Archive for March, 2007

Two posts ago we mentioned that we had been throwing around a couple of names for our new up and coming pest site.

PestHQ was our favourite and we were able to get the .com which is an important aspect for us.

Let us know what you think of the logo, we would appreciate the feedback. Tweek away!

We are in the process of giving our work space an extreme makeover which let me tell you is not the easiest task. I now know why Interior Designers exist!

In SA, when you are looking to purchase something, you need to decide whether this is going to be something that is available on the net, or whether you are going to thumb it through the Yellow Pages. Most of the time the Yellow Pages wins hands down because most businesses don't even appear online. Optimistically, you decide to start off with Google, hoping that something has miraculously changed in the last 24hours.

I'm looking for office furniture. I type in "office furniture" on Google and do a "pages from South Africa" search, and wait for the results.  There are a few SA ads that come up (well done to those companies that are taking technology by the horns), it looks promising and at this point your heart rate starts increasing. Could this be it? Is there someone who has their entire offering online? Do they have what I am looking for? You frantically click through, the design is fresh, looks like this one could be up to date - and then you realise that you still have to phone through anyway because there is no pricing anywhere. A great example is CN Business Furniture, these guys could really up their game very easily and if we had seen something we liked, we may very well have purchased it online. I know, alot of stores don't want their competitors knowing their pricing, but is this still valid argument in this day and age? If a competitor wants to know what you are charging, they'll make a plan.

This whole process could be a lot easier if stores positioned themselves online more effectively. If they realised that there IS a growing market out there; people who would like to at least start the process online. At the end of the day, I think it comes down to understanding, priority and budget.

Bfg have taken their products online, I have ordered one of these couches already. I like the fact that someone can look around and get the full extent of their offering without having to first visit the store.

Also, fatSak have done an excellent job in presenting their gigantic "beanbags" online. Well done.

We are working on a new site for our Bug Zapper and Rat Terminator products. At the moment each of these products has its own site and brand; but we want to bring them together to consolidate our marketing efforts and allow for people who are looking for one product to be exposed to our other products.

So, we have been throwing a couple of names around and having a bit of fun. Here are some of the fun ones:

Pest-A-Site
Pest Rest
Pest Cemetery - "putting your pests to rest"
Bug a Pest
Do Your Pest
Simply the Pest
The Pest End
The Pest Site Around
SA's Pest

We have a favourite which we won't post about just yet. 

Last week I was sent a gift through NetFlorist. I thought maybe it was in response to my recent post about their exorbitant spend on systems, but alas, this blog is not that famous yet. 

There was an outer brown box that took the brunt of the journey here (they use RAM, and everything seemed fine. We haven't tried them yet). Inside the brown box was a classy black box with lid, ribbon printed with the NetFlorist logo, and a handwritten card that presumably the sender had composed online.

Inside the box was a Sally Williams nougat extravaganza. Don't click the thumbnail on an empty stomache! The nougat boxes and loose items fitted snugly in the black box and were interspersed with raffia and tissue paper. In summary, it was a delight to open.

We are still working on our packaging situation, as shown by this picture where our fulfillment department is cutting a bigger box down to size. We've said it before and we'll say it again - there is a big opportunity for a box/packaging company to clean up the SA e-commerce market. We would go online today and order a bunch of different sized boxes, and we'd pay to get them here. Surely we're not the only ones who are battling?