Martyn Kiddey is the Director of Shop Display Systems
"Ten years ago everyone said that the internet revolution was here. Now, ten years on and through evolution more than revolution, the internet is playing a vital role in most of our lives.
I think that the reason it has taken ten years for internet sales sites to become popular is that buyers have had to get used to taking the leap of faith required to buy something ‘sight unseen’, especially from unfamiliar companies. This is why the first successful sites were those requiring minimal risk - those selling books and DVD’s, where the product was already known to the customer and the outlay was relatively small. Many of those buyers are now blooded in this ‘new’ way of shopping. Also, today’s generation have grown up with the internet and are more prepared to take that risk. Many are reaping the benefit of it.
Ecommerce is a rapidly growing part of many companies’ sales strategy, but what makes one website more successful than another? An internet shopper, like a traditional shopper, demands customer service. Satisfying the buyer in terms of quality and price, speed of delivery and peace of mind will always be the way to achieve success.
Shop Display Systems aims to provide just that customer service in the point of sale and display market. Our aims are that our products should be easy to use, easy to order and easy on the pocket. We focus on providing the products that our name - Shop Display Systems - implies; products to display wares and promotional material. We offer free-standing, wall-mounted, suspended and table-top display systems. They encompass everything from a humble acrylic ticket holder from under £1, through poster display kits and complete shelving units, to media screen displays. It is also important to us that the vast majority of our products are manufactured in the UK, allowing us to react quickly to demand and also to monitor and maintain quality. With a rapidly growing product range, there is something for everyone.
Unfortunately, it isn’t quite as simple as that. At Shop Display Systems, we are facing a dilemma. We are new and we need to attract buyers to visit, as well as to buy from our website. We need to make our site easy to find and we want to make our prices competitive. To promote the visibility of our website we need to invest in advertising and promotion via search engines. However, this is expensive and the costs ultimately have to be borne by the customer, reducing our ability to provide the highly competitive prices that the reduced sales and administration costs of an ecommerce site should allow.
There is, however, a ray of hope. Ultimately our destiny is in our own hands. Some of the most successful sites have become popular not because of the size of their marketing budget, but because of the quality of their product and the demand for it.
Our products, we believe, offer value for money and are second to none. Our website is designed to be easy to use, to offer choices and to help people see exactly what they are ordering. Together with our focus on customer service, we hope and believe that this will encourage buyers to use us, to return to us and to recommend us; then by that other fabulously useful internet tool – email - news of our arrival can travel around the world in seconds."
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