G.S. Gill
Helping a national treasure transition into the digital marketplace
The digital marketplace has revolutionised the way we shop, live and interact. But what happens when a national institution such as Malaysian brand G.S. Gill begins to lose traction and market share due to a lack of digital presence? They call Pounce for help.
Situation
G.S. Gill Sports was founded in 1946 by Gurdial Singh Gill, a visionary entrepreneur and sports-mad philanthropist. G.S. Gill Sports stores grew to become a Malaysian institution, its ethos and philosophy springing from the fabric and folklore of the country’s culture.
G.S. Gill himself received a knighthood for his efforts to help Malaysian business and was credited with single-handedly bringing Adidas into Malaysia. Even today, the business invests much of the store’s profits back into the youth community, ensuring a better tomorrow for the communities within which they operate.
Challenge
Not long ago, G.S. Gill Sports found themselves losing market share to companies that had adapted better to the digital revolution. They realised they needed to quickly transition from traditional bricks and mortar stores to include a digital presence. The challenges of modernising the G.S Gill brand included:
- Brand had not changed in 70 years
- Most revenue was still derived from in-store promotions
- No digital presence
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Pounce Approach
When business needs meet Pounce ingenuity
Partnering with Pounce allowed us to work as a united team to dig into the core issues G.S.Gill was facing. We identified the following key strategic steps:
Modernisation of the brand to appeal to a younger demographic
Bring their brand presence online and on social media channels
Although we were initially a teensy bit star-struck to be working with such an honoured Malaysian institution, we quickly settled into working together to transform G.S. Gill into its modern incarnation.
Our first objective involved planning the iterative steps to modernise such a well-known brand. Considerations included understanding the G.S. Gill legacy, mapping how to expand the brand across to the new channel and the support required to support its initial growth in the digital economy.
To ensure G.S. Gill launched with a strong digital foundation, we built an eCommerce-enabled website on Shopify to enable easy future expansion and also developed intuitive inventory management tools.
The online retail market is a crowded one. So we needed to ensure G.S. Gill could differentiate itself once they were launched online. So working in parallel, our designers renewed G.S. Gill’s branding to help them stand out in the crowded online retailer marketplace, and attract a broader range of digital customers.
Understanding G.S. Gill's limited knowledge in digital retail, allowed us to provide additional support in assessing delivery vendors, coordinating product photo shoots, and aiding in the process of importing data and content to their new website.
Technology review
Hauling the system out of the stone-age system and onto Shopify, we enabled G.S. Gill to commence online sales.
Once sales were enabled, we proceed to:
Build inventory management tools
Import over 1 million products to the website
Optimised the website for SEO
Integrated a payment gateway with a local bank
Set up email automation for cart abandonment to help increase conversion rates
We also helped evaluate delivery vendors and organised a photo shoot to get material for the new site.
Impact
Since their online store launch, G.S. Gill has grown their online revenue and is confidently building its future as a digital enterprise.
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