Case study – Equineweb.com

Equineweb.com is a website dedicated to sharing knowledge, providing information and selling equipment in relation to the sport of polocrosse (a cross between polo and lacrosse).

Problem

Tony Shearing of equineweb.com, originally used to sell polocrosse equipment ‘on the field’ at tournaments and other events. Unfortunately he and his wife found selling in this way very hard work and decided to close the business down.

However, as polocrosse equipment is very specialist, it is quite difficult to source and Tony found he was still inundated with enquiries for buying kit.

This gave him the idea to create a website where he could sell goods direct.

Solution

The IRUN eCommerce package was chosen as it suits Equineweb.com’s needs perfectly, as selling polocrosse equipment online is the main purpose of the site.

The eCommerce package includes an unlimited number of web pages, 10 email addresses and a full set of management tools which allows the client to update the site anytime, anywhere, with no special skills required.

The eCommerce package also includes everything a client needs to set up a store on their website, including a shopping cart, credit card and PayPal® processing and the ability to sell up to 1500 products securely online.

All the IRUN packages are 100% internet based so there is no software to load or update. Hosting and technical support are also included.

Result

With assistance available from IRUN’s customer service manager, Andrew Allen, Tony has built the Equineweb.com’s website himself and now has over 100 items of polocrosse equipment for sale on the site.

In addition to building the site, Tony has also attended a series of FREE 1 hour, online workshops offered by IRUN on website design, copywriting and marketing and search engine optimisation to make sure he gets the maximum benefit from the website.

The site was only launched in September 2007, but it is expected that sales through the website will make up the vast majority of the business in the future, leaving Tony free to concentrate on his business consultancy practice.

Testimonial

I operate as a consultant to the small-to-medium business sector and have previously used the IRUN package to build a relatively straightforward website to promote my consultancy practice. However, with the Equineweb.com website I needed to build an eCommerce site to enable me to sell polocrosse equipment via the internet.

With some trial and error, I managed to build the site on my own, with no training, and got everything working so that visitors can now purchase goods online, easily and securely.

Through my experience of the IRUN package, I am now able to demonstrate to my consultancy clients how easy it is to build a website, even one with a complex eCommerce function.

The website has only just been launched so it is too early to evaluate its performance. However, in the next few weeks I will be promoting the site to all my contacts, using its newsletter function. From this I hope to gain some valuable Christmas trade, as well equipment sales prior to the new polocrosse season, which starts in April 2008.

Most people don’t think they can build a website themselves, but I have shown that they can.

September 2007

Tony Shearing Equineweb.com
www.equineweb.com