Name of your website?Penfold Online
Your name?
Paul Davies
Your Location (city, etc)
St Columb Major,Cornwall.
Please give us a short summary of your website?
We are a young company that trades in great quality products that we believe our customers derserve.We opened the shop to get away from selling on eBay & losing far to much money to them which meant we had to put up our prices & this i didn't want to do.I beleive our customers should get the best quality that there money will buy & i strive to make this a reality always.
What inspired you to launch your own website?
The inspiration came about because the dreaded eBay were not allowing me to make any money because of there stupid & varied charges that didn't allow me to give the best deals i want my customers to have. I don't like being ripped off & i don't want our customers to be either.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
We first launched back in september 2006 with a smaller shop which as since grown into the shop we have now.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
Penfold is my long standing nickname because i apparently look like Danger mouses little sidekick Penfold.
What makes it different from other, similar offerings?
We strive to be cheaper than other shops selling the same products or variations of were ever we can. As stated before to save our customers as much money as we can without eating away at our meagre profits.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
My eventual goal is to expand the web shop into the high street & provide for my family in a better way especially as i have now become a granddad.
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
We are as everyone else is looking to make money in the long term but at the moment advertising & fees are keeping our profits to the bear minimum. I believe that advertising is the key too our success along with great prices & quality goods.
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
I would have a full page web shop instead of the one i have at the moment so i could get more about us & our goals out to our customers. It would be nice to have more advertising out on the web for our store & what we want t do t help our customers in this dog eat dog world.
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
Yes demand & supply go hand in hand with our philosophy for running our shop,we always keep enough stock available & if we cannot get it or supplies run out our shop pages will immediately portray that.
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
Thankfully at the moment none at all although the postal strikes may change that.
What has been your biggest challenge?
To set up the right kind of shop & the right kind of suppliers & stock.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
Leaflet drops ie door to door leaflet delivering.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
Its been a lot harder to do than i expected from the word go.Experimenting with different layouts & stock combinations as been hard work but i hope now we have managed to get the balance right.
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
Its now been running for 13 months & it will continue to run until i meet my personal goals which could be several years away yet.
Replace this with a question of your own
Why do you offer your service freely?
What is your website address?
Penfold Online
