Sellr Review

By Adam  |  7 Sep 2015 19:00:00

One of our customers has had a very pleasant experience with Sellr and wanted to put her positive feelings into words. If you've been sitting on the fence about using Sellr, then maybe reading this blog post will help you to make a decision. Anyway, I'll let the testimonial speak for itself.

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I’m Ann and I’m 50. I started school with a chalk board and Mum and Dad hired a telly to watch the moon landings.  I did not grow up with computers. I’ve learnt bits as I went along and scraped by. I can follow instructions and can make things work. As long as nothing suddenly changes I’m fine. If a screen changes for example, or a button moves position- I’m in a tail spin. Yes computers are on the edge of my comfort zone and totally outside my understand zone!

So, I had a textile supply shop in Ireland, which I ran successfully for the last eleven years. The hours were long and I worked seven days a week. Over heads were constantly rising and my margins were decreasing, I was being squeezed till my eyes popped. Added to this, mass emigration of the demographic that would spend on luxury items reduced my turn over. Then there was the continuous competition from online shops. Ireland has a very small population and is very rural.  An ever increasing number of customers reported that they had ‘just gone online’ to buy it. Price didn’t seem to be the issue- convenience seemed to be what mattered.

I employed a web designer to create a website with the ability for eCommerce. €4,000 later what I had was a very lovely but irrelevant website which nobody could find. Mia Culpa. I did not inform myself.

I got new quotes for an eCommerce site. They ranged from €4,000 to €16,000. So the investigation began. After hours of research into different options, which all seemed very complex and had loads of hidden charges, finally a personal recommendation brought me to a company called RomanCart.

RomanCart are a UK based software company that are quietly enabling the e-commerce capability for the great and the good. A quick phone call to their wonderful James was the start of a profound life changing event. I explained, in total baby language (I am inarticulate when it comes to computer speak), what I wanted to achieve. James got it and didn’t make me feel stupid, not once. And so I was introduced to ‘Sellr’. Sellr is an all-in-one software that gives you a fully designed template for an eCommerce site. This you can lease yearly or monthly.

Sellr gave me the tools to set up an online shop, without any IT skills, programming or experience of website design. All you need is an iPhone and then loads of data entry. This is tedious but NOT difficult! The guys at Sellr provided me with a great template. Then I was set to go.

This is how I did it:
- I spilt my stock into categories and then into subcategories e.g. Shoes; women’s shoes.
- Then into item groups e.g. Brogue wedges
- Then into items; Brogue wedges brown, brogue wedges blue etc.
- Each item I assigned with a unique item code e.g. brogwedbrown
- Then all you need is an image and a description and to make sure your stock amount is up to date.
- The description will appear next to the image, on the actual website.

For photos I took two old table lamps and pulled them apart. I put in LED bulbs -because they don’t get hot and then I covered the upside down shade in a translucent fabric.  Then I bought a really cheap blackout roller blind (they are off white on one side and black on the other) and a large piece of black foam board. That’s it: instant photo studio. Then with my iPhone 4s set on square and HDR ‘on’, off I went.

I uploaded the images onto my laptop and edited them in Microsoft Office Picture Manager. First select them all (shift and click on first and last image) and resize them to 600x600. Then muck about with the colour and brightness buttons until you’re happy. Upload it to Sellr for each product.

This all sounds really laborious, and it is to an extent, however using copy and paste does a lot, plus Sellr lets you copy items and item groups. Even if you had the best web designer in the world, you would still have to do this! They are not going to stock take and enter data and images for you.

One thing that really put me off getting started was the notion that I had to complete the website in order to publish it. I have almost a thousand products. NOT SO. By turning off or on a little button I decide what is visible on the website. This gave me the option to work on one category at a time and then make it visible – pure joy. It took me three weeks, but all my products are up there now!

What else does Sellr give me?
- Stock control- emails me when something gets low
- Customer database
- Invoicing
- Featured items
- Checkout with PayPal configured
- Option for processing telephone orders
- BEST of ALL- a great team of people in my time zone that will bend over backwards to help me, regardless of how DUH I’m being. Thank you, guys!

It also gives me an eBay shop and all sorts of clever social marketing. I haven’t got that far yet. That’s next week! Adam at Sellr knows all this stuff!

How has life changed for me?
 

I have little or no overheads, as I now work from home.

It’s unrecognisable. I work a few hours a day instead of 12-14. My weekends are free. I quite simply wait for the orders to come in, print off the invoice, pack the goods and send them off. I have tickets from the Post Office that I stick on and this gives me tracking. I have ‘documents enclosed’ sticky bags. I simply bring them to the post office and hand them in

I have a dog now, Jessie- who I truly adore. I pick up my orders and emails on my iPhone whilst we are out for a walk.

I am able to look after my family better and I have free time- such a luxury.

Today I wrote my first blog / info page on my website

Next week I start a part time course at Uni.

My name is Ann and my web site is www.millinerysupplies.ie. I recommend that you try Sellr!