E-commerce Case Studies
With several thousand live sites, Actinic Ecommerce software is the backbone to many successful businesses. The following case study examples highlight the challenges customers have faced and the success they have achieved with the help of Actinic solutions. To see more customer example sites.
4little1s
Becoming a mother has many joys but for some there’s one big drawback: not being able to earn a living -- while the children are small at least. Christianne James gave up working as a city banker when she was 30 and her first baby arrived. Ten years on and with another child in the family, she needed to pay for their school fees but couldn’t find a part-time job near her Surrey home. Starting an online store selling products she knows about therefore made sense. So in March 2008 www.4little1s.com was born offering a beautiful array of unusual baby bedding, baby gifts and also an exciting range of nursery furniture. Now the turnover is around £120,000 and heading for double that in the next 12 months.
4Little1s.com – From Banker to Baby Gear E-tailer
“Being a mum at home and looking after two small children means that while they are at school I have a few hours free. A home-based business seemed the ideal opportunity and fitted in around my available time. It means I can still do the school run and be there when they are not well.”
Christianne explains.
The ecommerce site offers a wide variety of stylish mother and baby products, some handmade and sourced locally, some specifically hand crafted and made to order in California, plus other unusual items from around the world with prices ranging from a few pounds up to £2,000. The range is constantly evolving as Christianne reveals:
“I have been attending trade shows and am continually on the lookout for new innovative and inspiring products. Where I can, I support fair trade and organic produce and I am also conscious of the volume of unnecessary packaging, so I aim to keep this down.”
Christianne picked Actinic’s ecommerce software after a fellow website owner recommended it:
“Actinic not only allows us to run our business but is also a core tool in our content management, order processing and SEO. The fact we were able to get our online store trading in a very short space of time was down to the software being able to deliver a working, professional-looking and efficient system without having to be a technical guru.”
The web store was built with Actinic’s popular ecommerce software by website design agency, Bern Internet. It cost around £7,000 in total, but took only a couple of months to get everything in place, including sourcing suppliers, creating the product database with photos and setting up a payment service provider. The resulting site is easy for customers to navigate and Christianne has no problems keeping it up-to-date on a daily basis:
“Maintenance of the website, general paperwork administration and orders keep me busy for around four hours a day, which fits in around my day just righ,”
Christianne comments.
As for sales, learning about search engine optimisation (SEO) and online marketing, including using Google Ad words, Microsoft Ad Centre and swapping links with related sites is now paying dividends.
“Online promotion has been via a combination of Pay Per Click (PPC) and natural ranking,”
says Christianne.
“We do well with organic search as Actinic does the hard work for us and we just top up our presence periodically with the PPC.”
As a result the turnover has risen from £20,000 in the first year to approximately £120,000 in year three and is expected to double over the next 12 months. And from the start 4Little1s has returned a healthy profit to cover those school fees.
Top tips from Christianne James:
- Just do it! Taking the first step is the hardest part
- Select easy-to-use ecommerce shopping cart software. One that can cope as your business grows.
- Enthusiasm for your business is catching!
- Set objectives for your business and stick to them.