The cheek of it!

[quikshop]

A heads up to all my fellow eCommerce service providers in the community, EKM are currently running a cold-calling campaign targetting shops hosted by other service providers.

I had a very excited young lady on the phone this morning trying to convince me to change my shop to EKM. I let her speak for a few minutes before putting her out of her misery, but their strategy of targetting our clients is quite aggressive.

We've just completed an import routine that can load product data from the standard EKM product export file, so we will be returning the compliment in the coming months and talking to their customers.

And here I was thinking the eCommerce service provider market was professional with respect amongst providers :p

[awebapart.com]

Cold calling competitor's clients, especially competitors offering a superior service like your service, just stinks of desperation, and I'm shocked that EKMPowershop are resorting to this, and in some ways I feel let down that I have mentioned them in the past on this forum as companies offering similar services to our service.

In some ways it is good news for us, since it is inferring that they are desperate, and they might be spending more money and effort on aggressive selling rather than improving their service.

When you have your EKM import feature make sure you mention it on your site, so that your site comes up in google for EKMPowershop. In fact you could extend you comparison page to include a comparison/review with EKMPowershop to get more search engine traffic that way. It shouldn't be that difficult getting traffic from people searching for EKMPowershop, a recent thread here on EKMPowershop (http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=39904), in which your service was talked about in a good light compared to EKM, is currently position 14 on google when you search for EKMPowershop.

[quikshop]

In some ways it is good news for us, since it is inferring that they are desperate, and they might be spending more money and effort on aggressive selling rather than improving their service.

Agreed, it does smack of desperation in the face of increasing numbers and quality of competition.

We'll certainly make a play of our EKM product import feature but I think the only way to undermine this type of company is to continue improving our own service to give shop keepers what they need to make a success of their own businesses, rather than the impersonal automated approach favoured by some.

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As the market saturates only the best will survive. But this can mean the best marketed for a while but that can only do so much.

From my understanding EKM had a good position for a while but is now dropping off the pace quite rapidly.

If the person who rang was anything like the woman that phoned me about 5 weeks ago - and I have no real web site to speak of - I would not worry to much. They might have well as got someone to phone me up with the aim of discouraging me to buy it.

She knew nothing. Job done. Put off.

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"And here I was thinking the eCommerce service provider market was professional with respect amongst providers"

Forget it - respect maybe - but this is the world of business.:eek:

[quikshop]

"And here I was thinking the eCommerce service provider market was professional with respect amongst providers"

Forget it - respect maybe - but this is the world of business.:eek:

Well it was a tongue in cheek comment, but interestingly BT are now starting to ramp up the online marketing of their own ecommerce shop service so its all getting a bit tasty out there.

The biggest thing us smaller players can offer which gives us a distinct advantage is the personal touch and being able to react quickly to change requests.

Paul's service, www.awebapart.com (http://www.awebapart.com) offer the same sort of hand-holding service to ours at no extra cost. If BT's 'legendary' service levels for their telephone or broadband offerings go, we've not got much to worry about.

[Comspec]

BT could do with concentrating on the services they do have - and getting these better - before they go tramping into other peoples area.

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Getting tasty all over in the ecommerce world.

Time to think about opening a corner shop. Its turn might be coming aroound again.

[Hedgie]

Had words yesterday with EKM. I told them their setup costs of £49.95 was putting myself and other off when the competition does not charge a setup fee. The salesman on the phone said all he could do is offer me 4 months traffic analytical software and a free domain transfer.

Very pushy sales approach as well.

[boho]

I think the set up fee costs are ok if you get something for it, I paid a set up fee with mine with quikshop (http://www.internetretailer.biz) above and have no complaints, but Ekm have a lot of other hidden costs that only come to light as you start trying to set a shop up, such as charging for email accounts, so I think their set up fee is slightly more questionable as I'm not convinced there is anything much they actually do set up and which isn't just automated.

Lol, Page - sorry don't think that corner is going to be turned again, it's much more convenient to shop online than on the high street, it fits with peoples busier lifestyles, also from a perspective of running a business it's also far easier to get a decent work/life balance running a business online as well :p

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Hey whats this my first wheel thing that has appeared with your post.

Stretching those wings?
Good Luck

I might hang some of those items above the tins of beans at £1.30 and the well past their best fruit and veg.
Trade in the corner shop has been slower than expected but I think it will take time for people to adjust to this "new" way of doing business.
But I believe that with advertising and good customer service that I can expect excellent repeat sales and steadily growing sales.
After all my customer base includes all 5 immediate streets which amounts to some 125 households.

[boho]

Lol, bit off topic there eh Page ;)

Yes I also own and run several businesses (like many others on ukbf), my signature wouldn't let me alter it beyond the one for some reason before, I also have a handmade chess set business and I'm a Procurement and Contracts consultant. I also design and make my own jewellery and am in the process of launching my own brand. Not sure that there is anything unusual in being enterprising or owning multiple businesses? The thing with online retail is that it fits a lifestyle flexibly unlike a high street store which people expect to be open 9-5 etc.

Not sure I understand what you're hanging where above the beans or why :|.
I do know my greengrocers down the road from me has a captive market from 6am - 8pm though, he opens in time for those of us to trot past him and buy fruit on the way to the gym, or for work and stays open late enough for most people to get home from work and decide what they are eating, and he's got the most amazing selection I've ever seen, so always gets my business instead of the supermarket. Corner shops need to be prepared to work long hours in comparison to the high street and generally carry a combination of better quality produce and items not so easily got elsewhere or from the local garage at a time when everyone else is shut, so that they become and invaluable community resource.

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I am going to hang some of those first wheel things up from a hook in the cross beam. The sales of parrafin heaters seems to be falling off and I am sure that I can make better use of the space.

Maybe you are to young to remember what old corner shops were like.:eek:

Nice mix of businesses that you are running there.

[boho]

Lol, you'd have a job hanging one of my quad bikes from your beams Page - My First Wheels is a childs Ride-onToys & Pedal Toys shop, the bike and quads are a bit heavy for stringing up in the old corner shop, you'd end up getting sued when one landed on someone :eek: .

Don't think I'm too young for corner shops, I'm 33, and I grew up in a country village so corner shops, farm shops and the local sweet shop which also doubled up as a corner shop was all we had, and I loved it, I think it's a shame the big supermarkets have driven most of these shops out of business, nearly all fruit, veg, meat and eggs when I was growing up was obtained locally from local farms, none of this pre packaged rubbish full of chemicals and my parents still to this day have a veg patch, a greenhouse full of tomatoes, cucumber, peppers etc and a collection of fruit trees and they buy their meat and eggs from the farm shop in one of the next door villages :)

[emerchant]

No kidding, your not the only one who has spotted this, maybe they are getting desperate:
http://www.easywebstore.co.uk/ekmpowershop

Also offering free analytics software, doesnt google analytics offer this for free anyway?

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you'd end up getting sued when one landed on someone.

Viniger and Brown Paper should sort out any injuries.