Atlantic Blankets
When Jo Riley moved to Cornwall from London, she was keen to set up a new business but it was not until her daughter had chicken pox that inspiration struck!
Jo says: “I had been trying to think of a business idea that would allow me to trade outside Cornwall and give me the flexibility to work from home and around the needs of my children. The answer came to me in a flash when my daughter was ill. I wanted to wrap her up in a special blanket of a kind I knew were available in Ireland and it was at that moment that I decided to set up a website selling high quality blankets.”
In October 2007, Jo launched www.atlanticblankets.com which offers a wide range of blankets, baby blankets, throws and picnic blankets. All are sourced from the UK or the Atlantic arc of Western Europe.
“The website was created by Nixon Design and they really answered the brief in terms of making it look highly professional. I wanted to make sure the business looked established from the outset and gave no hint that really it was just me in the dining room at home at that stage.
“One of the key elements was using top quality photography. This not only made the whole business look more professional, it also helped overcome one of the barriers to purchase of a blanket online, which is that a customer ideally wants to be able to feel the fabric. Many customers also want to be sure of the exact colour so it can match other soft furnishings. So a lot of effort and investment has gone into creating photography that captures the texture and depth of colour of the products.”
Jo says: “The website worked well from day one. It has full online trading functionality and I can update the details about the products and the pricing myself using the content management system.”
Having established the website, Jo’s next priority was the focus on the search engine optimisation. (SEO)
She says: “I have worked with SEO specialists, Niddocks Internet Marketing, and with their help I have made several adjustments to the content of the website and the use of keywords. That has been the main focus of our SEO activity and the website has now got to the top position in the organic rankings on Google for the search term ‘blankets’ and ‘blanket.’
“In addition, we have run Pay Per Click campaigns with Google and we have made good use of PR in the nationals and glossy interior design magazines to drive traffic to the website.
“So far, we have not focussed on inbound link building (another factor that influences search engine rankings) as much as we could and that is an area where we plan to carry out more work in future. This will help us build our search engine rankings against some of the search terms that are especially competitive, such as ‘baby blankets. We are also intending to make more use of social networking sites and are about to launch our own Facebook page.”
Jo continues: With online trading, I believe it is vital that the brand proposition carries right through the customer experience. After buying from such a gorgeous looking website, I would not want my customer to then receive a plastic bag delivery at their door. So we also invest in high quality and imaginative packaging. All the blankets arrive wrapped in special tissue paper in high quality boxes, tied with a ribbon with a shell attached, to convey the Atlantic brand concept. Trading online does not end with the order - it ends with exceeding the customer’s expectations.”
That Jo’s attention to detail pays off is indicated by the high proportion of her customers who are regular repeat purchasers.
Jo sets out to consolidate customer loyalty further by sending out monthly email newsletters and finds that an average of 65% of those who open the newsletter click through to the website.
In order to help build repeat purchases, Jo has added some extra lines to the website, such as jewellery and household items. She says: “The main focus is very much the blankets but I wanted to add some lower price point products, to add some variety and increase the appeal by making sure there is something for everyone at every price point. This helps hook people in.”
She also uses a short mail order brochure but the purpose of this is mainly as a ‘teaser’ to drive traffic to the website, where the full range is on show.
Jo says; “I could not be more delighted with the way the online trading business has gone. The growth has been phenomenal and as we can hardly now move in the house for piles of blankets, I am moving the business into an industrial unit near Wadebridge.
“The next stage will be to take the website to a more advanced level of functionality, whereby it interfaces with the back-end systems such as the stock control and the accounts. But for now, I am thrilled with the progress we have made in less than 18 months. Atlantic Blankets is now a business that can continue to grow and expand and I am facing the future with confidence and excitement.”
