If you’ve ever yearned to hop onto a wicker basket-topped bicycle before wending your way along lanes bordered by wildflowers, then take a trip to the Devon coast, because Bikelands in Exmouth is the shop for you.
But Exmouth is – how to put it – a heck of a long way from most of the rest of the country. And although they chose their town carefully when they opened four years ago, Bikelands founders Rebecca and Stuart Hayward realised quickly that no matter how much of a destination they made their bike shop, they would need to rely on e-commerce to make a viable living. Selling and marketing their products online has been, and continues to be, a steep learning curve. It is also an opportunity the Haywards are determined not to miss.
“We get bombarded with companies saying ‘we can improve your search engine optimisation, or SEO’” says Rebecca Hayward. “But how do you tell who to go with?” So far, she’s worked out how to “feed the website”, so it rises up Google’s search results, under her own steam.
Maintaining the Bikelands website as an up-to-date and attractive online portal where people can browse and buy takes up “an awful lot” of her time, she says, plus a substantial element of Bikelands marketing is also done via social media. “We do blogs and [then post them to Twitter and Facebook] and I take lots of photos and put them on Instagram. The social, fun, family side of things always gets lots of likes and you have to sort of sneak in the products.” she explains.
The Bikelands customer base has undoubtedly widened since the couple started selling online, and they now deliver bikes and accessories to London and Scotland as well as closer to home. But they have not neglected their real life customers, and the couple run regular bike rides for cycling enthusiasts, which Rebecca then writes about for the blog.
Technology: the best chance of survival
Martin Leamon, director of business development and alliances at Web.com, says the company’s research shows that small business owners can feel conflicted about the role of technology.
“Just under two thirds (61%) of respondents to our nationwide survey said technology poses a significant threat to their survival, and half said it can get in the way of providing a personalised experience to customers,” he explains. “Nevertheless, 88% of small businesses Worldpay heard from said understanding and embracing new technology represents their best chance of survival. The internet and a broad selection of social media platforms are becoming vital marketing tools and techniques to compete in today’s market.”
Though a walk down the high street often shows boarded up, empty shopfronts, those businesses may not have collapsed, but simply changed how, and where, they sell. “Retail wars are no longer won on the high street,” says Andrew Fowkes, head of retail centre of excellence for analytics software company SAS UK and Ireland. “The battlegrounds today are in fact understanding customer preferences, behaviours and what makes them loyal,”
At high-end fashion business Jules B, which launched as a single boutique in the Jesmond area of Newcastle 27 years ago and now has seven shops across the north east, the priority is understanding and catering to their different types of customer. Customer data is carefully analysed and profiled, explains head of e-commerce Tom Jeffrey, so that online shoppers get a personal service. “We want our online customers to have as good an experience as those who visit the boutiques in person.”
The e-commerce website was a big investment nine years ago. E-commerce may be an opportunity, but to do it well doesn’t come cheap. Data analysis certainly means that Jules B can, for example, tailor offers to individual customers, and provide instant feedback to buyers on their decisions – as well as the chance to restyle a collection that’s not doing so well – but Jeffreys warns against getting too obsessed with minute detail. Drilling down to how long someone has been looking at a particular frock may be interesting, but may not inform decisions that drive sales.
Given its slick online operation, why doesn’t Jules B move off the high street completely? The fact that some customers like being able to go into a real shop is one factor. Another is pragmatic: certain brands won’t supply the company without a physical shop. “But effectively,” says Jeffreys, “the stores are mini-warehouses for the web.”
A match made in heaven
Interestingly, a strong online presence may, for some businesses, actually bolster sales in physical stores. “Customers are used to browsing online before visiting a store, ordering or reserving items online to collect, and may browse in-store then order online for next day delivery,” says Steve Borges, co-founder of Biglight, a customer experience agency that helps some of the world’s biggest brands deepen customer engagement and drive sales. “Retailers who have harnessed digital to deliver value and convenience to their customers have seen dramatic growth as a result and are opening stores, not closing them.”
At the other end of the country from Jules B, bookseller William Pryor says that his business, Bookbarn International, situated just south of Bristol, is fundamentally dependent on both a physical cafe-bookshop and an online selling arm in order to function. Having taken over a failing secondhand book business, Pryor buys books by the tonne, and sells the heavy ones, that go over the £2.80 maximum that platforms like Amazon allow him to charge for postage, in his shop. People enjoy coming for coffee and events, and will buy these books for a pound apiece. The rest Pryor sells via the web.
He couldn’t make the business work on the high street in his hometown of Bath, where rents are “horrific”, but he’s doing nicely on the A37, which gets drop in trade from locals and tourist buses on the way to Glastonbury.
By contrast with Bikelands, Pryor doesn’t need to spend much on marketing, as Amazon, Ebay, Libris and other online booksellers do that for him. He has, however, had to invest substantial sums in tailored software that can price books dynamically by comparison to other online sellers worldwide. It also offers a robust stock monitoring function, without which he might not be able to honour orders, and would likely see his top-reviewed rating by customers plummet.
The cafe and physical book sales pay the rent on their premises, and the e-commerce – of which 40% are international sales – does the rest. “We couldn’t separate them out” says Pryor.
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