This week we spent some time catching up with Expandly user James (owner of The Gem Tree) and talked Gems, crystals and multichannel selling – ooo sparkly!
Talk Gems to Me – What is The Gem Tree?
The Gem Tree is the jewel of every new aged online shopper’s basket. Starting out in 1996 in Leicestershire, it soon expanded to retail outlets before deciding to embark upon an online and mail order only journey; and it hasn’t looked back!
But that’s not the only cut to this sparkling store – Over to James to explain more:
We’re a new aged store offering so much more than gemstones: With crystals, divination, spells, candles and magic oils to buy, there’s definitely more to us than meets the eye.
Why Multichannel Selling?
We’re online and mail order based only, meaning that multichannel selling really is imperative for us. We added sales channel progressively; starting out with our own website, expanding onto eBay and then being invited onto Amazon. Being available on each of these channels allows new and old customers to find us easily and on a website they’re comfortable with.
Why Expandly?
We were already multichannel selling when we found Expandly, using a competitor’s software, which provided us with less support but at four times the cost. As a small business, we feel that Expandly has us in mind in terms of the tools, pricing and personal service.
How has Expandly Benefited you – The Benefits of Multichannel selling
Expandly helps with all of our order management and inventory management. It simply has all of the tools we need for multichannel selling, without a myriad of options that we, as a small business, don’t need for multichannel selling (and don’t want to pay for!)
Favourite Expandly Feature
We love the Royal Mail label integration; it’s such a simple yet effective feature of the Expandly system and makes a laborious task so much simpler. We must also praise the Expandly customer service; absolutely top notch, super fast and responsive to any issue we’ve had.
What’s Been TGT’s Biggest Achievement?
That’s really difficult to say because we’re proud of everything we’ve achieved but developing into a supplier for other businesses was an extra special milestone for us to celebrate.
Where is The Gem Tree Branching Out Into?
We really want to expand further into the wholesale and the manufacturing side of things.
Advice for those starting out and thinking about multichannel selling.
Do it! We have definitely seen and reaped the benefits from multichannel selling and we don’t plan to stop. Multichannel management software like Expandly makes things much easier and their help guides and support ticket system are there to take any stresses you do have, away.