Supporting the rollout of Girlguiding's new programme

Girls take part in a wide range of activities such as camps and overseas development projects, and cover wide-ranging topics from scientific study to circus skills.

Girlguiding relies to a large part on revenue from their own trading business. All profits go directly into supporting the development of Girlguiding across England. The trade side of Girlguiding provides uniforms, equipment, gifts, and of course badges. This is a complex trading setup, with direct-to-parent as well as regional and local groups to support. The challenge was also to integrate with existing operational, financial, and management systems, whilst also improving overall performance and profitability.

Element78 developed a brand new Girlguiding shop in 2018 to support the relaunch of the charity’s new programme. The platform caters to the needs of a B2C market (individuals/parents/guardians) purchasing from a wide range of SKU’s. The platform also supports the complex needs of their B2B audience (Girlguiding leaders, groups, trade bodies), providing different views of products and purchasing on account.

The initial project was delivered rapidly and accurately. Key aspects of the solution are the high-performance hosting and rapid response times for managing transactions, along with detailed support for their strong security requirements. Since 2018, many changes have occurred, using data to help improve design and performance. This continuous improvement approach has helped grow their trading arm.