October 2011 – tweedandhickory.com

[AnonymousParticipant]

Website: http://www.tweedandhickory.com/

Description: Tweed & Hickory is a Canadian based retail company with many retail store locations in Canada. They offer a wide range of both men’s and ladies wear and fashionable apparel. They also offer a wide selection of kitchen and home merchandise, ranging from electronic appliances to foods, including their most successful “single cup” coffee business. This includes Keurig K-cups, T-discs and coffee pods, sold to thousands of regular online customers across Canada and the US.

Matt from Tweed & Hickory states, “Tweed & Hickory decided to place their business online about five years ago, and it has been growing ever since. We have seen an increase in online consumer confidence here in Canada over the last five years, starting with the creation of our site. When we began, it was well known that some Canadians weren’t as confident about the online shopping experience as most. We would like to think we have helped here with our online store and our commitment to customer service for many Canadians to bring about confidence in the developing online world. We have many ‘first-timers’ using our site as their first online shopping experience. We cherish the opportunity to increase confidence in shopping online, especially amongst other Canadians.

We are fortunate to be able to offer something in such demand (single serve coffee and tea) in Canada. Being able to offer a competitive price online, and the success of free shipping over a particular amount has become a great formula for us, and it continues to grow. We can’t say enough about venturing, and taking your business online!”

Technologies Used: Matt continued, “We are hosted with LexiConn and we utilize the ShopSite shopping cart software. An initial concern with us (on another webhost) was the inability to really fine tune the shipping charges for particular areas within Canada and the US.

LexiConn’s Custom Shipping Module for ShopSite is an absolute must for anyone who wishes to really fine tune their shipping cost process in ShopSite. It was the perfect solution to one of our only major issues with the ShopSite software itself.

The wishlist add-on is also a great addition to our store and has been a big success also.”

Advice / Tips: Matt continued, “First and foremost, be personable. Offer a toll free phone number that a customer can call, and make sure a human is answering it! This will increase customer confidence and they will return time and again.

We receive emails thanking us for how personable we are. If we have issues with someone’s order (i.e. item on backorder or out of stock), we call them, which lets them know that a real person is dealing with their order. This also speeds up your processing times as opposed to informing about backorders and shortages by email. Lots of submitted email addresses with online orders whilst valid, are sometimes rarely read or checked by the customer. By calling them, the issue can be resolved sooner than waiting on email replies.

Care about your customers! Imagine you are them and then treat them accordingly. Word of mouth is huge! It can be a great ally or your worst enemy.

Aside from a toll free number mentioned above, other things you can offer your customers are: free shipping, a testimonials page linked prominently on your site, and email marketing. You should limit your marketing to 2 emails per week maximum.”

[Author]

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