PCR Tech and IT retail, distribution and vendor news
More than just your regular etailer, More Computers also has its own e-commerce solution for other retailers. Dominic Sacco asks head of marketing Brian Trevaskiss about the challenges of competing with bigger etailers.
What products and services do you offer?
We sell computing devices and other tech as well. The reason for setting up MoreFrom.com was to show our range is broader than just computing. So we’ve got small electrical appliances, toasters, cookers, that kind of thing. We’ve even got some washing machines, dishwashers and fridges, plus things like TVs and cameras, so it’s a really broad range.
Tell us about your setup…
We’re purely online. We’ve never gone down the route of a physical store. We don’t have our own warehouse – we’ve always worked with distribution. But it’s more evolved than just drop ship feeds. We’ve always seen the industry sort of moving away from holding stock.
We’ve got a third-party warehousing fulfillment company that we occasionally use, so it just keeps us lean and keeps stock holding to a minimum. We tend to only buy stock of things that are going to be a sure-fire seller, things that we’ve seen movement in already.
You built your own e-commerce platform, right?
Yes. At the heart of the company we’re a small bunch of computer scientists, if you like! Our platform is closely integrated with the distribution sources that we use. It helps them manage the sale of a product that’s not available, which is always the danger of drop shipping: selling something that’s not actually there.
We’ve got real-time links into distribution.
Does the More Group consist of other companies?
As More Computers grew and we started offering more than just computers, we thought we needed a slightly different name, so we launched MoreFrom.com. It gives us the flexibility to launch other brands. We’ve had other specialist websites – More Monitors, More Televisions, and so on.
How do you compete with Ebuyer and Amazon?
I think the advantage we have is that level of technical integration into distribution. We do some clever things on Amazon and eBay to make sure we can maintain really high levels of service. If you look at any of our customer stats, we have 99 per cent satisfaction ratings on Amazon and eBay. It’s a really slick operation.
I suppose it does enable us to have a broader range than eBay. Amazon has a lot of marketplace traders, but we get quite a lot of sales for specialist kit and spare parts. A lot of indies and repairs companies buy parts from us.
Should store owners have a strong online offering?
Yes. We have a morefrom.me e-commerce solution that we offer out to other retailers. It helps provide a platform for indies who want to get online.
If you’re going alone, it can be difficult to maintain and make money, and it takes a lot of time and energy. Our solution gives them a quick and easy way to at least make some money on an enquiry that they haven’t get anything in stock, so rather than send people off to eBay or Amazon to buy something, they can say: “Well here’s a link to it on my own shop.”
And we just pay a commission on those sales that they get. It’s free to sign up at morefrom.me and you get an instant website with your own branding on it.
What we have is a hands- off solution. It gives you 20 distributors’ product ranges and offers that integration – it’s all there for the taking.
FACT FILE
Year established: 2003
Number of staff: 18
Address: 12 Collegiate Crescent, Broomhall, Sheffield, S10 2BA
Telephone: 0114 292 2930
Email: Orders@morecomputers.com
Website: www.morecomputers.com
