Boom babyshop: Mothers on maternity leave can run their own business successfully!
Miluše Štěpánková runs an e-shop called boom-babyshop.cz, which specializes in original and quality presents for babies and parents. She started her business in December 2010 and nowadays she imports products of the American brand Pearhead to the Czech Republic and Slovakia. In the following article, we talked to Ms. Štěpánková about the successful start of her e-business.
Where did the idea to open an e-shop selling presents come from and how did it all begin?
It all began in July 2010. I was just in the second year of my maternity leave and started to think seriously about how to set a business. Most of all, I wanted to make use of my skills in an area I like and I’m also interested in. No less substantial was the possibility to organize my time flexibly to have some time for my small daughter, too. The combination of e-commerce and assortment of goods focused on children and their parents resulted from all this quite clearly. In our e-shop boom-babyshop.cz, we nowadays sell wide range of products, which become interesting presents first of all. For example I can offer nappy cakes, gift parcels, frames for imprints, memory boxes, photo album and many others.
Why did you choose FastCentrik in the beginning of your enterprising and how did you learn about us?
I chose from several providers of e-commerce solutions. Some of them were minimal cost providers and some of them provided ordinary paid solutions. After evaluating the individual offers I decided to choose from those e-shops which have elaborated functionality, guarantee development, service and customer support and whose solution is hosted and backed up. At first I looked for the information on the internet and then I met the representatives of chosen companies in person, which helped me to make a final decision.
Front page of the e-shop boom-babyshop.cz which offers presents for children and babies
In the end I chose e-commerce solution FastCentrik by company NetDirect s.r.o., because I wanted to have a quality and lasting solution in case of next development of the shop in the future, as there is a possibility to change over to higher level of functionality. Together with e-shop I use accounting system POHODA by company STORMWARE s.r.o.
Although the price of FastCentrik solution is a bit higher than the price of other providers, I chose this solution by NetDirect, because its advantages deliberately outbalance the price.
Would you choose FastCentrik again? Were you satisfied with mutual cooperation?
Yes, definitely. It all suits me - easy administration, flexible customer support and office days when NetDirect enables its clients consult their particular problems free of charge.
NetDirect offers complex services for e-shop owners. Ranging form rich functionality, possible connections to accounting and information systems, customer support and free updating to possibility get consultations and training courses SEO, copywriting etc.
An important instrument to watch our website access is also Google Analytics which we have connected with e-shop and we use it daily to optimize our websites.
Presentation of the detail of product on e-shop boom-babyshop.cz
What was the development of you online shop after it was started?
E-shop was started in December 2010 and it took the first two months after the very start until the search engines noticed us and until we managed to work out SEO optimization. After we cleared e-shop up, we put down a significant increase of access to the web and therefore also increase of buying customers. This increase is growing which is supported by perpetual work on optimization of websites, enlarging our assortment and a proper marketing.
What do you think is your e-shop original in and what distinguishes you from competition?
Primarily, we are focused on one particular group of products and we also offer high quality goods on principle. We do not want to sell all at any cost. Furthermore, we try to get almost all our goods on stock as it is important for our customers. They are often in search of a present for newly born baby, its mother or a present to baby’s first birthday in the last moment.
We also come across the practice of our customers who often call to check stock availability when buying for first time. They have bad experience with other e-shops which promise to have the goods on stock to be shipped in no time while they do not have it.
The goods in e-shop boom-babyshop.cz are very diverse and they offer nice notions to quality presents
We also look for interesting products abroad to offer our customers new and unusual goods. Recently, we have widened our assortment by token products by American brand Pearhead which we represent exclusively on Czech and Slovak markets. This brand brings a few interesting novelties to our market, which I think will became a hit at this year’s Christmas.
Except for exceptional quality and uniqueness Pearhead offers parts of its assortment in unified design collections which allows our customers to make beautiful sets according to their own choice. We are also glad that the interest of our customers is constantly increasing as they learn more about the brand.
I have also noticed that you opened micro-websites running together with e-shop. What was after it? How do these websites help you in your internet business?
We opened these websites from several reasons. Firstly, it was the support of the sales of our e-shop by linkbuilding which is very important in internet trading. Another reason was to make websites for our wholesale representation of Pearhead and to make a websites of our company boom vision s.r.o. We found the micro-websites MediaCentrik Micro as a suitable platform. What we appreciate is an easy connection to our e-shop.
Micro-websites make great support for her own e-shop which is something what Ms. Štěpánková appreciates. Look at her micro-website Pearhead
What I like at micro-websites is graphical user environment, easy administration and flexible customer support. After a several months of introducing the shop we realized how important it is to have the chance to get the customer support quickly. With NetDirect, this is not a problem, in contrast to other webmasters who are often unreachable.
How do you try to get new customers and keep the old ones?
I knew from my first thought to run e-shop that I want to sell primarily quality goods and that I want to offer the best service possible to my customers and a wide range of goods. We do not want to sell everything at all costs, we stand upon quality products also because they are aimed to the smallest, where the quality of material and health safety are very important.
The goods are often bought as a present for someone close where the quality matters not less. And according to our customers’ reactions we did the right thing. The customers really start to look for quality goods which might be a bit expensive but will serve very well for a long time – sometimes for a life time – as for example our foot prints frames, memory boxes or photo albums by Pearhead.
In retail sphere, our current content customers’ reference helps us a lot and then we try to be seen at all bigger internet goods comparison engines, on first pages in search engines, and we plan also massive advertising and promotion together with enlarging our assortment. As a wholesale we bring new goods to Czech and Slovak market, which we sale through our wholesale trading partners. This enables us to expand new brand on the market and get new customers as well.
What are your plans for the future?
We plan to wide portfolio of the e-shop by getting new brands and become a favourite supplier of present for children and their parents. As for wholesale, we want to set out brand Pearhead in Czech market and get new trading partners in Slovakia. We also plan to represent other foreign brands.
