Zarr's January 2005 Newsletter

Niche Retailers Succeeding Online

The value of online sales more than doubled between 2002 and 2003, according to the Office for National Statistics, and niche retailers are finding them particularly well placed to benefit from a surge in online shopping. This feature examines why niche retailers are succeeding online.

Something Peculiar
Shoppers are using the Internet to source and buy memorable gifts. Gifts available online include tractor-driving lessons, an acre of the moon and even a diamond encrusted cat collar. It really is the case that you name it, you can find it.

Passionate Customers
Imagine customers who are so passionate about your offerings that they welcome your mailings and act on them instantly. One online niche retailer recently generated over £25,000 of orders within 5 days of sending out their email newsletter. Direct marketing techniques are particularly effective by niche retailers who carefully build an opt-in email database.

Customer Knowledge
Successful niche retailers understand what their customers’ value, and develop their offering around it. This might be the facility to pre order forthcoming product ranges or giving their website visitors useful information for example an Outdoor Clothing specialist providing kit lists for mountain hikers on their website.

Extended Accessibility
Niche retailers operating online can serve a much wider physical area than their counterparts who operate a traditional purely bricks and mortar shop front. They can also serve people at their convenience so customers can browse and buy online during their lunch break, or even in the middle of the night.

Zarr work with many niche retailers who already benefit from the opportunities presented by online sales. If you know a niche retailer who could boost their sales online ask them to call Hannah on 01788 820900.  

Article: How can the web help my sales process?
Irrespective of your business type the web can play a number of roles in your sales process. In order to capitalise on the potential of the Internet you need to understand your existing sales process and identify which elements can translate and be automated by the Internet. This article discusses the way your sales process can be translated into one which works online. Click here to Read More

Zarr News: Eddie’s ready for Zarr

Zarr welcomes talented web developer Eddie Talbot to the team. Eddie is an experienced programmer who joins Zarr after working in London in the insurance industry. In his spare time Eddie created a very successful fan site for the singer Alex Parks at www.alex-parks.org. Click here to see the other members of the Zarr team.

Zarr News: More Talent Required
Zarr is seeking an additional programmer with Microsoft ASP and .NET skills to join our team. If you know someone who might be interested please invite them to participate in our online assessment. Click here to complete the test.

Zarr News: Zarr celebrates its 5th birthday
Zarr celebrates its fifth birthday on January 21st. And it's been an eventful 5 years, from our launch campaign using lollipops on the tube in London, through success in a number of business awards and last years move to new office premised.

Thanks to out clients we've doubled turnover year on year . And at least at part as a result of our work with them our clients are achieving tremendous success through the web. These include a manufacturer who achieved a £500K of sales through their website in 2004 and one retailer who was receiving 33 orders a day through their website prior to Christmas. We're now looking forward to the next 5 years!

Web Insider: Did you know Google dances?
As the web’s most popular search engine, Google has a big job to handle the literally millions of search requests per day – and delivering the results in about 1 second.

To do this they have over 10,000 web servers around the world working hard to provide you with search results. If you search for something today and then again a few minutes later, the search results may well be different – even if you searched exactly the same term.

The reason for this is that each of the 10,000 servers is updating themselves at different times. When you do a search, you’ll get back results from one of the 10,000 servers and a search a few minutes later will take you potentially to another of the 10,000 servers. This difference between servers, which means that search results can change from minute to minute, is called the “Google Dance”!

Web Insider: How to create a Successful Online Business
Would you like to know the recipe to create a successful online business? Serial online entrepreneur and Zarr’s Hannah Reynolds is presenting at a free course at Rugby’s Business Resource Centre on the 24th February. To find out more and book your place please click here.

Case Study: Modelenium  A Warwick business which supplies die cast replicas of some of the world’s most famous vehicles has found a model solution to help it go global. 2004 was the most profitable year ever for Modelenium as the company turned to the latest technology to boost its position in the global market and has already seen sales double. The business, which sells die cast models and is run by Phil Peak and his wife Maggie, turned to Zarr in its bid to become a market leader in the supply of die cast models to collectors around the world. Zarr has developed a fully automated online retail system called Zarr Retailer for businesses who want to trade online and it has proved to be the ideal solution for Modelenium, which handles orders from model collectors from the UK and the rest of Europe, USA, Australia and New Zealand. Zarr Retailer records all stock levels accurately, tracks orders and automatically produces invoices for customers, saving businesses such as Modelenium hours in administration time and freeing them up to concentrate on developing their business. Mr Peak said: “In the last year we’ve easily doubled the size of the business and the system Zarr developed for us has played a major role in that success. From an administrative point of view it’s saving us an enormous amount of time and will also help us provide a better service for our clients outside the UK and around the world which account for about 10 to 15 per cent of our client base.” “We used to get between six and 10 orders a week and now we are getting that amount in a day. The market is huge with models costing anything from a couple of pounds to hundreds of pounds and orders are coming in from around the world.” “I always felt that, as a collector myself, there was a lot of potential for a web-driven die cast model business and that is certainly looking to be the case.” To find out how your business can benefit from online sales ring Hannah on 01788 820900.

Coming Soon

Zarr’s February newsletter features how using the Internet can generate more sales from your existing customers.

Contact Zarr

If you are interested in finding out how your business can benefit from the latest web technology or if you need help with your online business strategy contact Zarr Internet Services on 01788 820900.

Unsubscribe
To unsubscribe so that you no longer receive newsletters from Zarr, please click here and click on the Go button.