Month: February 2011

New delivery options

Mail order new delivery service.

Hello,

More new developments in our liqueur business this past week which will have a postive impact on our mail order business.

We have been using a delivery company for several years which has a depot near us. Locally, the staff are terrific. Sadly for them and us, their care and attention to looking after our goods does not extend to the other depots in the UK. What this means is that last November and December it seemed that we were constantly getting into difficulties with getting our mail orders delivered to the right address and arriving intact.

During January I investigated several Courier companies so that we could have an alternative service ready. The company that appears to have the best option for us and our customer is FedEx. So, from March onwards, I will be using FedEx for some of our orders and will see how they get on. There’s nothing like trying out a service to really work out how the process for delivering our orders actually works the way we and our customers expect.

Spring weather has arrived in Helensburgh – out for a bike run yesterday, the first of the year. Not long now until Easter and the real start of our year.

All the best. Roy Lewis

E-bay options

Selling Atlantic Gold Scotch Whisky on E-bay…..and an alternative.

Hello,

Recently I have been listing the Atlantic Gold and Calvay Mist whiskies on E-bay. This generated a few sales and a lot of interest, so I am going to list them on or main site too.

Selling on E-bay is a bit odd for this type of item. You are only allowed to list the bottle or decanter, not the contents and it has to be a collectible. Even so, there seem to be lots of items that are really quite normal and non-collectible there also. Have a look sometime and see what there is. The listings change all the time and occasionally there are some really unusual and very desirable items .

The next thing I am thinking about is putting our standard liqueurs on E-bay. It’s just an experiment but you never know what might happen. I have been pleasantly surprised by the reaction to the Atlantic Gold Whisky – 2 bottles sold already and another one going live today.

During my E-bay research, I have come across an alternative, but similar sounding site called eBid. The difference appears to be that on eBid, there are no listing fees. The charges come in if you actually sell an item – I think I will give it a go and see what happens.

Horrible winter weather here in Argyll – I think I prefer the cold and dry days.

Have a good weekend – all the best, Roy Lewis

New multi-buy options coming soon on our webiste

New liqueur combinations soon to be featured on our website.

Hello,

Last year we saw a big increase in the number of customers ordering a selection of different liqueur brands in one order. This was the case even after free delivery was offered on orders over £18.

On our website, we do not currently cater for this type of order. that is all about to change as I am going to have a number of the most popular combinations available online and offline, for you to order. The multi-buy option will now comprise 4 x 50cl bottles and will include free delivery.

By ordering a multi-buy, you will not only get a good deal on the price but also be able to order your favorite liqueur for yourself and some for birthdays coming up. Or you could just keep them all for yourself!

If you have any ideas on offers we can set up that would be attractive to you, please get in touch and I will see what can be set up.

For 2010, the top offer asked for was the Liqueur Cakes. They were priced at £5 each or free if you ordered several bottles of liqueurs at full price.

Running up to Christmas, I gave away some Christmas Puddings to our top customers who were ordering over £100 worth of liqueurs.

Easter is not far away so look out for our Easter Special Deals on our website.

Kind regards,   Roy Lewis

Customer Survey time

Customer survey coming soon to find out what else I can offer that will be attractive to our mail order customers.

January is normally fairly quiet for the Liqueur business. Most of the time, it’s just sorting out administration from last year. This year I’m thinking of ways to improve our mail order service and have decided to ask our regular customers via an online survey.

From about November last year, a paper survey was included with each order – a fair number have now accumulated and the results are very interesting. One of the most popular requests was for a ‘Free delivery’ option.  This was implemented in November and  resulted in more orders and happier customers, so that is top of the list for this year once I have worked out the best way offering this.

Another area I am looking at is how to ensure that the orders arrive in good condition. Some other mail order companies spend a lot of time and effort on this and I will be analysing what they do and then incorporating the best ideas for our own online and offline mail order business.

If you have any mail order experience as a customer that you think would be useful to me, please get in touch – all comments and ideas welcome.

From time to time I will be focusing on business tools that I come across that improve efficiency, cut costs or help sell more goods. Look out for these ‘tools of the trade’ especially if you too have a business like mine.

All the best. Wild weather here today – hope it calms down for the weekend as I’m off on the ferry from Oban to Coll.

All the best.   Roy Lewis