Can we do more to help?

Updating our mailing lists the other day...

We have discovered many shops are no longer trading (no surprise there) and the rest - that's 7 out of 10 tackle shops on our lists (even more than those cats who prefer whiskers), don't even have email or a website!

Having a web presence is vitally important for any business most will agree, but if 90% of customers (including their own local customers) surf the web at home looking for bargain tackle, how on earth can they expect to be still around in 6 to 12 months time if the shop owner is a technophobe?

A case in point..
My mate ran a local tackle shop serving our community for over 25 years (that's even before the advent of sky TV kids!) and buried his head at the thought of having to compete online but when a competitor set up both bricks and mortar + virtual shop - he lasted just 6 months.

Like my mate, not many have the time nor inclination to do mail order, updating db's, virtual shops, backend maintenance, processing orders, distance selling regs and all, but they can't expect to survive selling live bait and a few bits and bobs to the locals, its like living in the dark ages!

This I understand, setting up online is a full time job in itself and who has the time to do all that?

Maybe they don't have the necessary buying power that prevents them from competing online?
Maybe they genuinely don't have the skills to do it all alone?

Whatever the reason, i think this is where those locals who prefer to buy local and Manufacturers supplying them could all do a little more to help...

If volume is a stipulation then a buying syndicate may help?
Asking manufacturers to re-negotiate terms for smaller shops and MOQ's?
Supplying sale or return or guaranteed buy back?
Drop shipping?
Drop to Shop Scheme?
Some local customer with web skills doing a single web page with contact details, product links to a virtual shop such as iselltackle? (shameless plug)
Employing a Commission-only agent with web skills?
Manufacturers website's to include a list of local dealers?
Manufacturers to serve up shop ad banners for free directly on their own websites (based on surfers locality)?

A few off the top there, but any one of those could potentially help...

Can we do more to help?

Employing a Commission-only agent with web skills? Doubt that would happen, however it's fairly easy to set up a web site with a shopping facility, Laguna.

A Domain Names | Find a Domain Name | 123-reg domain name would cost about £7-£8 for two years registration.

There are plenty of low cost web design programmes about and Serif Education – Develop design skills… and confidence do a free starter pack. They also do a full range of basic graphic and other free software.

If interested I can let you have a Serif WebPlus X5 FOC ( a genuine offer, complete with user and resource guides) as Ive just upgraded to their WP X6.

Anyone who can use MS Word can easily use WP. A WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) programme with drag and drop, no code needed. It even guides you through the different 'shopping trolley' systems.

To host the site there are several free services like Free Hosting Media | Login ( I use them for a couple of sites I run) and paid hosting need only cost £20-£30/year. For a little more you can get unlimited storage etc.
I also use HostPapa which cost me about £85 for three years

You can of course pay silly money (the ATr paid over £30K in its first year ) but just for a small business the outlay can be virtually nil.

Free Web Hosting with PHP, MySQL and cPanel, No Ads and Free Web Hosting with cPanel, PHP, and no Ads are other free hosts.

Another 'plus' is that none of the above named hosts employ pop-up ads, a very annoying intrusion many 'free' hosts have you display.

With the DCAC site below just one new member pays for two years hosting, and except for the odd member who is not on-line, a web presence has cut our membership renewal costs down to almost zero.

I first learned HTML when FREESERVE charged a penny a minute on dial up (1995) remember that?
I held top position for the keywords "mould making" and "mold making" for 10 years straight on both sides of the Atlantic and learned all about SEO.

Apart from a couple of sites on which we have CMS installed, I generally hand code even today and occasionally use DW for the more intricate stuff like building tables, link checking and CSS, and such.

The point is though that not many people, including some shop owners even know what the hell you or I are talking about! Like most people its a foreign language to them but unless they find a way to get online and sell, I fear a lot more will be disappearing real soon.

A commission only agent with web skills, doubtful maybe but how many budding web designers enjoy fishing and a chance to earn a crust?... You could also say the shop owner is also taking that risk of not selling but we all know those with a web presence are doing much better than those without!

Some good links and suggestions you have provided there, I only hope someone follows (and understands) your advice. Our registration/hosting is with Godaddy but anyone registering now will have to pay around £80 per year for a basic hosting plan plus email package. Its not overly expensive but there are cheaper options out there as you say.

Just to endorse what John says; it is very easy and fairly cheap to start an on-line website/store. Most of the work is done for you with a fairly good hosting company. The problem is it does not guarantee success. You still have get known do a lot of work and have a fair degree of luck. You cannot just sit back and expect the orders to come flying in.

Yes Chris, I took the web design course/s at the local college c 2001-2, I think it was Front Page we used then. I also have a full Macromedia suite but for ease of use (arthritic fingers - as well as arthritic everything else ) I find that the Serif programmes do what I want.
And to think I almost qualified (sprint events) for the 1964 Olympics

Ive done a few searches of some who advertise web packages (from a single page to several) and their prices would put a lot of small struggling businesses off, so for a little time and not much else, they dont have much to lose.
But then there is the problem of getting the site known and recognised , that can take time.
Do search for 'angling /fishing in durham' and the DCAC site comes up fairly high but unless you pay it can take some time, and some tackle shops might not have that. We've lost three in Durham area in the last 12 months.

Yes John, ranking high in the search results are very important points, this all takes time of course and is a skilful and daunting prospect for many.

However there are fast track ways which can be explored such as PPC or banner advertising on third party websites, not necessarily to achieve higher ranking or link building but more importantly so that the customer has a point of contact which I think given a choice when buying online are more likely to buy locally and support his/her own tackle shop.

Yes they can just call in and see what they have to offer, a bit of a chat, gain local knowledge from other customers about what's fishing well etc. but if most of the purchases are online these days and the local tackle shop has what the customer is searching for (or some alternative) then they will be confident of getting said item quickly and cheaper (no postage costs).

I don't know how many shop owners frequent these forums but the other advantage of having a web presence is that the shop will at the very least have their contact details displayed (fewer people use yellow pages?), but more importantly they will be in a position to attract custom from far and wide. I dont think its all about being competitively priced either, I think convenience and good service is equally if not more important.

Once a retail customer buys from us, we include their details on our site for free and even if they don't have a website of their own, many have the ability to process credit cards over the phone which has got to be better than nothing, just sat there behind a counter waiting.... for the inevitable to happen?

As a manufacturer we're also in a position to negotiate terms for smaller shops and MOQ's, we offer guaranteed buy back, drop-to-shop and are looking into serving up ad banners for free directly on our site based on the surfers locality.

If we can do it so can the bigger players, I think we all have a duty and responsibility to save our shops.