So Unusual’s Kerry Williams just 7 weeks live, has LOTS of great advice for us all. Even non start ups (episode 051)

23rd May by Ellie

Kerry Williams is the creator and owner of So Unusual. She uses her background in interior design to scour the world for a unique and limited edition homewares collection. Everything about the business is heavily focused on the customer, the site launched just 7 weeks ago and is currently fluctuating from 2 to 38 orders a week.

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About the business

eCommerce Business Structure – Online Only
Product Range Scale – VERYniche
On a WordPress platform
Based in the Australia, sell in Australia
Product Range 90% European 10% US
Key widgets in the website:
- WooCommerce – for eCommerce
- eWay – for payments
- Facebook WordFence – for security
- Yoast – for SEO]
- A wishlist plugin that they have modified so customers can vote for products they would like to see back in stock.

Listen to hear how Kerry Williams got started in eCommerce

Most Awesome Thing Right Now

Kerry thinks there are 2 really exciting things about her business right now – first the product point of difference. She checks all of her products to ensure they are not available anywhere else in Australia and she has completely exclusivity. The other thing is her real customer focus. So Unusual offers free shipping to anywhere in Australia – which you can appreciate is not cheap. They also offer a 100% happy guarantee, if a customer is unhappy with their product for any reason they can return it with no quibbles.

Listen to hear more about So Unusual’s first 7 weeks in business

On the Radar for the Coming Months

Since launching So Unusual Kerry has realised that the to do list is pretty much endless. But, top of the list at the moment is continuing to build a loyal subscription base and sourcing new and exciting things.

Top Tip on Product and Cashflow

Kerry recognises the important of keeping her product range fresh and in line with what her customers want. She recommends that if you see that something is not a good seller, respond quickly, don’t hesitate. You need to get rid of that stock as soon as possible even if it means making a slight loss. You will have a better cashflow in the business and can with replenish with stock that sells.

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

eCommerce Book Top Tip

Kerry’s top book tip is that if you have a day off work – take the day off – don’t think about your business, don’t read a business book. Pick up a page turner – a mystery or a trashy romance novel and recharge your batteries.

eCommerce Traffic Top Tip

Kerry has found the best tools for generating traffic for her business are Facebook and remarketing (both through Google and Facebook). Not only do these tools generate traffic but also provide vast quantities of data allowing you to optimise your adverts. In just a few weeks Kerry has drastically reduced her Facebook ad costs by examining the platform statistics.

Tool Top Tip

Kerry recommends Evernote not only does it help her plan her day – but it is also a great place to store any ideas for use at a later date. She can also use it to give instructions to her husband, who helps out with all the techy web stuff, as he doesn’t work full time in the business these can then be accessed when he has time to work on the site.

Start Up Top Tip

Kerry’s first Start Up tip is that however long you think it is going to take to launch your business – triple it. She found so many unexpected things cropped up and that maybe her expectations were a little unrealistic. Kerry recognises that she could have reduced some of the start-up stress if she had given herself more time.

Her second tip is to be flexible with your marketing plan – when she launched So Unusual Kerry felt that Pinterest would be her best traffic tool – it wasn’t -so it is a good job she kept her marketing plan fluid.