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.

BBC Worldwide will also embed more buy opportunities into all its direct consumer digital touch points, including its branded websites such as topgear.com and its Facebook pages. “Whenever you come across us we want to offer our fans the opportunity to buy as well as consume content.”However, he added that as the commercial arm of the BBC, it is on the “conservative end of the spectrum” when it comes to the use of consumer data, with all activity centred on a strict “opt-in or double-opt-in” basis.

“As a company we are looking to get ever closer to our consumers and forge direct relationships with them,” he said, adding, “We have a very strong incentive to really understand the base of Doctor Who or Top Gear fans, not just for our ecommerce agenda but because we want to develop products and content over time that appeals to the people that already consume our content.”

His comments follow the appointment of Steve Wind-Mozley as its first senior VP of ecommerce. Wind-Mozley, who takes up his new role at the end of the month, will lead the new strategy.

BBC Worldwide was also one of the first UK broadcasters to launch rental episodes of Doctor Who using Facebook’s Credits payment system.

Facebook visitors were able to watch a selection of episodes from the Doctor Who archive, along with more recent episodes, packaged as different “stories”. Viewers could buy 15 Facebook Credits for 93p, for which they received access to one story – the equivalent to three to five episodes for 48 hours.

London said the price points have been received “favourably” by consumers. “We went into this with the spirit of experimentation – we wanted to understand what people would pay for and whether they would pay using Facebook Credits. The results have been very positive.”

He added there are learnings to take from the trial concerning the type of content it provides and what is the most popular content. “The learning there is to understand what your audience wants before offering it,” he said. “But there is nothing better than real-life research; this foray is an experiment. It is step one in a thousand-step cycle. We are now experimenting with different editorial triggers.”

He said it is yet to “crack the code” for whether there are long-term commercial benefits from the method.

BBC Worldwide is also in talks with US movie and TV streaming giant Netflix, over how to extend its content partnership, already available in the US, to the UK following the latter’s UK debut next year.