Interested in a target market worth $8trillion a year? Find out how with Mike Adams from Enable All (episode 369)
Mike Adams is the CEO of Purple, an organisation changing the disability conversation with businesses and disabled people. He’s been listed on the Shaw Trust #DisabilityPower100 list as one of the most influential disabled people in Britain and received an OBE for his services to disabled people.
A large part of what Mike and his team at Purple are doing is highlighting the value and potential of the disabled market – the purple pound – for businesses, and their latest focus is on helping online retailers sell to this fiercely loyal market – which in the UK alone is worth £274 billion, and $8 trillion globally.
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Getting Started In eCommerce
Mike is all about changing the disability conversation — taking it from charity and welfare to being about opportunity for disabled people as well as businesses.
The disability market is a huge one, but it is currently largely underserved. Mike says eCommerce should grab the opportunity to provide for what this target market needs. He also believes that their team at Purple has the solution to help eCommerce businesses help disabled people.
Who Are The Disabled People?
While the international symbol for disability is the wheelchair, only 8% of disabled people are wheelchair users. About 80% of disabled people have hidden disabilities and businesses may not immediately recognize these people have additional needs, but when served, they become lifetime customers.
Serving This Target Market
To provide disabled people with quality services is to transform their lives.
Whether in-store or via eCommerce, disabled people need to feel valued and when they’re given good service, they will spend again and again.
Mike’s advice to businesses, especially eCommerce ones, is to make yourself accessible because there are benefits to serving the disability market.
Purple Tuesday
Purple Tuesday is an initiative that aims to improve the disabled customer experience, whether face-to-face or online.
When the program was run recently, Mike received a remarkable amount of engagement that showed just how interested people are in joining the conversation about improving the experience of disabled customers.
According to Mike, two commitments that were made the most were on mental health training and online accessibility.
About Enable All
Mike’s latest project is Enable All, which he says will be the world’s first accessibility-led shopping experience. Its objective is to set the standards for building digital experiences for all consumers and become a different kind of marketplace.
By focusing and prioritizing accessibility, the platform will synchronize with the user’s own assistive technology, and make products and services fully accessible. And Mike hopes that the platform doesn’t only serve disabled people, but also gives people with no disabilities a brilliant experience.
Mike and his team at Enable All aim to create a frictionless integration for businesses who want to sell their products and services on their platform, and give them an opportunity to tap into this trillion dollar global market.
eCommerce Book Top Tip
- Read any book about disability to understand what disabled people go through and the challenges they face, and find out how you can help them have equity of opportunity.
eCommerce Traffic Top Tip
- Mike used to be anti-social media, but has learned to embrace LinkedIn since the start of lockdown to raise awareness about disability and disabled people.
Tool Top Tip
- Have a site map on your website that allows people to navigate and easily access your information.
Growth Top Tip
- Register at a Merchant for Enable All today and be part of the journey to enable the transformation in the lives of disabled people.
Interview Links
Related episodes
- 114: Al Gerrie provides a masterclass in marketplaces, going international and how to successfully manage returns
- 136: Experts View: The No.1 Thing for eCommerce Growth in 2018: emotion, customer experience, marketplaces
- 149-5: Takeaways from Retail Without Borders Marketplaces, China, Japan, Porter Erisman & Alibaba
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