Sheeba: vibrant colours, planet friendly

Sheeba is an online store selling colourful jewellery from Asia and Africa within the £5 to £15 price range. The store owners (a husband-and-wife team) have personally chosen the products, based around the following proposition:

"Low price jewellery doesn't have to be plastic
and it doesn't have to look cheap"

They have sought out items that are hand crafted from natural and unusual materials - pieces that you are unlikely to find on the high street. They prove that attractive jewellery can be made from low cost, renewable materials such as bone, shell and recycled paper.

The business is a fundraiser for a charitable work in the Indian Himalayas and managed on part-time basis.

Setting up shop

Setting up an online store is a challenge, especially when it needs to be done on a limited budget. Sheeba faced two principal issues: technology and marketing. The cost-effective solutions delivered by Diadem are outlined below:

Technology

The facility to sell 1 or 2 items online can be easily added to standard websites. A catalogue of multiple products, however, requires a database-driven e-commerce website (often described as a 'shopping cart'). These systems enable visitors to:

•  Find products - using search and browse facilities
•  View product details - images, specifications, reviews
•  Select products - add items to a shopping basket
•  Checkout - place an order and pay online

Shopping cart systems also include marketing features such as 'best selling products' and 'customers who bought this also purchased ...', and administrative facilities to manage orders and customer communication.

Given the cost-sensitive nature of the project, Diadem selected Zen Cart as the best open source system available. It combines stable, feature-rich software with an active community for peer-to-peer support.

e-Marketing

The vast number of online jewellery stores means that competition for search engine position is fierce. For a small venture with limited resources, it is unrealistic to achieve high organic rank for the main jewellery keywords (e.g. necklace, bracelet, earrings).

Diadem recommended targeting SEO activities at more specific key phrases - those that have lower search volumes but are more relevant to Sheeba's offer. The result is that certain keywords - for example 'ugandan bead necklace' and 'pom pom necklace' - perform well in the natural listings and produce good conversion rates.

The SEO work has been supplemented with paid search advertising, which Diadem designed for the peak trading months at Christmas. The ad shown right was displayed on Google and Yahoo, and routed to a tailoured 'landing page' on the Sheeba site (click the ad to view).

Conclusion

Ebay is popular with small businesses wanting to try out online sales. But it can be very difficult to sustain reasonable margins in such a crowded market.

Sheeba's story demonstrates that small businesses can sell online with their own branded store, and achieve this within limited resources.

What next?

Do you have plans to sell online? Contact us today to discuss how Diadem can make it happen.