How to improve business.

Hey everyone.

My bf has his own computer shop in a village near where we live. He's been running it for just over a year now. He was running it with a friend of his but he has now parted company with the shop as he was after more of a stable income.

Anyway, my bf's shop is down a small walkway of other shops but is sort of tucked away round the corner. The village has eldery people, families, students etc living in it so the computing business is quite successful here. He also prints off passport photos which is also very useful here, otherwise they have to go into town which is about half an hour away on a bus and they are more expensive.

The problem is that because he is so tucked away, not many people really know he's there. When people have come in for photos or whatever, they say "I didn't realise you were here". He really needs to drum up some more business and let people know he's there without spending a huge amount of money as they just don't have it right now. We did do a leaflet drop a while back but only got a few responses. Has anyone got any ideas what he can do?

He's looking at borrowing some money from a family member to get a new desk and more stock in hope the holidaymakers and locals will browse and the shop will look better.

If anyones got any ideas, i'd be very grateful to hear them. His shop is called Wittering PC by the way and it's in East Wittering near Chichester. www.witteringpc.co.uk Hehe! Just to plug it some more.

Thanks x

Reply 1

sparkle86

The-Lennon

why not just put up a stand on the pavement?

He does have an A-Board which he puts outside but because of our silly law, you can't stick them in certain places cos if anyone bumps into them or trips over them, the owner is sued. :rolleyes:

Reply 2

sparkle86

The-Lennon

I dunno theres lots of ways you can subtley get the word out there. students always need passport photos.... get the university to recommend your shop by providing them with a poster or something. Advertise the shop but offer cheap passport photos on it. They'll turn up for the photos. Or is it impossible to find the shop?

If its hidden away, he should try and move somewhere better.

It's not impossible to find it, it's just sorta tucked round the corner. Not able to move anywhere else as it's far too expensive. And he's done the posters in uni's with a 10% discount. The thing is, the uni's and colleges are in the town so they'll just go there for photos. They won't bother coming all this way for them. There aren't loads of students in this village at the moment.

The-Lennon

Btw not many people buy computer equipment on holiday.

Not computer equipment, just more of a chance to browse or ask questions or get their digital photos printed.

x

Reply 3

sparkle86

It's not a gaming shop. It's only small. Only has a desk in it and a wall of stock. He does computer repairs and call-outs and sells ink and hard drives and mic and keyboards and cables and orders in computers etc.

x

Reply 4

brabzzz

It could just be a bad location for a shop...

Maybe diversify the offering and move to a bigger more prominent premises? Cameras, hifi, business equipment (copiers and stuff) repair/sale? Dunno, just throwing an idea out there.

I'd have thought the PC store market is somewhat polarised between PC World '****** central' and mail order which makes it tought for small conputer stores to survive without offering some level of service. Clearly he does offer service (instore or callout) but is there not a wider range of products could do this for?

I'd never go to a physical shop to actually buy anything PC related...so maybe i'm biased, but i suspect most people under 25 are in a similar boat.

Good luck with it. Try the traditional stuff, target local small/med businesses, try and get an article in the local rag...

Reply 5

Purple

An advert in the local papers, some sort of promotional event, handing flyers out in the street with a special offer if they come to the store with the leaflet?

What kind of shops are currently in the village? He could diversify into games consoles/accessories if there isnt much room and there are a lot of students in the village?

You will probably get some better ideas on a more business orientated forum.

Reply 6

abshirf2

I just want to comment on the site quickly, improve it a little! :smile:

- it seems to be old, its probably because of the colour choice.

Your bf needs to use appropriate marketting techniques that will fit in with the community! Maybe your bf could try putting ads in other business in the area that will allow him to do that and hopefully compliments want he is doing.

Another idea:

>>Those that come to the shop and buy, when giving them a receipt maybe he could hand over a leaftlet or something thats says tell your friend or something, (to take it further, if they tell a friend they get a discount or something next time they come round - probably have to work out figuers though, bf doesn't want to be giving things away for free!)

Hope the above helps! :smile:

Reply 7

AT82

The website dosn't really work as an e-commerce site, not enough stock and too over priced.

I run a computer business but mine is based from home, I find the best form of advertising is word of mouth, I do a lot of networking stuff though and have recently started supplying small businesses with IT equipment.

I am in the middle re-making my site but it takes for ever to the text.

I hope your bf stocks all the usual student stuff such as pen drives etc. The union shops tend to be very over priced, so if he advertises a 1gb pen drive at £7.99 (more less at cost) he will get a lot of students in. If the student PC's break they know where to go.

Most local computer shops fail because they are over priced and just cannot compete so your bf needs to focus on supplying the essentials, not motherboards/processors etc but stuff like repairs, pen drives, cds and maybe parts which often brake such as power supplies.

The reason I haven't opened a computer shop is I just cannot compete with Microdirect and Ebuyer and I am guessing your bf gets all his stock from those places :p:

. However if a local small cheap unit became available I might be tempted to open a computing essentials shop.

In essense your bf just needs to get the word spread around.

Reply 8

sparkle86

Yea. Well my bf used to work for PC World and he has many friends that still do. So he knows inside secrets on undercutting them and stuff. Moving to another unit just isn't possible. It's far too much money that he just couldn't afford right now. He stocks cd's, pen drives, hard drives etc etc.

His prices are very good, the only problem is his location that's all. I think maybe next time there's a car boot sale on, maybe we should go along and promote the business that way. Hand out flyers with promotions on etc. Set up our own stall and sell some bits, free computer advice etc. What d'u think? Anything else we could do whilst there?

Karen x

Reply 9

alastair

His prices on his site aren't bad actually, but the site itself isn't great. Admittedly I am on Safari and I know most people use IE but more and more people use Firefox and i'm guessing it looks just as bad in firefox. Also when you click on a menu item like Networking it just takes you back to the top and doesnt change the content, just expands the menu, would be better if clicking on Networking also brought up a page in the middle with maybe the best selling products for the whole category.

In terms of his shop the main thing is word of mouth, people need to know that he isn't just another PC World (maybe not commenting on being an ex-employee of PC World as they are ****). Most of the money is in services and labour due to the internet prices being so cheap.