A new online retail site offers a savings double whammy
BALTIMORE—Baltimore Gas and Electric has begun offering customers the chance to purchase energy-saving home products online—often with competitive discounts and hassle-free rebates—at the BGE Marketplace, www.bgemarketplace.com.
The new retail site offers energy-related products that save customers time and money while helping them better understand and manage their energy needs. Products include LED lightbulbs, smart thermostats, advanced power strips and more. The energy savings from these products help to support EmPOWER Maryland.
“Our endeavor has always been to ask, ‘How can we engage our customers through more channels and in different ways?’” Ajit Apte, director of customer strategy and governance, told American Gas. “We wanted to offer customers more options for how they can save energy and easily implement more energy-efficient practices. BGE Marketplace is just one of the ways we are working to accomplish that.”
BGE Marketplace offers instant point-of-purchase rebates on a curated set of competitively priced energy-management products, integrated customer support and end-to-end fulfillment. With just a few clicks, BGE customers can get up to $100 off of smart thermostats, such as the Nest Learning Thermostat or ecobee3, or up to $21 off six-packs of LED lightbulbs. After a soft launch to employees in June, the marketplace was fully operational in July. “We have been marketing it heavily through banners on our website and email marketing,” Apte said.
Although it is still early days for the marketplace, customer response has been positive. “I think it’s going really well,” Roseann Sykes, BGE’s senior e-channels program manager, told American Gas. “Customers are clearly interested in partnering with us to purchase energy-efficient supplies that will help them reduce their bill. And we’ve found that the more info we provide, the more interested customers become.”
The BGE Marketplace is just the latest approach in the company’s push for energy efficiency awareness.
Chris Walls, manager of energy efficiency programs, told American Gas, “BGE has been very active in energy efficiency for the last 10 years. Helping our customers better manage their bills has been one of our key priorities. We believe this channel for our customers will provide a great opportunity to engage with us and reinforce our position as a trusted provider.”
Apte agrees, noting that, while all of these products can be purchased elsewhere, their presence in BGE Marketplace underscores the products’ trustworthiness and contribution to energy savings. “The key is the trust and the convenience,” he said. “They make it unmatched versus the experience of going into a store and comparing products on your own.”
For other utilities who may want to try something similar, Sykes advises paying special attention to the initial product mix: Start basic—lights, power strips, thermostats—before going too far into, say, home-automation products.
“The product mix on there now represents a very good energy mix for customers,” added Walls. “It represents savings in itself or it unlocks greater potential for their energy management, like a smart-home hub. We’re continuing to work on what the product mix will look like in the next six months or a year.”