Big Wednesday
Big Wednesday was established as a surf shop in Falmouth in 1987 by the current owners, John and Wendy Brook, and has become firmly established and popular over the last eighteen years. It sells a large variety of watersports equipment and surf clothing and is regarded as the leading surfshop in South West England.
The company has received a total of £8600 from actnow, to help fund the investment in broadband and IT as it expands it eCommerce operation.
The support from actnow has been through a series of four separate applications, with actnow providing additional funding as the company has developed its use of IT. The initial application provided funding for a computer and software, followed by a website, then expansion into eCommerce and most recently, development of the eCommerce website to integrate the back office and despatch functions.
With support from actnow, Big Wednesday went into online retailing in 2005, originally in a small way with one member of staff working from home. It soon became evident that the demand could not be handled by one person, and so another newly qualified graduate joined him. They were accommodated in a newly developed office, together with a warehouse for the stock.
Over the last year the online business outgrew its original premises, and moved into a new warehouse more than twice the size of the original one.
The staff has doubled to four, and in addition specialists are brought in when needed to assist with the technology involved in the expansion of the operation. Again, actnow was able to help fund the large investment involved with the software and hardware.
Company Secretary Wendy Brook says ‘We think that the rapid growth and success of the website is partly owing to the quality of the advice provided by our in-house experts, who have a comprehensive knowledge of both the products we sell and E-Commerce. Customers online can get live advice on products and technical matters, and the site is easy to use, so much so that the Sunday Telegraph chose the site a being the best surfing site in the UK in their opinion, and wrote and published a quarter page article promoting it. Wonderful free publicity! All these factors have helped this new venture to become a considerable market force within a short space of time.’
Wendy continues ‘Where next? It's a whole new world, and events are happening so fast! To expand at such a pace is an amazing achievement. We are currently listed in the top six surfing sites on the search engines. Our aim is to develop Bigwednesdaysurf.com into the online market leader, and to achieve this by giving the best advice, on an easy, user- friendly site which is secure, and offers the best range of products and service. You can even sell your used board on our site for no charge whatsoever, you can get friendly and free live advice, and of course you can find out where the surf is working via links to webcams worldwide. We are always looking for more services to offer on our website, so innovative ideas will be incorporated as we go along. Everyone at Bigwednesdaysurf.com is enjoying the exciting challenges that each day brings, and is delighted that this venture is rapidly becoming another success story for Cornwall.’
Additional support from actnow will allow Big Wednesday to purchase new software and computer systems to expand the online business further, integrating the back office and despatch systems. The company now plans to recruit an additional employee to handle the anticipated increase in demand.
Wendy says ‘Broadband has enabled us to transform our business, so that the eCommerce website now fully complements our existing retail business. We purchase from most of our suppliers online and use broadband all the time for research so it helps us stay at the cutting edge. actnow have helped us invest in our future in the e-retail market, which is showing exponential growth. The current forecasts for 2010 are that online will account for 30% all retail sales – but forecast figures for all previous years have been exceeded, so who knows?’
Wendy spends the majority of her time working from home, where she also has a broadband connection. ‘Because of broadband, I can work from home as efficiently as if I were in the office’ she says. ‘Not only has broadband revolutionised the business, it has revolutionised the way we work. The flexibility it brings means that we can work smarter. It’s an exciting future and actnow have helped us take control of it.’
