Franz Design

9 . Future Initiatives

The company plans to build on this momentum and launch a new range of products each year, changing both the design focus and raw materials.

The web store will continue to collect data on suitable regions within which retailers will be courted. The data will also be a useful tool in convincing retailers that a vibrant market exists in their area.

Sentia will continue to maintain the site as the maintenance agreement has been renewed. Franz’s plans for the content will be continually updated to maintain a keen interest within his customer base and, indeed, attract new business. One problem facing Franz is the misconception that the company is relatively new. Having been in business for over 9 years, the web site needs to reflect the true heritage and history of the company, along with its string of past achievements. There is also currently little information on the chief designer, Franz Caffrey himself – the site would benefit from an insight into his background and goals. The company plans to spend the next few months adding content to truly chronicle its broad depth and history.

As web traffic volumes have been high, Franz has been considering ways in which to convert site clicks into real sales. One initiative he is trying is to expand the current display catalogue to include over 100 images of every one of the different product ranges.

10 . Lessons and Advice for Other Companies

Franz’s advice to would-be entrepreneurs is to research the market thoroughly. “Find out what is already out there and what is selling”, he advises. “See if you can provide something that is different, don’t try and copy someone else’s idea – strive to be original”. Franz also advises companies to ensure that they can actually produce the products, and get them to market in a timely and efficiently manner. “It is no good promoting something on your web site that would take you months to produce – the turn around has to be within a reasonable timeframe,” he explains. “People want to take delivery of their purchases within a short space of time after ordering from web stores”.

Franz also is a great advocate of the visualisation of his product ranges. “Once my products are seen they will sell themselves,” he remarks. “We have photographed and displayed a large percentage of the items we offer, and plan to expand this online catalogue to include every piece we manufacture”. The Franz Caffrey site does leave an impression on you – the design is clear, concise and distinctive with an intuitive navigation system throughout.

11 . In Conclusion

This company has gone through many changes over the last eight years - from restoring antique furniture to producing some of Ireland’s most beautiful and unusual wooden craftwork. After a rocky start, attributed to a lack of restorable antiques and fierce competition moving into the replica market, the company started to create its own furniture range encompassing Franz Caffrey’s unique eye for design.

The company first dabbled with the Internet in order to provide a web contact for potential customers in the USA following two weeks of promotion on the QVC TV network. Using the online site hosted by the Crafts Council of Ireland, the company was able to display their range of furniture to a previously untapped market. The QVC TV show also provided an insight into the profitable and highly competitive giftware market. After cleverly conducting an extensive two-year research program (rather than jumping headlong into new markets, as donepreviously) the company began to design and produce an exciting range of wooden giftware products themselves, unlike any other products available in the market at that time. These were extremely successful, with the company supplying an ever-increasing network of retailers - the company has gone from strength to strength. With their range proving to be highly sellable and a desire to move into foreign markets, the company decided to launch its own independent web site. Going live in November 2000, the site’s main focus was to study the incoming web traffic on a region by region basis. This information was to be used as a guide when searching out retail outlets in the most promising overseas regions.

Although the response to the site in terms of traffic volume has been astonishing with over 100,000 visitors to date, sales volumes remain low. Currently online sales only contribute to just over 1% of total sales. After one year online, the bulk of the business generated was found to be from international buyers with Irish leads only accounting for a minimal percentage of traffic. From the company’s perspective the web store provides an extra margin on the total products sold. As the primary focus of the site was the collation of geographical marketing data, the company never expected it to produce large sales revenues.

Franz now has a massive client base of almost 200 retailers; these include accounts secured overseas - 3 in the UK, 3 in Germany, 3 in the US and 2 in Kuwait, among others. All the foreign accounts came directly as a result of hits on the web store.

The reach of the Internet and the way it is shaping our lives has encouraged many small to medium sized companies to attempt to tap into its power in order to grow their businesses. Many manufacturing companies inparticular, use the Internet to promote their products and provide a margin on existing sales. However, it’s a mistake to think the world wide web provides only a sales outlet for commercial players. One of the most overlooked and useful ways to use a web site is for gathering market data. Franz Caffrey intends to continue touse his site in this way.

Although individual sales and additional retail outlets are secured via the web channel, the primary focus of the site has always been to capture demographic market data. Information obtained will be used in the future to target specific overseas regions for the location of retail outlets. Franz has always felt that his products, by their very nature, need to be seen and touched in order for their full beauty to be appreciated. Hence the importance of locating retail outlets in countries and regions that hit the web store most frequently.