2024 was T O U G H... Do you agree?

Like many in the ecommerce industry, agencies and brands alike, Heur weathered the storm through 2024, which was probably the hardest year in five, maybe even ten years of my personal agency management and ownership journey, possibly even 15 or more years in the grand scheme of things.

My read is; it was a product of brands being squeezed. Cash flow was tight for everyone in a time of an unprecedented cost of living crisis across all customer demographics.  Well, maybe not for ultra high net worth, premium luxury, but certainly for the bulk of demographics.

Those conditions really impacted companies ability to make changes in their businesses. I think the appetite stayed strong, but the potential to greenlight projects, start new retainers, hire staff, and invest in product development, was stifled.

We have a couple of fantastic clients who have signed with us for multiple years in a row, and market conditions for them are still super tough. They’re not fully back to resilience, and yet we are able to maintain their growth year-on-year and month-on-month.

I think that's partly down to our proposition, and this is where I want to see if it resonates with brand owners reading this post.

Rarely do brands struggle because of a lack of talent, ability, or diligence from staff or even direction from the founders - especially if they have a quality brand and a strong product range. Those fundamentals are often in place, but the mechanics get stretched.

You might have an excellent ecommerce manager or director, but they’re essentially a one-person island in a growing business, or at least a business trying to grow, and they are overwhelmed and often expected to carry out the equivalent of many roles.

They’re trying to do strategy, think 30,000 feet above about the future, plan for best and worst-case scenarios, while also trading day-to-day, managing seasonal touchpoints, and navigating consumer milestones.

They’re also thinking up new and original email marketing and social media content, creating compelling promotions and narratives, refining product pages, dealing with customer service, spotting fraudulent orders, managing the tech stack, troubleshooting bandwidth issues, visually merchandising the site to match the trading calendar, and overseeing agencies if there are any involved, maybe they are dipping into managing paid media and retention marketing too.

There’s a massive amount of tasks, mechanics, and mental space needed to manage all of this.

That’s why Heur was set up - because this isn’t a talent or quality problem, it’s a resource challenge.

If you’re a growing brand with good cash flow, but you still can’t justify hiring two or three more full time people to take that weight off - you might need to phase requirements in and out - you could hire freelancers, but they’d require management and direction, putting even more pressure on your top-tier individual to oversee them.

That might work, but it’s high-risk.

With us, for a fixed price - typically 30% to 70% less than the equivalent salary bill per month - you get everything handled. We complement your existing team, freeing them up to focus on what they should be doing, while we take care of the execution with super high-caliber individuals.

We don’t have juniors. Everyone on our team has been working in their field for 8, 10, 12, or even 25 years.

We manage the economy of scale so you don’t have to. You do brand and product, we do the rest - we trade for you—profitably.

Oh and in-house bods - we’re not out for your jobs.  We want to support you with our insight and wisdom gained from 20+ colleagues working for many years across a huge range of brands and sectors.  We aim to make you more valuable to current and future employers!

If this resonates with you, give us a shout, and we can talk about how we’d love to support you through this period of growth.

email: talkto@heur.co.uk

Call: +44 ()) 2045923653

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