Fetchify Address Auto-Complete helps Gill Marine’s global eCommerce stay shipshape
"Once we had Fetchify and we put it in and tested, it was, ‘Wow, that was easy'. It does exactly what we want.’" – Oliver Cole, Global Head of eCommerce
Gill Marine embodies the ethos that the company was founded on, back in 1975 by Nick Gill – a desire for better. A dinghy sailor, he wanted clothes that could protect him while out sailing. He started experimenting modern textiles to start producing clothes that were waterproof, light and durable. First advertised as made “by sailors for sailors”, that enthusiasm for sport and their practical utility still defines them today.
The brand quickly grew and has since been the watersports clothing of choice for athletes (they have sponsored the US and GB SailGP teams as well as Team GBR, the British Olympic Sailing teams in Sydney, Athens and Beijing), celebrities and even royalty.
In recent years, they have widely expanded around the world, and especially in the US with the launch in 2020 of Gill Fishing, catering for one of the largest sports sectors in the world. Gill are also expanding their product ranges beyond marine sailing and watersports although they are still focused on their core market.
The challenges
Gill recently updated their whole eCommerce platform and strategy, launching six new B2C storefronts and two B2C apps in the last 12 months including the US, UK, and fully-translated stores for France and Germany.
Part of this was a platform upgrade from Magento 1 to BigCommerce, working with Williams Commerce as their digital agency. Another part of their strategy has also been to launch new eCommerce apps using JMango360, a key partner of BigCommerce.
To cater to global eCommerce customers, they required an address look and verification tool that was easy to install and would work across all their online storefronts and apps. Gill already knew the value of address verification tools and were using a competitor to Fetchify in their Magento 1 stores but that competitor did not support them in their move to BigCommerce, so BigCommerce recommended Fetchify.
Any solution being added to a checkout needs to be simple for users to use. For Gill, they believe the expectation is that any checkout would now have an address lookup facility just for the user experience alone. Of course, they are also well aware of the confusion that can come from not having correct addresses, and wanting to avoid shipping issues around the world.
"We put that in store fairly quickly and it worked pretty easily and quickly. It literally took me five seconds to get it to work and forget about it."
How Fetchify helps
Fetchify is a pioneer in SaaS address lookup and data validation solutions and offers a range of data verification solutions.
The one selected by Gill was our international Address Auto-Complete which enables a user to find their address quickly using any part of an address including postcodes, zip codes or starting to type the street. This system also ensures all addresses are verified by local postal services and are in alignment with the local addressing formats for faster delivery.
Fetchify provides a simple plugin for the BigCommerce platform which delivers these benefits:
- An easy to install plugin with international address lookup
- Accurate address data for more than 240 countries
- Streamlined checkout forms for address entry
- Outputs an exact, formatted & verified address
Results, return on investment and future plans
The key benefits to Gill Marine and their online store users are:
- A smooth and easy user experience at checkout
- A solution that will work across all their shopfronts and apps
- Easy to install
- A decrease in shipping issues
As Gill marine grows throughout the world, Fetchify’s Address Auto Complete is the perfect integration to help optimize the online experience.
"We literally plugged it in and it works throughout the entire chain."
