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Located in Northern England, House of Malt is an independently-owned family company that has grown to become one of the top online sellers of whiskies and spirits in the U.K. The company was founded in the year 2015 as an independently-owned family company and has been able for their online business from 2017.
House of Malt has a store and retail outlet within Northern England, though a significant portion of their sales are conducted online through their store. They currently ship to their own U.K. and are planning for international expansion.
Woo talked to Jethro Hazelhurst, House of Malt's Ecommerce Director.
for Whiskey
House of Malt chose as their online store platform since they were looking to stay clear of other highly-regulated platforms; they liked how customizable the Woo platform is and also wanted to own the majority of their online business and operations as they could.
Since the beginning, House of Malt has been working with Woo by way of the Enterprise Ecommerce program, which has helped improve the flow of cash. Woo has been a boon to their business in a variety of other ways. increased average order value as well as conversion rates and a decrease in time to make a deposit from 7 days to 1 day, have all assisted them make sure they have enough working capital to support the growth of their business.
Big wins
- Increased conversion rate and grew average value of orders by 22% after implementing Apple Pay through WooPayments.
- Decreased their cash deposit time from seven days to just one day thanks to Woo Customer Success. Woo Customer Success team.
- In 2015, House of Malt was founded. House of Malt has grown to be among the biggest three online sellers of alcohol across the U.K.
Key Extensions
- WooPayments using Apple Pay
- Payments through PayPal as well as Pay Later with PayPal
- Searchinise
- The Storefront theme
- Google Listings as well as Ads
- Klaviyo email marketing
Success in the time of Brexit and Covid-19
As with the majority of British businesses, House of Malt was negatively affected by the tax on exports assessments that came with the Brexit law. With the complications that arose the company decided to change their attention to clients within the U.K. They have been one of the top three companies in the U.K. in online specialist whisky sales.
During the closures of Covid-19, House of Malt was in a position to continue their operations even through the closures. They operate solely through their website.
The physical store is an essential part of their brand and offers unique experiences to customers that other stores cannot match.
Malt matching: Using data to serve customers
House of Malt has a amazing knowledge of their clients who use their website, which helps inform their ecommerce strategy.
In general, House of Malt serves four diverse customer segments:
- People who want to test the new products offered on the website.
- Repeat buyers who return to houseofmalt.co.uk to purchase their most-loved products and purchase identical items each time.
- Collectors who are keen to stay up to date on new collection and releases.
- Wholesalers who can't find a product anywhere else, and who frequent House of Malt for repeat purchases to replenish bars as well as smaller shops.
The data can be extremely helpful due to restrictions on ads that are placed on retailers of alcohol -- something that House of Malt combats with the use of a robust email marketing program.
The average value of orders can be increased by 22% with Apple Pay and WooPayments
House of Malt offers a number of different payment options which include PayPal, PayPal credit card processing, Apple Pay and Google Pay through WooPayments.
The decision was made to launch WooPayments for Apple Pay specifically because of their traffic on their site. Jethro noted that "The most of our customers are mobile and Apple users are on Safari. I can easily see why the conversion rate will increase as a result of having Apple Pay. I can't think of a justification why it shouldn't. There's more friction. This has been an important game changer in our favor."
After introducing Apple Pay, House of Malt is reporting the increase of 22% in average order volume as well as an increase in conversion rates after offering additional choices for payment.
"The more payment methods we can offer, the better- 100 percent. There has been an increase in conversion rates when we began offering additional payment options. Utilizing all payment options and WooPayments We've witnessed a nice increase in our business over time. The outlook is good for us to continue to grow." -- Jethro Hazelhurst, Ecommerce Director, House of Malt
Bringing whiskey across the lake
House of Malt is planning to expand internationally, initially to Europe and then to the U.S. They're working with shipping companies and their customs logistics, aiming for the best possible customer experience for overseas orders.
Thanks to their brand new warehouse, House of Malt anticipates thriving during times of peak order quantity, such as during the Christmas season, and also their potential expansion into the international market.
Integrating more payment and product options
House of Malt is also developing their catalog of products, improving their user experience, and designing a subscription and loyalty programs for their regular customers.
They're looking to find additional payment options in order to better meet the needs of customers payment preferences. This includes expanding the buy now and pay later (BNPL) options with additional suppliers.
Hazelhurst believes in the advantages of BNPL: "The fact that customers can make use of buy now pay later also increases average order value. Any buy now pay later choices will aid."
All in all, House of Malt has been extremely pleased with the company and looks towards the future.
"All your work on and WooPayments is making a nice small impact" Hazelhurst said. "Somewhere in northwestern of England, in a tiny isolated corner of an old town. The whiskey we're selling is getting into the hands of people with Woo."