Anything Left-handed

Established in 1968, Anything Left-handed is a family business offering products, services and advice for left-handed people. Owner and MD, Keith Milsom sells over 250 products online which have been tested & approved by his small left-handed team. The case tells how the business recovered from a disastrous overhaul of the ecommerce website & learnt the importance of keeping control of core IT functions in-house.

The reliability & appearance of Anything Left-handed's website are of paramount importance as it now accounts for all of turnover, since the London shop was closed in 2006. Keith therefore despaired when an apparently sound decision to outsource website development and create a sophisticated, bespoke site, backfired. He lost control of the company's key marketing channel and sales plummeted before he fought back with a superb relaunch site built in-house with ecommerce package Actinic Developer. The bespoke budget was over £30,000 and failed to deliver, whereas Keith now owns and maintains the site he envisioned - all for around £4,000. Immediately it began taking almost 50% more orders and Keith achieved sales closer to 700k in 2007.

Website: www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk Location: Surrey.

(Full story is 1531 words).