Tuskc's official website
Promising start for Tuskc’s new e-tail site
Posted May 03, 2011 | By Lorna Goodyer
Tuskc has received promising early sales and positive feedback to its newly launched innovative web scheme that will see the margin from sales made online credited back to the customer’s nearest retail stockist.
Tuskc operations director Helen Hagerty said most of the sales were obtained through word-of-mouth as she is yet to officially launch the website.
“Just yesterday, I received five new sales and we haven’t even launched the website properly! We will soon start to do consumer advertising, search engine optimisation and corporate sponsorship to push the site,” Hagerty said.
In the new e-tail site, Tuskc’s stockists will get the margin even if they don’t stock the actual product sold.
When an online shopper makes their purchase an automatic pop-up will appear letting them know where their nearest Tuskc retailer is located. An email will simultaneously be sent to the purchaser’s nearest physical retailer telling them what pieces were bought.
Hagerty said, “We want retailers to be aware the consumer is making the choice [to buy online], and we also want to educate them as to what is selling.”
She said the website would act as both a good marketing tool and good market research tool for the brand as well as its retail stockists. “It’s reinforcing the brand and for us we don’t want to lose people that go to the website and follow up. If their inclination is to buy we want them to do it.”
At a time when consumers are increasingly shopping online, Tuskc believes having a website is becoming vitally important – for both sales and customer education.
However, Hagerty stressed that the website was not intended to take business away from its retailers: “We don’t want the retailer to feel they’re being cut out of the equation.”
She explained, “Consumers will realise there is a stockist in their neighbourhood. The pop-up message will say ‘If you would like to see more of the collection in your local store, here is the address’ – and it will bring up a Google map.”
Hagerty added that Tuskc would encourage retailers to launch their own websites, but this initiative would provide a stopgap. “I see websites as an extension of the trading hours of an existing business – not an alternative – and we’re all for encouraging [retail stockists] to have a website.”
Tuskc is able to ensure retailers are credited as accurately as possible because the website uses a mapping system based on postcodes. “This is the most accurate format we can apply based on our territory allocation of the brand to each of our retail partners – particularly in metropolitan areas,” Hagerty explained.
“We can make the radius bigger for regional retailers because it’s natural for them to drive further.”