Client Stories: THG Ingenuity

28/10/24

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Our contributors:

Richard Ward

CEO, THG Ingenuity

Hannah Pym

Chief Brand and Marketing Officer, THG

Adam Waller

Partner, PwC UK

Few industries have been disrupted as much, or as often, as retail. From the rise of ecommerce to rapid reinvention during the pandemic, retail has had to change and keep changing to keep pace with heightened competition and the needs and expectations of consumers.

In this short film, we hear from PwC client THG Ingenuity about the ways in which it has revolutionised the end-to-end retail journey for brands and consumers alike. We visit THG Ingenuity’s state-of-the-art studio facilities where promotional content is created, and look inside its highly-automated fulfilment centre, capable of processing 500,000 items per day. Along the way we explore the transformative impact of innovation, data-driven decision-making and more personalised customer experiences.

PwC Partner Adam Waller joined Richard Ward, CEO of THG Ingenuity, and Hannah Pym, Chief Brand and Marketing Officer at THG, at the company’s Manchester headquarters.

“The culture across THG is all about continuous improvement. And if things aren’t improving and changing every single day, we become uncomfortable.”

_{Richard Ward

CEO, THG Ingenuity}

Richard Ward
Without technology, retail couldn't exist.

Hannah Pym
What we are seeing more than ever is the power of technology and the power of change.

Adam Waller
Getting ahead of change is so vital because if you stand still, you'll become irrelevant.

In ecommerce, innovation is crucial. Customers now want speed. They want speed of access to goods and services. Today we're down the road from our offices in Manchester at THG. What you really see in this fulfilment centre is the innovation, the technological leap that they've taken.

Richard Ward
THG has invested nearly £500 million across all of the Ingenuity technology and fulfilment services and studios capabilities.

Hannah Pym
We have three core solutions. We have THG Commerce, which is our end-to-end technology and direct to consumer proposition. I fondly call it “business in a box”. We then have THG Fulfil, which is our standalone global fulfilment offering. And then we have THG Studios, our fully integrated creative agency.

Richard Ward
We have a nearly 200,000 square foot facility here that has the ability to do everything from still photography to video production all the way through to AI content generation.

Hannah Pym
It's a reflection of the way the industry is changing. Brands need to think much more consciously about how they're investing in brand and content, how they are being seen online. So a client can be shooting a product or a campaign in here, and then we go next door and actually the next week, they’re fulfilling that and then seeing it go through the automation.

Richard Ward
Walking around the building, it shows you the ability to shift significant capacity in excess of 500,000 units a day, to deliver on the demands of our customers at low periods of volumes, all the way up through to peak trading during Black Friday.

Adam Waller
And here in this fulfilment centre, there's robots whizzing around, being able to pick products and get it to you in a shorter and shorter time.

Richard Ward
The continuous innovation that's occurred here at THG Fulfil, has led us to have the latest cut off for next day delivery, which is 1am, which is actually same day. And when you consider that as high as 30% of purchases happen after 10pm, there is a very significant opportunity to not only retain customers with that, but importantly, acquire customers as well.

Hannah Pym
It’s so important to look at brand holistically. There's no part of any bit of the customer experience I think that you can divorce from brand because it's all reputation building or detracting.

Adam Waller
We believe at PwC, that to solve clients' problems, it needs to be human-led, but tech-powered. That's the combination of deep sector expertise as well as a deep understanding of technological improvement. The role of data is becoming increasingly important, and that is particularly so in retail and consumer.

Hannah Pym
You can collect data till your heart's content. Data is nothing without the action behind it.

Adam Waller
The ability to really take data and personalise the offering is a key differentiator.

Richard Ward
THG customers are able to make better use of data so that they're promoting the right products at the right time and at the right price.

Adam Waller
This is one of the areas that ecommerce can really differentiate itself by helping personalise that choice and refining it down, because they really understand you as a customer.

Richard Ward
It also helps our customers be better at operating their businesses, such as predictive modelling or simulation.

Adam Waller
You have to be really resilient in your supply chain and plan. Really understand what the demand is going to be. That comes back to data, really understanding those peaks and troughs.

Hannah Pym
It's incredibly important to offer innovation to clients because it allows the clients to concentrate on being the brand owner. We're delivering change every day, and I think that's what makes working here so rewarding.

Adam Waller
The problem with innovation is it doesn't take long for everybody else to catch up.

Richard Ward
The culture across THG is all about continuous improvement, and if things aren't improving and changing every single day, we become uncomfortable.

Adam Waller
We've been helping clients navigate change for 175 years, and technology is just one example of changes that people have faced. People are going to have to adapt, and this is why we go back to the importance of constantly reinventing, being innovative and looking to the future.