22 MARCH 2016 | FUEL OIL NEWS | www.fueloilnews.com
E
xactly three years ago Fuel Oil News covered a new com-
pany, SmartClick Energy, that offered an affiliate program for
industry heating oil dealers with an online buying experience
for the customer. The goal was to sign dealers to specific territories
throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic States to generate
incremental gallons beyond their existing customer base. SmartClick
would market the program, find these supplemental customers and
handle all of the back office headaches. The dealer essentially receives
a negotiated delivery fee for fulfilling the service.
Shipley Energy, a leading, highly diversified energy marketer
in the Northeast, acquired SmartClick in May of 2015, and after
an overhaul has just relaunched the program this January as
SmartTouch Energy.
As it stands now, the company has 46 different partners (and
growing) with a footprint that extends from Baltimore to Bangor,
Maine. Operators range in scale from smaller companies with four
or five trucks doing perhaps 2 million gallons per year, to some
with 50 vehicles doing perhaps 50 million gallons per year.
Fuel Oil News interviewed Steven Downey, the company's
president, for the rationale behind the acquisition and for where
Shipley intends to take the program moving forward.
FON: What prompted the acquisition?
DOWNEY: We were actually looking to do something similar and
then we were contacted by a broker with the opportunity. We
opened discussions and we really liked the business model. As an
industry we've lagged a bit behind how other industries are serving
their customers. If we can do a great job and serve the consumer in
the way they want to be taken care of, when they want to order, how
they want to order and the convenience factor then we are going to
be able to grow and expand compared to the competition. And we
can do that as a team. We hope to more than double the number of
customers and the size of the business in the first year.
FON: On the technology side, how much reworking was required
after the acquisition?
DOWNEY: Fundamentally the platform functioned, but it needed
some work. We wanted to make it a better customer experience. We
wanted to make it faster and more accessible to mobile devices. Some
45% of our traffic comes from mobile devices. We made a range of
changes to make it more functional for both our customers and dealers.
SMARTTOUCH ENERGY
Shipley's SmartClick Acquisition Moves Forward with More Than Just a Name Change
BY KEITH REID
