005: Prezzybox's Zak Edwards on how to grow in a highly competitive category

Zak Edwards is the managing director of Prezzybox. Prezzybox is a multiaward winning UK Online Only eCommerce business. Specialising in retailing gifts. Prezzybox.com is the complete online gift solution. Zak has been running the business for the last 15 years (since founding it in THE YEAR 2000).

Gifts is one of the most competitive merchandise categories in the UK – hear how Zak has navigated these turbulent waters for more than a decade.

Click to tweet: Hear how Zak has grown Prezzybox since 2000 on @eComMasterPlan Podcast today

About the business

eCommerce Business Structure – Online Only
Product Range Scale – in the middle
On a bespoke platform
- Highly rates Shopify
- (Amazon webstore service – not currently available to new customers)
Turnover approaching £5 million
20 people in the team – including customer services
Based in the UK, primarily sell to the UK
Key widgets in the website:
- Reviews.co.uk – for reviews
- Attraqt for merchandising of the categories

Most Awesome Thing Right Now

4 goats and a dog.

The way we work – always try and have fun in the office, empower the team to express themselves and enjoy their job. Bringing that to everything Prezzybox does is key to succeeding in the competitive marketplace.

Most recent test was the Father’s Day campaign – iSpy dad

On the Radar for the Coming Months

Launching the “kids pundits” campaign – kids video reviewing the products
Learn to Earn – testing a system for kids to spend their rewards for attending school on PrezzyBox products. To even out cashflow throughout the year.

eCommerce Book Top Tip

Trust Me, I’m Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator by Ryan Holiday

eCommerce Traffic Top Tip

Use the free social media tools. Especially Instgram – and commit to it in order to get the flywheel effect.

Tool Top Tip

Trello – Infinitely flexible. Incredibly easy to use. Great mobile apps. It’s free. Trello keeps track of everything, from the big picture to the minute details.
Google Apps – Gmail, Spreadsheets, Word Docs etc

Start Up Top Tip

Have a plan.
Don’t be afraid to outsource.
Use as many of the free/cheap tools as you can before starting to spend.

If your business didn’t exist, which eCommerce Business Would you like to be Running?

Within the sector – Firebox
Any business – innocent smoothies
In eCommerce – take over a business in a really dull and boring sector and make it fun, eg Dry Rot Installation!

Interview Links

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