Article overview
About this historical recapNavy FAB and HSBC VisionGo co-hosted a webinar on 11 May 2022 about building an ecommerce business during Covid. The speakers’ roles and business descriptions reflect the 11 May 2022 event.Start with the business and brandThe webinar began with the business’s vision, target customer and desired brand perception. Those decisions inform the visual identity, product presentation and shopping journey. Choosing colours and fonts is more useful when the team can explain who the store serves and what it promises.Make mobile and offline experiences work togetherMobile usability was a key theme: teams often designed on desktop while overlooking the phone experience. The practical lesson was to test the purchase journey where customers actually shop, including navigation, product selection and payment.About this historical recap
Navy FAB and HSBC VisionGo co-hosted a webinar on 11 May 2022 about building an ecommerce business during Covid. The speakers’ roles and business descriptions reflect the 11 May 2022 event.
The event’s 2023 mobile-commerce forecast and trial invitations no longer describe current conditions or offers (checked 23 October 2026).
Webinar opening screen introducing Navy FAB speakers Natalie Lam and Chester Wu on 11 May 2022.
Start with the business and brand
The webinar began with the business’s vision, target customer and desired brand perception. Those decisions inform the visual identity, product presentation and shopping journey. Choosing colours and fonts is more useful when the team can explain who the store serves and what it promises.
The discussion also considered whether to build a custom store or use an ecommerce platform. The speakers discussed Shopify, SHOPLINE and WooCommerce. The right choice depended on the selling model, target markets, language and currency needs, and the team’s technical capacity. This recap is not a current feature or price comparison.
As the speakers framed it in 2022, a founder should answer three questions before drawing a storefront: why this business exists, which customers it wants to serve and how it wants those customers to describe it. Those answers guide the visual identity, product range and the kind of help a visitor needs before buying. A colour palette or font choice is therefore an expression of positioning, not the starting point.
The event also compared a bespoke build with a hosted platform and open-source software. A bespoke site may give a team deeper control but makes it responsible for ongoing development and maintenance. A platform can reduce setup work, yet the merchant still needs to check integrations, language, currency, support and ownership of everyday operations for its particular model.
Webinar slide setting out four steps: clarify the store vision, design the experience, build the store and choose a platform.
Make mobile and offline experiences work together
Mobile usability was a key theme: teams often designed on desktop while overlooking the phone experience. The practical lesson was to test the purchase journey where customers actually shop, including navigation, product selection and payment.
The speakers also discussed online-to-offline operations, such as buying online and collecting in store, loyalty programmes and in-person returns. These experiences require stock, order and service processes that agree with one another. A feature on a platform’s sales page does not by itself prove that the merchant’s operational setup is ready.
At the event, mobile commerce covered, including mobile shopping, banking and digital wallets. Its useful design point was that a merchant may approve a desktop layout while customers actually browse and pay on a phone. Test menus, variants, wallet availability and confirmation messages on a representative handset; the 2023 growth forecast is no longer a current statistic.
The online-to-offline examples were buy online and pick up in store, loyalty recognition and in-person returns. For each, map the handoff: when inventory is reserved, who tells the customer an order is ready, whether a shop assistant can find the order and how a return updates both the stock and refund records. A coherent customer experience depends on these operational details.
2022 webinar slide on mobile-first design, instant messaging, one-click ordering and augmented reality.
Webinar slide on linking online and in-store experiences through pickup, returns, multiple locations and loyalty.
Understand customers through appropriate first-party information
The speakers encouraged merchants to use information from their own customer relationships to understand purchase patterns and improve retention. It mentioned segmentation and tools such as Klaviyo as examples. Those mentions describe the event context and are not current trial offers.
Analytics describes methods and tools; first-party describes how information is collected through a direct customer relationship. These categories can overlap. Collection, access and marketing use still need to respect the customer’s choices and the applicable rules.
At the webinar, the speakers suggested grouping customers by what they purchased, which products they explored and when they last interacted. Collection points discussed at the event included a company website or app, CRM records and customer surveys; social-media interactions require separate scrutiny before treating them as first-party information. That can inform a relevant replenishment reminder or a more helpful support conversation. Decide the purpose and lawful basis for each data collection point, give staff only the access they need and test whether a segment is accurate before sending a campaign.
Klaviyo was discussed as a marketing tool in 2022; its trial terms from that period are no longer an offer. The customer segmentation method remains useful. Analytics and customer records can complement one another, but neither gives unrestricted permission to identify or contact a visitor.
2022 slide on customer profiling, website tracking, segmentation and prediction.
Innotier’s experience shared at the event
The speakers described Innotier’s move from a B2B garment business towards a consumer-facing brand. Julian Lam shared operational challenges including shipping arrangements, aligning ecommerce content with brand identity, managing expanding product lines and maintaining an easy-to-use website.
The advice recorded in the recap was to stay consistent with the brand’s values, research customer demand and explain the product’s distinguishing features clearly. These are lessons from that discussion, not a claim about Innotier’s current locations, leadership, product range or business results.
Julian Lam described the difficulty of moving from a B2B garment background to a broader consumer-facing catalogue at the time of the event. The team had to arrange fulfilment without its own warehouse, present new product lines consistently and keep product content aligned with a sustainability-focused identity. A Central flagship store was discussed in 2022; current store locations may differ.
Her advice to new merchants was to research actual demand, stay consistent with the business mission and explain product differences clearly on the site. The practical follow-up is to assign people to catalogue updates and fulfilment exceptions, so a growing assortment does not become a confusing or unreliable storefront.
Innotier’s desktop and mobile storefront presented during the HSBC VisionGo webinar.
Group photo after the Navy FAB × HSBC VisionGo webinar on 11 May 2022.
Reading the lessons today
For a new project, turn those themes into acceptance criteria. Test a real mobile purchase, verify stock and pickup behaviour, agree who owns delivery exceptions, and check each supported language. A polished presentation should be supported by reliable day-to-day operations.
For measurement, use the tools currently supported by your platform and define what you want to learn. Google Analytics 4 uses an event-based model; the old Universal Analytics service has retired. Keep customer contact collection and marketing permissions clear. Do not treat access to customer information as unrestricted permission to use it.
Platform plans, POS availability, app pricing and trial terms change. Consult the current provider documentation before purchasing or implementing a recommendation from the 2022 event. The photographs show the 11 May 2022 event.
11 May 2022 recording
Watch the 11 May 2022 webinar recording at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXQo05cEot8. This is the May 2022 recording; its demonstrations, offers and product interfaces reflect that period. Availability is controlled by the video publisher.
