BUSINESS WEST – CONNECTING BUSINESSES


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Extreme e-market growth for retailer


FreestyleXtreme is an action sports retailer with offices and a distribution centre in Bristol. Within six years, they have grown from a team of eight people to over 55 staff, with a projected annual turnover of over £10m. Shaun Loughlin, managing director of FreestyleXtreme, credits e-marketplaces as a fundamental part of their growth.


Giant Cornish robot conquers the world


C


ornwall’s Titan the Robot is becoming something of a global phenomenon as he continues to wow audiences across


the world. Titan’s unique blend of comedy, street theatre


and music has proved a hit across the world, with the robot having appeared in more than 40 countries. More than 60% of the company’s business now comes from international customers and that figure is set to grow. Such is the success of the act


that owners, Cyberstein Robots Ltd, have developed a total of seven Titans to keep up with demand. The growth of the act’s


popularity overseas has come as no surprise to Cyberstein Robots, which has been working hard to develop an export strategy and raise the profile of Titan and his friends with international markets. Mark Woods, head of operations and business development, said: “Titan is a hit wherever he goes. The act is very simple, very entertaining and can be tailored to any audience, and any kind of event. We’ve made appearances at everything from county shows and shopping centre openings to fashion shows and most recently the European F1 Grand Prix in Baku, Azerbaijan. He’s even appeared alongside celebrities like Rihanna, will.i.am and also three Titans went on tour with JLS. “We realised that there were huge opportunities to bring Titan to a global audience and we’ve spent the past couple of years building on that potential.” Cyberstein Robots is one of a number of companies in the region that have boosted their export potential by taking advantage of the support offered by Exporting is GREAT.


Mark added: “We’ve been working with Chris


Knight, international trade adviser from Exporting is GREAT for a number of years and since his first visit to our offices he’s been an enthusiastic supporter of what we’ve been trying to achieve. “The sheer logistics of developing an export strategy can be overwhelming, particularly for a smaller business like ours so Chris’s advice and the resources on offer have been really useful. “We’ve taken advantage


of the various courses and seminars on offer which gave us some really helpful insights into the realities of exporting and I’ve also attended a number


of trade missions which have given us footholds into new markets.” One of the first missions Mark


attended was to Dubai and Abu Dhabi,


since then the Middle East has grown to become a key market for the business. So much so that there is now a robot permanently based in Dubai. The company has also created a website specifically for the region. Titan also regularly travels to events across


Europe and the company’s most recent contract will see the robot travel to Japan for the first time.


Japan and China are key targets for the business and Mark has recently returned from a trade mission to China, which he hopes will provide a springboard for more business. He said: “We spent three weeks there and


made some great contacts. Thanks to an introduction made at an Exporting is GREAT event we also have the support of the British China Business Council which is really going to help us on our way.”


What was one of your first experiences of selling on an e-marketplace? It was probably when we started working with eBay in 2012. They had just launched their cross- border trade programme, which involved helping merchants extend their reach to global customers. Through joining that programme we were able to launch on almost all eBay stores globally, followed by all Amazon stores.


What e-marketplaces do you sell on and what type of success have you had? We sell on almost all eBay and Amazon stores globally, plus several local marketplaces. TradeMe, a New Zealand based e-marketplace, has been brilliant – we launched following the DIT onboarding programme and we went from zero to a thousand dollars within a few days of listing on the platform. Considering we are selling niche products to a small market, we never could have imagined achieving those types of sales. But we are and it’s been a similar story on La Redoute and CDiscount. My advice to brands is that you have to try these e-marketplaces, because nobody could have convinced me of the success we are having now.


What advice would you give to other retailers thinking about selling on an e-marketplace? As long as you have a plan for shipping the goods and the right in-house support, you can start selling reasonably quickly and cost effectively through e-marketplaces. E-marketplaces also show you where there is overseas demand for your product, allowing you to make a data and insight-led decision on how you expand internationally, from selling on an e-marketplace to extending your presence through a physical store or your own local website.


What type of support have you had from DIT? We received support on setting up a cooperative in Bristol, called Parcel Rate Experts, for local companies who want to ship abroad but cannot attain competitive shipping rates. Shipping costs can be a major barrier to exporting, so we decided to bring all of our parcels together in order to access reduced international shipping costs based on a higher volume of goods. Our DIT trade adviser helped us reach out to other online retailers in the area and have been great in terms of offering introductions.


JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017 insight 15


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