Real Business and Microsoft have been running a series called “30 Digital Champions” - profiling UK companies that have used digital transformation to achieve significant growth. Watchfinder was selected as one of the 30, and I was asked to represent the company on camera.
The interview focused on how we’ve managed to double our stock and staff in the last 12 months while expanding internationally. It’s a question I get asked a lot, so it was useful to articulate it properly.
What we talked about
The conversation covered three main areas: our approach to technology investment, the move to cloud infrastructure, and how we’re using machine learning.
The “proof of worth” principle
One thing I was keen to explain is that we don’t invest in technology for its own sake. Everything needs to demonstrate ROI before we commit resources to it. A good example is organic social media. Despite what you read in marketing blogs, we’ve tracked exactly one sale that came directly or indirectly via Facebook. One. So we focus our attention on programmatic advertising instead, which has shown genuinely strong results.
This isn’t about being anti-innovation. It’s about being honest with ourselves about what actually drives the business forward.
Moving to Azure
We’ve recently migrated the entire company - front-end websites, back-office systems, the lot - onto Microsoft Azure. The main driver wasn’t cost (though that helps). It was security.
When you’re holding several million pounds worth of luxury watches, you’re an attractive target. That’s true physically, and it’s true online. By moving to Azure, we’ve shifted a lot of the security burden onto Microsoft’s teams, who are frankly better equipped to handle it than we are. We no longer deal with physical servers, biometrics, or patching. That frees our IT team to focus on productivity - which matters more now we’re running eight physical sites and three international websites.
Machine learning for pricing
The bit that seemed to interest the interviewer most was our work on machine learning. We’ve sold around 80,000 watches over 12 years and provided about 750,000 quotes. That’s a lot of data on what sells, at what price, and how quickly.
We’re now applying machine learning to automate pricing decisions. The goal is to reduce how much our salespeople need to be involved in individual pricing calls, while also improving the online experience for customers. It’s early days, but the potential is significant.
The filming experience
I’ll be honest - being interviewed on camera isn’t something I’m naturally comfortable with. You’re very aware of the lights, the multiple takes, and the knowledge that your words will be edited into something you can’t control.
That said, the Real Business team made it straightforward. They knew what story they wanted to tell and asked good questions to draw it out.
The video
Here’s the finished piece:
Further reading
If you want the full written feature, Real Business published an accompanying article: Leaping over the dot.com crash to become a luxury market success.
You can also see the other companies in the series on their 30 Digital Champions campaign page.
It’s good to see Watchfinder recognised alongside some impressive companies. More importantly, it’s a useful marker of where we are in the growth journey - and a reminder of how much further we want to go.