Posts Tagged online shopping

Big in Russia

February 11, 2010 at 1:40 am · Filed under Blogging, Customer Engagement, online shopping ·Tagged , ,

Although we primarily focus our online selling efforts on Ireland, the power of the Internet means that we can be found by customers from many different countries. In the last few months we have sold to the UK, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, the USA and Canada. We have also received a number of orders from a few different customers in Russia (all in Moscow). We seem to have a big fan in Russia who posts about us on a Russian shopping forum. and we regularly get traffic from the forum posts back to our website.

Here’s a screen shot of the forum (translated)

I have to rely on the Google toolbar translation service to see what they are saying about us. Accepting that a lot of the meaning gets “lost in translation”,  here are a few of the quotes about PuddleDucks on the forum.

  •  liked the surprise was the sweater (ordered as a gift to the village district.) had a button with a picture of a tractor and he growls and pants in all keys))) Fleece myagchyayshy, my child is fussy (he agrees to wear clothes selectively) got no calls.
  • And this sweater bought as a gift, so bright! Its main chip-rychalka and gudelka, clicking sound типо tractor rides, the most interesting that there are no restrictions on the label does not wash, can be washed in the machine
  • Vasche I love this story, it is warm, lightweight, easy to wash, dries quickly, presentation for a long time to lose. In blue sweaters lightning in green. sweater wide neck, his head is not stuck.

I know it does not all make complete sense but I think we can safely say that the Russian customers like their PuddleDucks gear.  And we’re delighted that we are reaching satisfied customers – not just in Ireland but all over the World too.

There’s a link to the Russian shopping forum here.

A message to our visitors from Russia (apologies for any mistakes in language):

Привет. Мы очень счастливы иметь клиентов из России. Пожалуйста пошлите по электронной почте нам в info@puddleducks, если Вы имеете какие-нибудь вопросы.

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Postcode a no-no for Irish shopping sites

December 17, 2008 at 10:19 pm · Filed under online shopping ·Tagged ,

Doing my Christmas Shopping. Online of course. I’m not really a shopping fan. I’d much rather a walk in the woods with the dogs than a trip down to the shopping centre. So buying online suits me perfectly. This Christmas I’m trying to shop locally and only use Irish-based sites, but am continuously finding one annoying feature.  The postcode / zip code issue.

shopping_cart

Why is it that an Irish website marketing itself primarily to the Irish market insists on a postcode. OK – have an option for one, sure. Just don’t insist on it.  One site lost my business because the delivery details page was so inflexible that I gave up.  Another at least let me put in a few 0000’s and allowed this so I did complete my order. But please, if the majority of your customers are from Ireland please make it easier for all of us and rewrite your postcode option.

— Suzanne

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Christmas Shopping at PuddleDucks

December 12, 2008 at 10:23 pm · Filed under Our business ·Tagged , , , , ,

Just a quick reminder that you can shop at PuddleDucks until Thursday 18th December and still get your delivery to any address in Ireland before Christmas.

PuddleDucks Fleeces

PuddleDucks Fleeces

Our range of cosy and fun fleeces are proving to be very popular this year as Christmas gifts. You can see them all here.

Don’t forget we offer a gift wrapping service for a small cost (either €3 or €5). And gift vouchers are also available on the site.

And finally – if you join as a fan on our Facebook page you get free shipping on Christmas orders.

Happy Christmas from PuddleDucks!

— Aedan and Suzanne

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Internet Shopping (with us) is Safe!

November 27, 2008 at 10:37 am · Filed under online security, Our business ·Tagged , , , , , ,

I’ve recently read reports in the technology press saying that a percentage of Irish e-commerce sites don’t take customer security seriously.  See one of the reports here. I have no reason to doubt the statistics but this type of report fills me with dread, as it gives the impression that it is unsafe to do online shopping with any Irish e-commerce websites.

Firstly let me say this at the top of my e-voice to everyone who’s listening. “We do take security extremely seriously”. Why wouldn’t we? Our whole business (and livelihood!) is dependent on convincing our potential customers to trust us and enter their personal and credit card details on our website. So, here is a list of the reasons why you can be sure that shopping with us at puddleducks.ie is safe:

  1. All communication of your personal and credit card data is encrypted. Check the “https://” and the padlock on our checkout pages.
  2. We have an up-to-date security cert from Thawte. Check that it is current by clicking on the cert. It will show it is current and it will display today’s date.
  3. For credit card processing we use Realex – the leading payment service provider, also used by companies such as Aer Lingus and Vodafone.
  4. We do not store your credit card details on our server. In fact, we never ever see them.
  5. We show our actual real address and land-line phone number on our homepage. Go on – phone us – we are real people!
  6. We publish a security policy on the site showing the measures we take to protect your personal data.

It is important to educate internet users on how they know whether a certain online shopping site is safe or not. Occasionally, we hear scare stories in the media regarding internet security. In some of these reports, instead of teaching people about the few steps to know when a site is safe or not, commentators often say “To be really sure only shop at large well known websites such as Amazon or Ebay”. This type of advice can have a huge impact our business and is very simplistic. 

Instead, the advice should be “Learn the difference between a safe and unsafe site and then go shop at the safe and secure Irish-owned small businesses (like us!) that are introducing more competition and extra choice to the Irish online shopper. Learn that sites taking the type of security measures listed above can be trusted and you can safely shop with them.” Please!

— Aedan

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Online sales increasing as retail sales decrease?

September 4, 2008 at 10:59 pm · Filed under Our business ·Tagged , ,

These are interesting times to be an online retailer. We are all familiar with the overall retail sales figures over the last few months showing an overall drop in activity. In Ireland, the latest statistics came from the CSO showing that the volume of Irish retail sales fell by 5.2% in the year to June.

In the UK online spending is increasing while at the same time high street sales are going down. High Street sales decreased by 0.9% from June to July which in the same period, online sales increased by 11.3% in July from June – (reported on Vnunet).

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I wonder if this is the same situation in Ireland. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was, although I have been unable to find the statistics to back this up.

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