Earlier this week we launched a refreshed website for Inkfast, the online printer ink and toner business we started out the back of our newsagency four years ago. We created Inkfast to capture printer ink and toner sales which we could not get in our newsagency, especially business and government sales.
Inkfast has performed well, attracting business across the country from single cartridge orders delivered to homes through to orders from government departments worth thousands of dollars.
I think that newsagents wanting to chase online business need to do so away from the shingle of a newsagency. Whether we like it or not, the term newsagency has many preconceived opinions and biases around price, range and competitiveness attached to it. People buying ink and toner online are looking for something different be it price, range, speed of delivery or delivery to the door convenience.
The online world is different and offering newsagency products and services online under a newsagency name will do little more than serve the existing newsagency customer base. Sure, it is a feel good to be online but does it really drive incremental traffic. I see little value in slicing existing traffic and reducing shop visits.
Going online is all about finding new customers who live and shop online and are unlikely to walk through your front door. This is best achieved by running the online business separately from the bricks and mortar business.
If you research online businesses you see that strong brands have a value proposition different to what you see in the bricks and mortar world. The Inkfast value proposition is speed, it’s there in the name. This is backed by our support for brand name product at highly competitive prices. Through Inkfast we have connected with customers we could never have reached from our newsagency.
Personally we have a nationally branded online ink store and a Newsagency web site…the later came as a result of customer enquiries …today both are needed and do well…and at the end of the day it is about offering convenient and relevant shopping experiences for our customers….and wherever the customer is you must seek them out…..it is simply not a case of build it and they will come…Having said that it is our experience for the Newsagency site that we would have missed many sales had we not built the web store, indeed it now supports us sending staff into local business’s & schools where they order product online from our Newsagency store, when in the past they had purchased from more nationally orientated brands like Officeworks…at the end of the day our prices are cheaper, our service faster and we are part of the local community….and Newsagency still stands for that…but at the same time the Newsagency needs to offer competitive services and web stores are now part of that mix. Not all consumers are driven by specific product focus and brand, they really prefer price, service and convenience…as do we all…The advantage the Newsagency has is also its local physical presence.
I also have an interest in xenex web solutions that does many retailer web sites, so I could be considered biased, but my own sale results speak for themselves…They keep us ahead of the trends in service and sales despite changing retail conditions….In both instances we have had to promote these sites through various marketing strategies.
http://www.bfnews.com.au
http://www.ink2go.com.au
Mark, if you don’t mind saying, do you use Google Adwords to advertise your site and how many sales a day are made through it on avarage?
James, We used AdWords heavily for the first two years and have been free of this for the last two years.
Sales per day vary. It can be as low as five and as high as thirty. Volume can vary from one cartrige to fifty in one drop.
Mark I commend you for being candid about what you are doing in your business. Not many people are as open.
I am now thinking about going into an online business but not in ink. Where can I learn more along the lines of what you have done with Ink fast?