“The customer is always right.” Yes, it’s a phrase we’ve all heard before. So, when the Guardian Labs teamed up with eBay and a crack team of business mentors to help 15 emerging entrepreneurs – the eBay Doers – kickstart their online ventures, it may have seemed churlish to offer them the oldest piece of business advice in the book. But as is so often the case with tried and tested pieces of wisdom, it’s a message that bears repeating.
“If you’ve got a new idea, you mustn’t try to do everything all at once,” says scheme mentor and Shnuggle co-founder Adam Murphy. He and his wife Sinead launched their business in 2010, after successfully pitching on Dragons’ Den. Today, they export their baby products to more than 35 countries.
“You might be really eager to launch a new product, but entrepreneurs need to step back and look at the consumer experience,” says Adam. “Everything is important, from the look of your store listings to packaging; from how a product will be delivered to how it will feel when the customer opens it.”
“Customer satisfaction is crucial,” adds Sinead. “eBay was the first platform a lot of entrepreneurs learned to sell on, and it was where they learned about reviews. Now, getting good reviews is expected for every retailer.
“Even if a seller has 500 positive reviews and one negative, I’ll go straight to the negative review to see what the problem was and how the seller responded. If it was handled well, then it won’t put me off buying, so you need to respond quickly and transparently.”
Sinead and Adam Murphy; Catalina Hoyos-Loarer and Ildut Loarer
Two of the Murphys’ Doers, Catalina Hoyos-Loarer and her husband Ildut, have been honing their product – colourful puzzles for children, aimed at design-savvy parents – and making sure their customer service is second to none.
“With some direction from Adam and Sinead, we’ve reworked our business plan and realised that we had to change our price point, which is something that could easily have been a problem down the line,” Ildut says. “We’re also producing quality guidelines for our manufacturers, to make sure standards are consistently high.
“It’s great having advice from people with a lot of knowledge of the business. There are lots of little things to think about, from shipping to certification, and we’re gradually tackling it all.”
“Our overall focus is on making sure our product and service are both excellent,” adds Catalina. “For example, we were told at the launch of the eBay Doers scheme that it’s a good idea to offer free shipping, so we’re doing that too.”
Customer satisfaction has been key to Michele Duplessis and Shannon Teague’s progress on the scheme. As founders of popcorn flavouring brand Pop ‘n Sprinkle, they’ve begun the process of reinventing their product from the ground up to make it more appealing to eBay customers.
Amy Paris and Laura Carr; Claire Haines and Melissa Burton (above); Michelle Duplessis and Shannon Teague (below)
“We started out selling business-to-business to a national cinema chain, and things happened really quickly,” says Duplessis. “We didn’t have a business plan, or a proper website. Now, we’re looking at selling directly to customers through eBay – but after looking at our competitors, we don’t feel we’re retail-ready just yet.
“Our first step is making our packaging more appealing. Our mentors have explained how to make it look good, and how to produce it cheaply, so we’re redesigning it.” Duplessis and Teague have also decided to create instructional videos on how to use their product.
“Popcorn flavourings are huge in South Africa, where we’re from, and are also big in countries like Denmark and New Zealand,” says Duplessis. “But customers over here are less clear on what the product actually does.”
Duplessis and Teague’s mentors, Clare Haines and Melissa Burton, run the Lingerie Outlet Store. Selling via sites including eBay, the pair saw an £8m turnover in 2017 – making them ideally placed to help fledgling eBay stores flourish.
“As the expression goes, we have two ears and one mouth, which means listening twice as much as we speak – and in business you need to ask the right questions and really listen to the answers,” says Haines.
“Whether you’re buying items to make your products, or selling them, you have to listen to what people’s needs are. Michele and Shannon have taken our suggestions on board, and are working on honing their product to make it right for eBay.”
Haines and Burton have also been mentoring Amy Paris and Laura Carr, founders of the London Sleep Company, as they develop their range of sleep products. “We want people to smell our range of products and identify their scent as coming from the London Sleep Company,” says Paris.
“So we’ve been working with our manufacturers to make sure our products comply with the International Fragrance Association (IFRA) guidelines, while producing the most potent and effective products we can.
“It’s quite complex – for example, there are different guidelines for products that wash off and those that stay on. It’s not the law, but we want to make sure we’re being responsible.” And Haines and Burton’s guidance is proving invaluable to the pair. “When we get off the phone with Clare, even if we’ve had a bad day, we think: ‘We can do this.’”
Meanwhile, having been through the process of launching a brand-new product to market, Adam Murphy has some final advice for our budding entrepreneurs.
“Our very first product was a hypoallergenic moses basket which we’d developed, so we did a lot of market research,” he says. “Once we’d collected the data, we checked our ideas matched customer perception. Then, after launch, we created an online community where we could discuss our product with customers.
“Since then, there isn’t a single product we’ve launched that’s stayed the same – we’ve developed the products themselves and improved things, including packaging, colourways and even basic materials. If you’re an entrepreneur and you realise you’re not doing something the right way – then change it.”
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