Tim Thorp is the co-founder and head of marketing and sales at Snakehive an online only and piggy backing business selling premium mobile phone cases. They sell both via marketplaces and online store and sales split 50:50 between the them. They currently have over 1,000 skus and all products are their own design. They started selling online as Snakehive in 2011 and currently process over 7,000 orders a month.
Click to Tweet: @eComMasterPlan #podcast on the case with Tim Thorp of Snakehive who’ve used #marketplaces to grow their business
About the business
- eCommerce Business Structure – Online Only
- Product Range Scale – niche
- On a Shopify platform
- Uses marketplaces – Amazon & Ebay
- 6 people in the business – they bring in specialist for specific branding and marketing projects
- Based in the UK, sell globally (90% business in the UK)
- Key widgets in the website:
- Reviews.co.uk – for reviews
- mailchimp – for email marketing
Listen to hear how Tim Thorp got started in eCommerce
Most Awesome Thing Right Now
Tim loves the speed in which eCommerce businesses move – it makes the marketing really exciting trying to keep up to date with what’s working now as well as looking to the future. Tim also likes the fact that they have control over the design of their products and their brand – to be able to innovate and source great new products.
Listen to hear more about how Snakehive have grown their business
On the Radar for the Coming Months
Snakehive are looking at email marketing the moment – introducing a welcome sequence – having everything automated. Tim feels that they haven’t been as proactive as they could have been on social media so over the next months they will also be focussing on this.
You can hear about all this on the podcast, for free – right now…
Welcome Sequences
Snakehive are currently in the middle of developing their welcome sequence and email marketing – here are some of Tim’s top tips.
- Tim suggests using the welcome sequence to define the brand what you do differently and try and communicate this through the sequence.
- Don’t try to use the welcome sequence to cover everything, for Snakehive the welcome sequence is not about selling.
- Align the welcome sequence with your website.
eCommerce Book Top Tip
Re-work by David Heinemeier Hansson and Jason Fried
eCommerce Traffic Top Tip
Tim recommends Google Shopping Campaigns and Google Adwords – you need to invest time to test and trial but he believes it will bring anyone traffic.
Tool Top Tip
Tim couldn’t live without Keepass – it’s a free, open source tool – it stores all your passwords and logins.
Start Up Top Tip
Tim suggests that you make sure whatever business you go into you have passion for it as well as ensuring there is a demand for. He feels passion gives you a real competitive edge.
If your business didn’t exist, which eCommerce Business Would you like to be Running?
Tim would like to work in an eCommerce app development business.
Interview Links
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