Nationwide’s first ever all-virtual PrimeTime event ended with a feeling that all of their members have done exactly that, during what’s been an extremely challenging 2020.
During a final wrap-up press event held on the final day, the Nationwide team spoke about the good vibes they gave off as well as felt from their members during the three-day event.
Chief Member Advocate Tom Hickman spoke a lot about the resiliency shown by both the Nationwide team and their membership. As he said:, “This week was amazing in terms of the engagement from our membership. We are ecstatic at what has happened in this virtual environment the last three days. We have weathered a year unlike any other. It feels like the 188th day of March to me.”
Hickman added that Nationwide has remained focused and steady throughout the chaos brought on by the pandemic, as they have, as he pointed out, “kind of converted from a traditional buying and marketing and technology platform group, to helping navigate legislation and writing letters to governors that helped our dealers stay in business.”
At one point over, 1,200 of Nationwide’s member partners had to close their doors in March and early April. Moving forward from those ominous numbers, he added, “Now, in October, at this event, we can honestly say that we are having an unbelievable year.”
Nationwide’s Dean Sottile, senior VP, Digital & Technology, added how impressed Nationwide has been over their membership’s quick pivot to digital in wake of the pandemic.
“Things changed very quickly, and the resiliency [has been impressive]. A lot of members have put digital on the fence to an extent but during this year a large amount of them really leaned into digital and came to us to take advantage of the services we provide,” he began. “They did what needed to done to bring their websites forward, to become their sales leader.”
Sottile cited the fact that web transactions for members are up a whopping 429% and combined web traffic for members shot up some 300% by early Spring, and is still up for the year. And Nationwide’s digital marketing program now has over 1,000 members – both a testament to how effective it’s been as well to as how receptive members now are to jumping into digital.
“With consumers now spending so much time at home this has obviously helped this space. Some are still struggling but we saw so much enthusiasm during this virtual event,” he said.
The Nationwide team also spoke about how pleased members are with the recently released PriMetrix platform and dealers’ awakening to the world of Big Data. Together with a large segment of Nationwide members who supply point-of-sale (POS) data, the group has collected vast amounts of valuable information that can be sliced and analyzed in myriad ways. The result of those efforts is the aforementioned PriMetrix, the independent retail channel’s first and only performance insights platform.
Nationwide’s members are now using the data from this program to make quick decisions that are helping their business, their top-line revenue, and their profitability.
Nationwide is getting lots of positive feedback from members regarding the platform’s Assortment Rationalization Tool, or ART for short. ART provides a streamlined breakdown of the six major appliance categories — refrigeration, laundry, electric cooking, gas cooking, dishwashers and freezers — along with 21 subcategories like French-door refrigerators, top-freezer refrigerators, upright freezers, freestanding smooth-top electric ranges, gas cooktops and more.
Patrick Maloney, Nationwide’s senior VP, Merchandising, explained that, “We always had this lake full of data, but we needed to figure out a way to make it all more easily digestible for our members. So ART is painting a better picture of this data, of their business, at the push of a button.”
As both consumer and retailer journeys continue to evolve, Nationwide PrimeTime continues to ride shotgun on both that journey and on the evolution it is experiencing.
