BBC Worldwide focuses ecommerce strategy on personalised content and products

newmediaage reporting:

BBC Worldwide is putting personalised on-demand content and products at the heart of its ecommerce strategy ahead of a major platform overhaul.

The commercial arm of the BBC will relaunch its ecommerce platform, which includes bbcshop.com and branded sites Top Gear and Doctor Who, next year as the first phase in a three-pronged strategy aimed at using data to tailor one-to-one online content packages and physical products.
BBC Worldwide senior VP of global digital properties and ecommerce Claude London (pictured below) told new media age the broadcaster is aiming to become “more adept” at using data to understand its consumers better with the view to then delivering personalised online content and product packages.

“We are pursuing the avenue of manufacturing on-demand,” he said. “When you think of the BBC, you think of the heritage of British TV and its 50,000 hours of [archive] programming. But not all of this programming can be released in its traditional format because there is not enough demand. But we will harness technology on-demand so we can meet demand when it materialises.”
One of the ways it will explore this is to provide lists of DVDs, comprised of TV programmes that have never been released before, across its ecommerce sites. It will then encourage consumers to request if they want those compilation DVDs manufactured. “If an individual wants a certain DVD that hasn’t been made yet, we can make it and then ship it to them,” said London.
It is also planning to launch “channel-by-channel merchandising”, according to London. This will comprise tailoring online content packages to cater for the audiences of specific digital channels.
“We already know that our 15m-strong Facebook audience for Top Gear responds to different products to those people who shop on bbcshop.com so we will therefore propose different products for different channels that best fit the tastes of the different audiences,” he said.
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