075: Farm Toys Online's Julia Lowe the team, product, and focus requried to turnover £500,000 a year, mainly at Christmas

Julia Lowe is the founder of Farm Toys Online – an online only business which does just what you think – sells farm toys, online! Founded in 2008 it now turns over about £500,000 per year.

Click to Tweet: Julia Lowe let’s us know how she’s built her successful business Farm Toys Online on the @eComMasterPlan #Podcast

About the business

eCommerce Business Structure – Online Only
Product Range Scale – niche
On a Bespoke platform – also selling on marketplaces
3,000 products on the website
Based in the UK – Sell mainly in the UK but also sell globally (excluding North America)
Key widgets in the website
- Trustpilot – for reviews
- eMail Centre – for email marketing

Listen to hear how Julia Lowe got started in eCommerce

Most Awesome Thing Right Now

Julia thinks the range of toys that the sell has also been awesome but what is making Farm Toys Online is the added value they are giving to customers. They are working hard to differentiate themselves from the bigger online marketplaces.

Listen to hear more about how….

On the Radar for the Coming Months

Farm Toys Online are grouping their products into bundles to make purchasing easier for their customers – the products will be group both by brand and types. Julia is also working on bringing Farm Toys Online’s brand character Farmer Freddie to life through merchandise.

eCommerce Book Top Tip

The e-myth by Michael Gerber & Fish by Stephen C. Lundin, Harry Paul & John Christensen

eCommerce Traffic Top Tip

Julia doesn’t recommend putting all your eggs in one basket she believes the best way to market your business is through a combination of online advertising, search engine optimisation, customer database marketing, pr and social media. However, if she had to pick one she would chose Google Adwords.

You can hear about all this on the podcast, for free – right now…

Tool Top Tip

The Farm Toys Online use a fantastic team collaboration tool – chocolate brownies. The team is quite spread out so they find that meeting in person over a plate of brownies is better then any technology or online tool.

Start Up Top Tip

Julia’s top tip is to work out how you are going to market your business before you start out – work out how you’re going to launch your website and how people will find you. Look at how you are going to differentiate your business from the competition.

Interview Links

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