Do you sell children's products? Defend yourself against kitsch!

Bamadoo.co.uk, a store founded four years ago on the Shoper platform, took aesthetic minimalism as its direction from the beginning. Today it tells how image consistency translates into credibility.

Remember who you are selling to

Setting up a store is usually preceded by an analysis of competitors' sites. Looking at other stores in the children's industry, just 4 years ago you could get nystagmus from colorful graphics, a multitude of cartoon characters or animals in the background of the store. - I asked myself then: who buys in such a store? After all, not children, but adults. That's why at Bamadoo we focused on limiting colors, no backgrounds, and developed our own icons and the finest details consistent with the entire visual identity," says Oliver Wrona, the store owner. Maintained in white and blue, the site gives the impression of being professional and calm, the colors do not overwhelm the product images.

Learn usability from the more popular

A priority for Bamadoo from the beginning was the transparency of the site, good exposure of all possible forms of contact with the company and intuitive layout of the most important elements. - Intuitive, in my opinion, is one that the customer is familiar with from other large and popular stores where they shopped before coming to us. It's not worth introducing innovations that might confuse the customer, unless our brand is already so strong that it sets new trends. But even in such a situation I would be cautious," explains Wrona.

Consistency across all channels

In parallel with the e-shop, the owner has opened a showroom in Warsaw, which is both a stationary store and a reception point for orders from the e-shop. - The showroom plays a very big role not only in sales, but in image. The building's signage and color scheme are consistent with the online store. Customers already seeing our headquarters on the website have no fear of making a purchase online," explains the founder of bamadoo.pl.

The store's website is properly reproduced in the showroom elements. - We specially painted the building white and added signage elements with our logo. A customer coming to us has no doubt that he is in bamadoo.co.uk. And if he felt comfortable on our website before, he feels the same way in the showroom. The packaging, the duct tape, the bag in which the customer receives his purchases, the business cards - everything creates a coherent whole. It's also worth adding that visual consistency is accompanied by a consistent pricing policy - prices in the online and stationary store are the same, and promotions run in parallel in both channels.

White, blue and logos, it is mandatory to repeat on such elements of the site as promotion modules, news, newsletters, banners. - Every store has them, it's important to make sure they blend well with the rest of the site elements. The store must also include links to our pages on social networks, such as Facebook and Instagram. When a customer clicks and is taken to the Facebook page, they must immediately recognize that they are on our store's fanpage - the profile picture, the background photo, and even the posts we make must visually create a coherent whole with our brand," Wrona continues.

No shopping without trust

B

uding customer confidence is a long process - it starts on the first day after the launch of the store and actually never ends. A huge role in building it is played by the appearance of the site. After the first look, the customer judges whether he believes the store or not. The decision is influenced precisely by the store's graphics - a professional and consistent appearance, and access to information about the company and various forms of contact. Once the customer is convinced of the company's reality and honesty, contact and fulfillment of promises become crucial. - If it is stated next to a product that we ship it in 24 hours, then the customer expects such a shipment on the second day at the latest, and with us this is indeed the case," assures the owner of bamadoo.pl. And, by the way, he advises that the contact of the store's staff with the customer should also take place consistently in different channels. - A customer placing an order in the evening, asks on Instagram or Facebook for details and does not want to wait for an answer until the morning. At bamadoo.co.uk, you can get an answer even in the middle of the night. Both the owners and employees of the store are sometimes available after hours. It is good when the store staff are not only trained people, but even passionate about their business. In our case, this is the case, we all like what we do and this is sensed by our customers. We take great care of relationships with both new customers and regular ones. For them we have created a very good loyalty program. Running a modern business we are guided by the old principle that the customer is the most important and this works, with us nothing is impossible and thousands of customers from Poland and Europe have been convinced of this," says Oliver Wrona.

Recipe for success

- I have listed some of what I think are important elements for running an e-commerce business, but there is no clear-cut recipe for success. Choosing an industry, an offer, a good platform is just the beginning. Success is worked for later continuously, both online and offline. I am fortunate that four years after launching the store, I can say that we have achieved a great deal, despite considerable and growing competition. However, it is important to remember that when you run an online store, there is always something to improve, everything can be done even better," the owner concludes.

According to Tomasz Tybon, director of marketing and sales at Dreamcommerce, provider of Shoper online store software, the bamadoo.pl store is a great example of how to "sell nicely" online. - I like the consistency and aesthetics. It shows that an online store can be fully professional and suitable for a scalable business. Many retailers could learn from its customer focus and commitment to e-selling.