#200 How E-Commerce is Transforming the Trades and Home Services Industry

Summary

Owned and Operated Podcast Summary
Episode: #200 "How E-Commerce is Transforming the Trades and Home Services Industry"
Release Date: May 22, 2025
Hosts: John Wilson and Jack Carr
Guest: Jesse from Wilson

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Introduction

In Episode #200 of the Owned and Operated podcast, hosts John Wilson and Jack Carr delve into the evolving landscape of e-commerce within the trades and home services industry. Joined by Jesse from Wilson, the conversation centers around their three to four-month experience integrating Contractor Commerce's e-commerce solutions into their business operations. This episode offers valuable insights into the practical implementation, challenges, and outcomes of adopting e-commerce tools tailored for home service businesses.

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Implementing E-Commerce with Contractor Commerce

Initial Setup and Motivation

Jesse shares that e-commerce had been on their radar for over a year, recognizing the industry's trend towards digital solutions. However, capacity and the absence of an easy entry point previously hindered their efforts. Approximately two and a half months ago, they partnered with Contractor Commerce, which provided an "out of the box" e-commerce platform that seamlessly integrated with their existing systems without requiring extensive upfront work.

Features Utilized

Currently, their primary use of Contractor Commerce revolves around online estimates for large equipment such as water heaters, home generators, HVAC systems, AC units, and furnaces. The process initiates with a call-to-action button on their website, leading visitors through a quiz-like interface that gathers essential information:

• Service Area Verification: Ensures the customer is within their operational zone.
• Product Specifications: Collects data on the customer's home, including square footage, type of existing heating, desired unit location, etc.
• Customized Options: Based on responses, customers receive a range of preset options, typically displaying prices as "as low as per month" rather than full purchase costs.

John notes, “We have a button on our website or landing page, usually just with a call to action about a free, free online estimate, instant estimate, that kind of thing. [00:43]”

Additional Functionalities

Beyond online estimates, Contractor Commerce offers:

• Direct Equipment Sales: Processing payments directly through the platform.
• Subscription Management: Selling annual memberships or service subscriptions.
• Membership Portals: Facilitating easy access and purchase of memberships via their portal.

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Impact and Results

Lead Generation Metrics

In the first month of implementation, the team observed approximately 50 leads generated solely through the online estimate tool. Of these leads, about 30% converted into booked jobs, resulting in 16 to 17 new projects. John remarks, “That's not the only thing that Contract Commerce does... We saw around 50 that just click the button essentially and filled out the quiz. [07:17]”

Comparing this to previous lead sources, Jesse emphasizes that Contractor Commerce serves primarily as a capture tool rather than a traditional lead generator, capturing potential customers already visiting their website.

Revenue Impact

• March: Generated ~$40,000
• April: ~$20,000
• May (Halfway): Projected ~$10,000, scaling to $20,000 by month-end.

Jesse states, “Last month being March, I think it was around 40. April was 20. Then this month, currently we're halfway through May. We've broken ten. Ten grand. So. But it looks like we're at least on pace for 20 through it. [15:37]”

Conversion Insights

John and Jesse noted a higher number of water heater leads compared to HVAC, though HVAC still contributes significantly to overall sales revenue. They also observed that some customers engaged with the online estimate tool even after booking other services, indicating a curiosity-driven engagement.

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Challenges and Optimization

PPC Campaign Performance

The team allocated approximately $2,800 to a new PPC campaign targeting HVAC-related keywords. Despite driving around thousands of clicks, the activity specific to Contractor Commerce's online estimates remained low. They theorize that the campaign primarily attracts individuals with urgent needs, such as immediate HVAC replacements, rather than those casually exploring options.

Jesse notes, “They're very much trying to get someone today as soon as possible. Something's broke. [13:33]” This urgency contrasts with the typical e-commerce browsing behavior, potentially affecting the effectiveness of online estimates.

Quality of Traffic

The hosts discuss the importance of traffic quality over quantity. Jesse points out that while high traffic volume is beneficial, it must be relevant and targeted to yield meaningful leads. They observed that organic traffic often includes broad, general searches that don't necessarily translate into local business opportunities.

Follow-Up Sequences and Customer Experience

Currently, leads from Contractor Commerce are processed through two pathways:

1. Hatch Automation: Sends follow-up SMS and email communications.
2. Call Center Integration: Instantly notifies a Customer Service Representative (CSR) to make direct contact, often resulting in immediate bookings.

John highlights a successful instance where a lead submitted at 10 PM was promptly contacted, leading to a booked water heater job: “We got it, nailed it. [14:52]”

Content and SEO Considerations

The discussion touches on the role of informational content (e.g., optimal thermostat settings) in driving traffic and enhancing SEO through backlinks. However, Jesse cautions that while such content attracts visits, it doesn’t directly convert into job bookings.

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Insights and Future Plans

Customer Behavior and Needs

A pivotal question the team aims to answer is whether customers desire e-commerce functionalities from home service companies and, if so, how and when they prefer to use them. Jesse draws a comparison to the automotive industry, suggesting that, unlike cars which inspire excitement and extensive research, products like furnaces lack the same appeal and deliberation.

Transparency in Pricing

Both hosts agree on the importance of transparency. By providing clear pricing information, they aim to reduce customer confusion and facilitate informed decision-making. Jesse suggests experimenting with displaying full pricing rather than just monthly installments to assess consumer response and build trust.

John adds, “It hits transparency and like if someone's in their buying journey and they're in like the data collection, like a confused buyer won't buy. So our job and I think where contractor commerce is helping is like get rid of confusion. [21:42]”

Future Experiments

The team plans to:

• Enhance the Online Journey: Introduce confirmation pages detailing next steps to improve customer experience.
• Optimize Follow-Up Content: Utilize Contractor Commerce’s capabilities to include more information and images during the customer journey.
• Increase Marketing Efforts: Allocate more budget towards branded and paid search campaigns to amplify the reach and effectiveness of the online estimate tool.

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Conclusion

Jesse concludes by emphasizing the experimental nature of marketing: “Marketing is always an experiment, hypothesis. Then you test it, see what happened. Reiterate. [22:57]” This mindset underscores their commitment to continuously refining their e-commerce strategies to better serve their customers and drive business growth.

John wraps up the episode by encouraging listeners to visit their website and subscribe for more insights, highlighting the collaborative and evolving journey of integrating e-commerce into the trades and home services industry.

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Notable Quotes

• John Wilson [00:43]: “We have a button on our website or landing page, usually just with a call to action about a free, free online estimate, instant estimate, that kind of thing.”

• Jesse [07:17]: “We saw around 50 that just click the button essentially and filled out the quiz.”

• Jesse [13:33]: “They're very much trying to get someone today as soon as possible. Something's broke.”

• John Wilson [21:42]: “It hits transparency and like if someone's in their buying journey and they're in like the data collection, like a confused buyer won't buy.”

• Jesse [22:57]: “Marketing is always an experiment, hypothesis. Then you test it, see what happened. Reiterate.”

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Final Thoughts

This episode provides an in-depth exploration of how e-commerce tools like Contractor Commerce can be leveraged by home service businesses to streamline lead generation, enhance customer experience, and drive revenue growth. Through practical examples and candid discussions, John, Jack, and Jesse offer actionable advice for contractors considering similar digital transformations.

For more insights and actionable strategies, visit www.ownedandoperated.com.

Transcript

[A]

Now we told the folks from Contractor Commerce that we were going to talk about it today and they helped out by giving us a ridiculous promo. They're giving 60 days free if you click on the link below. So huge savings, awesome thing to just test out. In the episode, Jesse and I unpack what the first couple of months has looked like, how we're using it, how we're thinking about it, how we're testing it, and it was a great conversation. So head over to contractor commerce.com owned and operated to claim your 60 free days. Besides that, enjoy the show. Welcome back to Owned and Operated. Today on the show we have Jesse from Wilson. Welcome to the show.

[B]

Oh, happy to be here.

[A]

Yeah, this is fun. We had Lori on earlier this week. We're hoping to like, over time bring more and more people on. I think it'll be kind of fun to sort of like talk about what we're doing. So today we're talking about E Commerce and the trades, which is something we've been messing around with for three months.

[B]

Four months, about two and a half thing. Yeah.

[A]

So how about you start us off with like what we've been doing, like initial thoughts.

[B]

Sure. So we. I feel like E Commerce has more or less been on our radar for like a year or more.

[A]

I feel like most contractors think they need to do it.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Whether or not they do is maybe arguable, but they think they need to.

[B]

Yeah. It's been on our brain for a while. We just didn't really have the capacity or like an easy way to kind of dip our toes into it. And then about two and a half months ago, we signed on with Contractor Commerce and their platform and what they kind of offer is sort of an out of the box solution for Ecom, which works really well with our current context because there's not a lot of upfront legwork on our end. Currently we're only using it for online estimates, specifically for any kind of large equipment piece.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like water heater, water heaters, home generators, H vac, ac, furnace. I think those are currently the three that we do. You can certainly do more, but those are the three we chose to start out with. And more or less the way it works currently is there's a button on our website or landing page, usually just with a call to action about a free, free estimate, free online estimate, instant estimate, that kind of thing. The visitor clicks on it and then it just kind of walks them through what I would call a quiz, which is what I think a lot of traditional E comm Sites would call it. And it basically just asks you a series of qualifying questions. One of the first ones being where are you? So make sure they're in our service area. But then it'll, it'll ask if it's H Vac. They're going to ask for some of the data about your house. How big is a square footage, what type of heat, what type of heat are you looking for, where's the unit, that kind of thing. So they kind of just click the multiple choice and walk through this quiz and then at the end, based on the data that the customer supplied, it'll give you or give the customer a range of options. Those options are sort of preset by us and contractor Commerce allows a certain logic to where if they answer this, they'll be shown that. And we're currently doing three choices I believe and each choice will be instead of the full price of the equipment, we just have an as low as per month type thing. And yeah, so we've been doing that for about two and a half months. That's not the only thing that Contract Commerce does.

[A]

What else do they do?

[B]

They also have the ability to sell equipment, I believe on their platform.

[A]

Like direct. Like a card, correct? Yeah.

[B]

They can process payments. They also have the ability to. Something that I think they do with a lot of contractors is they'll set up a filter for H Vac subscription type thing and then they.

[A]

Oh, I think that's how they started.

[B]

Yeah, I think, I don't think we're doing that though. No. And they also. The only other thing they'll do is memberships. If you have an annual membership, allow you to sell those through their, through their portal essentially.

[A]

Yeah. I think, you know, I saw this company years ago. They're local, I'm trying to remember their name, but they had like a store built in, which I thought was kind of interesting. I, I think I like the transparency part. I don't know that it, I don't, I don't know that customers have cared that much. We do get leads like it does drive traffic, which I guess we could talk about. But I remember thinking like 10 years ago like, oh man, this is cool. Like they have their pricing out there, but I don't know that anybody looks. And I think with AI, I think it becomes even less of a thing. Have we, have we figured out how the shop interfaces with like ChatGPT?

[B]

In what way exactly? As far as like a generative experience type thing?

[A]

Yeah, like, well, will it. Will chat GPT, like give us credit for Having an additionally like helpful site.

[B]

Oh, you're, you're talking on the. Okay. As far as like optimization to appear peer and AI results.

[A]

An AEO or whatever. Is that what they're calling it?

[B]

It's got a couple, yeah, a couple names these days. I don't know if like specifically having a ecom portal wouldn't necessarily help a home service company rank in AI currently. And I don't know that anyone has the authoritative, definitive kind of definition of what will get you to show up in AI searches. Because it's still very new. It's very. Yeah, AI is also generative so where it may not show you the same thing twice and the models are different, that kind of thing. But as far as showing up in AI, a lot of the initial research and it's very initial, essentially what I've kind of gleamed is that it's very close to sort of the same best practices for SEO. And that's because AI is pulling from.

[A]

The Internet and it's just mass searching.

[B]

The places that it pulls from. It's going to look for authority ratings, reviews, listings from other, from anything that would be approved or like an authoritative database on local businesses, that kind of thing. Certainly any kind of mentions from high authority news websites or anything like that. So a lot of the sort of current theories for what helps you show up in AI is very similar to SEO right now. The. That could very much change in the future.

[A]

No, that tracks. Okay, so we put this pre built E commerce thing on our website. What happened?

[B]

So the first month we very much very literally just threw it on our website. Didn't really push it at all. And I would say that was like the phase one which was just get it up and running, let's see what it does. And in that month time I think we got around 50 or so call them leads that came in and leads.

[A]

Is kind of like relative.

[B]

Yeah. So I would call them leads once they're in Contractor Commerce and we get their information that they submit.

[A]

Yeah, they interfaced with the quiz.

[B]

Yeah, um, I don't know that I would call them. I would call Contractor Commerce a lead gen source. Like if you're thinking about an ANGIE or an nca, these aren't necessarily new leads at this point. It's just someone was already on the website anyways. Most probably they were.

[A]

This is like a capture tool.

[B]

Correct.

[A]

Like how do we convert them?

[B]

But so yeah, we saw around 50 that just click the button essentially and filled out the quiz. Of that we had about 30% result in the Book job and then there was.

[A]

So is that 16, 17 there about. I think, yeah. I feel, I mean that feels pretty good.

[B]

It's. If you're comparing it to like a form lead from a lead aggregator, that would be really good. If you're.

[A]

Do we know like, do we know what our leads off our website was the previous month? Because that would be the measurement, I guess. Like did we access more leads? Because we probably didn't have zero leads the month before. Like we probably had like some amount.

[B]

Yeah. And that. And that. I think that's the right way to look at it. And I would probably look at sales first, like website sales mainly because we.

[A]

Have the phone number jump.

[B]

We have the phone number on the website. So like if you're counting the calls as a lead then yes. But what I would like to see is a jump in website sales from this new. Ideally this qualifies the people better and hopefully incentivizes them too.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. They feel like they have more decisions in their buying journey or like more information in their buying journey.

[B]

Yep. Another thing we saw is a smaller portion. I forget the number exactly. But we would see this thing where they would, they'd fill out the journey before or after they booked a totally different job.

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

And I think my guess is that most likely they were already coming to our website for the job that they booked. They saw the book.

[A]

Curious.

[B]

Yeah. And they were curious, which is not a bad thing.

[A]

Like they have information now.

[B]

It gets us in, gets them in our system. We can follow up with them.

[A]

Now is that going into like, is that going into our automation for coupons or cold calling or is that going into that?

[B]

So currently it's going to two places at the same time and it'll go through our hatch automation which will follow up with SMS and email and then on the other side at the pretty much instantaneously it will also ping call center so that a CSR can call them directly, reach out and say so you filled out this form, are you interested in it? And essentially offer usually in home free estimate.

[A]

And no one's tried to actually buy just straight on the website yet?

[B]

No. And we don't have that option activated.

[A]

Oh, gotcha. I don't know. I think, I think we all think that consumers want that. I don't know that they do.

[B]

Yeah. And I think that's, that's really the main question I'm trying to answer by using contractor commerce on your website again the first month we literally just threw it up there. Didn't push it at all.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

The second month we, well, we started to mess with verification where they have to verify their number, that kind of thing. But starting this month and going forward, what we're actually trying to do is push the online quote or estimate. And when I say push, we're talking about it in some of our media ads. Tv, radio.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

That kind of thing. And then also we have a PPC campaign specifically for H vac and it's an option on the landing page and we've. We've got it to connect to Google to kind of if optimized for that action if it sees it.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

But it's one option alongside calling us or just scheduling directly online. And so far we haven't really seen a lot of activity on the PPC lender for the contract of commerce, you know, free online estimate.

[A]

How into budget are we? Like, how much have we spent month to date?

[B]

About 2,800.

[A]

And so we've sent traffic.

[B]

Yeah, there's been thousands. Like it's thousands now. This campaign's new, so that traffic.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[B]

Is getting whittled down to be better. So it's a lot of.

[A]

Also thousands is kind of crazy. Yeah. I mean, as far as like a cost per click, that feels like low.

[B]

Yeah. And it'll. That's what we would expect to see if we're launching a new campaign and kind of just a buck getting the data.

[A]

A buck a click.

[B]

It depends. I think it depends on the market. Depends on what exactly kind of keywords you're. You're optimizing for.

[A]

But the idea like h vac, Instagram, install, quote, like I would assume that's like 30 bucks a click or something. Ridiculous.

[B]

Yeah. But they're not going to be targeting just that.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

They'll be targeting a giant family of various keywords. And so that traffic will be really high at first and then they'll kind of whittle down.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You know, based on what's working, what's not that kind of thing. But yeah, we, from the ppc, we've, we've seen not a lot of activity for the online estimate. It seems to be that those people from that traffic source, ppc, they're very much trying to get someone today as soon as possible. Something's broke.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

They're not shopping around necessarily, which is a good thing. And I don't think that necessarily means that contract of commerce is bad or people don't want it. I just think that's specific.

[A]

It's a different state of urgency. Yeah, yeah. Because I think what, what I've noticed as far as like when people are going to the quizzes is it's, it seems to be activating buying behavior at like 9pm I think that, I think that's what their data said before we got onto. It's like. Yeah, people will be like Sunday at 11 or you know, they're watching TV and they start for some reason looking for furnace. Like I've personally never done that, but apparently our customers do. So they'll start like just looking and seeing what the options are because there's a, there's a lot of really interesting like hey, you got a lead tax after 5pm it was funny too.

[B]

We had before we kind of nailed down the procedure with call center.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Our offshore call takers who usually do the after hours stuff.

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

They would see the lead come in and they would just call immediately.

[A]

Oh sure.

[B]

I listened to a call came in. It was like 10 o' clock at night. A guy requested a water heater and so they, they were called immediately and the guy was like, you're calling people at 10pm and the CSR was like, yeah. And we booked the job. Like. Yeah, we got it, Nailed it. It was, it was funny.

[A]

We, we've, I think that has been interesting is we've gotten a surprising amount of water heaters from it. I think as far as like job numbers, so far more water heaters than H vac.

[B]

Yeah. And I don't know what the exact ratio is, but that, that is correct. Now H vac being H vac, it still has more of the sales like the actual dollars.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Numerically we are seeing more water.

[A]

Yeah. So far ROAS has been a win. Like if we look at it as like our ad spend being the subscription, it's kind of been a big one.

[B]

It's significant. I'm trying to do math in my head, but it's.

[A]

Well, what did we drive last month off contract for commerce?

[B]

Last month being March, I think it was around 40.

[A]

Yeah, 40.

[B]

40 grand.

[A]

So that feels good. Well what about April or.

[B]

Yeah, sorry. March was 40, April was 20. Then this month, currently we're halfway through May. We've broken ten. Ten grand. So. But it looks like we're at least on pace for 20 through it. So.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah, that feels pretty good. Do you think we are unusual, I think for the trades because of how much web traffic we have? We have a lot of web traffic. I mean obviously that helps but like what's your take on that?

[B]

I think it depends on the Quality of the traffic.

[A]

Yeah. Because some of ours is not.

[B]

Yeah. It depends where the traffic's coming from. And PPC is a great example. The current campaign that we have running seems to be optimizing for people who are urgently looking for an H vac replacement, which is great. That traffic theoretically do. Well, you know, when you get into just the organic traffic of the website, it's going to depend heavily on. Well, there could be a source where people are searching for you directly through your brand.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

It's a good source to have, but they also maybe searching you for a multitude of reasons. Also, if you, if you're doing SEO and you have any kind of content that's maybe more general and not specific to your service area.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Which is a tactic. I see a lot that companies do where you'll just, you know, what's the optimal temperature for your thermostat?

[A]

I mean, we have a ton of that.

[B]

Yeah. And it, I wouldn't say it's. It's bad, but, but I think, I.

[A]

Think it's meant to get. Well, it gets traffic. But I think more importantly, like, it's something to backlink to. At least that's how I think about that type of content where it's like, I mean, this is like five year ago SEO, but it's like, hey, we're going to put an informative blog and then we'll run a backlink from USA Today to it. And we got da.

[B]

Yeah. I mean backlinks are, are hugely powerful and good. I think it's just don't expect those kind of articles to be produced. The traffic that gets the jobs booked.

[A]

Yeah. I have a friend that has double our traffic and like we already have a lot. He has double. So like that's 30,000 hits a month and no revenue off the site.

[B]

Yeah. And that's the case in point. Because when you get in those general keywords, you're getting traffic potentially from all across the country.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Doesn't necessarily help you if you're a local.

[A]

All right, so we put it on there. We've gotten positive roas. I think we're still like testing. We're trying to run more traffic to it, basically seeing what more reps looks like. Like, does volume increase leads, which we're still early on that, so we haven't like totally determined, but I would assume it does. I. I'm curious what like other contractors are doing with contractor commerce, like how many leads they get versus their traffic, like how many people start clicking on the funnel. I think that would Just be interesting.

[B]

Yeah. And I think too we still have some optimization within contract commerce itself. I think, you know, just off the top of my head, probably our follow up sequence is one we just threw up to get it started. Yeah, I think that's been looked at. That can probably be improved. And then contract of commerce does give you some ability to put content in that journey as far as like more information, images, that kind of thing. And I think that could also be helpful. Something that I want to do we haven't done yet is when they complete the journey, essentially they get a page that says, hey, this is what happens next. Yeah, this is what to expect. Yeah, we don't really have that. They're filling it out and it's like, okay, you'll hear from us, you know. So I think things like that could also help. But yeah, we'll see how impactful it'll be when we get there.

[A]

That's great. All right. Any last thoughts on contractor commerce or even E Commerce for the trades?

[B]

I think the biggest thing is really figuring out do customers want these features from a home service company and if they do, how do they want them and when do they want them? Which again, that's in my mind a lot of the experimentation that we're doing is trying to answer that question.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Something that I've heard other people say is, well, people buy cars off the Internet. Why wouldn't they buy H vac or water heaters off the Internet? And theoretically, yeah, they're both really high ticket items. But I think there is a key difference where a car is something you're excited to buy, something that you think about it, you know, if you're a little kid, you might have one poster on your wall. Nobody's doing that with the train was, whoa.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, I agree. I think it's like people will spend much more time, they're excited to research, they're optimizing for that. Whereas I think the, the role or the benefit that I see of it so far is it hits transparency and like if someone's in their buying journey and they're in like the data collection, like a confused buyer won't buy. So our job and I think where contractor commerce is helping is like get rid of confusion. Like, hey, here's what it is, here's the cost. It's one more thing that they can now put a peg in because I think it is pretty like who knows what a furnace and air conditioning costs it. And it seems like there's a lot like huge swings up and down Depending on like everything, like brand, company, size of house, type of house. So I feel like it's just our job to give them the information they need to like call us. And I think that that is good enough. Like, I think that's good.

[B]

Yeah. And you hit upon a. A real interesting point to the transparency side. Currently we're displaying the price as just a per month minimum. Like, hey, as low as our remaining dollars per month. That would be, in my mind, something to experiment with is actually showing the whole dollar, which I. My impression is home service companies are kind of nervous to do that because again, the shopping around thing, I think that would also help answer the question, you know, is this something that's useful and helpful to. To consumers? Because again, a furnace isn't something you would be excited about buying. But if you put that info out there, people become conscious of the fact that you can shop for it.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Does that become an advantage for your company if you look good at it? You know? Yeah, I think it's a possibility.

[A]

Yeah. So I think, yeah, we'll probably hit this again in a couple months with like, hey, here's what happened. Running a bunch of branded spend towards it. We're running a bunch of like paid search spend towards it. It'll work. That'll be funny to figure out. Cool. Any last take for marketers out there, I would say.

[B]

I mean, I think marketing is always an experiment, hypothesis. Then you test it, see what happened. Reiterate. I think that's true of testing e commerce, but really anything in marketing kind of follows that promises.

[A]

Thank you for checking out Owned and Operated. Thanks for coming on the show. This was fun. Make sure you check out owned and operated.com and like and subscribe for more.