Baristashopen - From business idea to online store in one day - Textalk Abicart
Erik worked for many years building online stores for others when he worked at an IT company as a project manager and IT consultant. This sparked an interest in him to run his own webshop as a hobby project, alongside his day job.
The idea was born when he was on his way home from work one day. The problem was that he didn't know what he was going to sell, but after a conversation with his friend, they decided that he should pursue his interest in coffee and the friend advised him to go and talk to the people who worked at the coffee roastery a short distance from his home. Immediately after the tip, he went there and in the 15 minutes it took to drive, Erik had come up with his business idea, which he then pitched to the CEO of the roastery. The idea was to sell date-marked and freshly roasted coffee beans online of the highest quality. It was a niche that didn't exist in the market so they thought it sounded like a really good idea and started up a partnership with Erik. He was able to sell their coffee beans in his webshop, just by coming and picking up what he needed directly from the roastery. In one day, Erik took his hobby project from business idea and products to starting up his online store baristashopen.se
"I clearly remember my first customer Ulf, he bought coffee that I didn't have at home so I went and picked up his coffee beans directly from the roastery. So he got coffee that was roasted a day before he got it home. He got great fresh roasted coffee and was super happy. He wrote about how happy he was on various coffee forums and it spread online and attracted more customers."
Each time Erik received more money, he expanded the range in order to have everything needed to make a really good cup of coffee at home, in the office or for cafés. It started as a hobby project with Erik's great passion where the warehouse was a 10 m2 storage room, but over the years he has developed the business and today he owns and runs it full time and has several full time employees to keep up with it.
We interviewed Erik Sonesson:
"The coolest thing about running your own business is working on your passion"
What do you sell in your webshop?We always have the most freshly roasted coffee on the market from the best roasters in Sweden. We sell coffee, tea, and all the best around to private individuals, retailers, and corporate customers. We sell everything you need to have a really good cup of coffee.
We only have high-quality products and we only work with sustainable products. We care about how the coffee beans are produced and the well-being of the farmers who work in the fields. It is important to us that the farmers are well off and that they can build and develop their business and their villages.
The farmers we work with receive a premium depending on the quality of the coffee beans they deliver, so they get more money the better the quality of the coffee is. This means that they always aim to deliver the best quality coffee possible. All the coffee beans we sell are hand-picked, have a red ripe color, and are of the highest quality.
Our coffee and espresso machines and grinders are of the highest quality and have been carefully tested by our test panel. We also offer a carefully tested selection of the best accessories on the market to put you in the best position to fully succeed as a barista.
Why did you choose Abicart as your e-commerce platform?
In 2008, when I was about to start up my webshop, I was working on a side project together with a friend. They were selling art online and they were using Abicart or Textalk as you were called then. They thought it worked well and recommended the platform to me, which made me want to try it too. I found it affordable and easy to get started with. I built my webshop in the evening and it's pretty much the design I have today. I think an online store should be easy to navigate and clear for customers and I think ours is.
We stayed with Abicart because it's an affordable solution, you have good uptime and it means a lot to us that you can work in it whenever you want. I also think it feels like a very secure platform because no data has been lost in all these years that we have been a customer at Abicart.
I definitely recommend Abicart, it's a great shopping solution for everyone, whether you have existing stores or you want to start up something new. It is easy to get started and it is an affordable solution, there is a lot included at a low cost. The platform works well and has done for a long time, as I said I have been with it since 2008 and it has flowed well over the years.
You only sell your products on the web, have you considered setting up a physical store in addition?
We have actively chosen not to set up a physical store as we are a lean organization but customers are able to come to our warehouse to pick up their orders. Our customers also have the opportunity to make an appointment with us to try out machines that we have set up in our warehouse. But the market and the organization can change so we do not exclude starting up a physical shop in the future.
What is the best thing about running your own business and online store?
The best and coolest thing about running your own business is that you can work with your passion. I wanted to do something that I am passionate about and that I can be proud of because then everything feels so much more meaningful and it becomes worth living for. My great interest in life is really coffee and the fact that I get the privilege to sell, talk and work with my interest every day is really wonderful. If you have an interest and you enjoy your job, I think you do a better job. Because it's more fun to spend a lot of time and put yourself into something you're passionate about. Then, of course, it's nice when, after a while, you can run your own business with staff and you can spend your time a bit more as you wish.
Starting your own business is not always a bed of roses, I had a pretty tough start and it has clearly been a long journey to get to where I am today. But I wanted to go for it and now I'm glad I did despite the pretty tough years at the beginning. Today we have our own property that we own and now we have a large warehouse and several full-time employees. We have managed to do all this without having to borrow any money. I think my advantage was that I had the time, I was only working 50% and I had a big focus on making this work.
Do you have any tips for others who want to start an online store?
1.If you have a smaller business or are just starting out, you usually don't have a huge warehouse, so my tip is to use dropshipping. If you want to offer products that take up a lot of space and that you do not have room for in your own warehouse, you can use someone else's warehouse. As soon as you receive an order for such a product, you send a shipping note to the other warehouse and they send the product instead. In this way you can broaden your range and still get a decent margin. I have been able to expand my stock in a cost-effective way.
2. Appreciate all your customers and make sure that customers are always satisfied. Communicate with customers at all times and be ahead of the customer when a problem arises. If we discover a problem with an order, for example, we will call the customer, acknowledge the error and then do everything we can to ensure the customer's satisfaction in the end. Just getting in touch with the customer before they have perceived it as a problem is a good start, which means that the customer hasn't had time to become dissatisfied yet, many times just communicating with the customer is enough. Always be on your toes with your customers.
3. Listen to what your customers want and be prepared to change and improve your business all the time. Have a reputable rating service like Trustpilot or Lipscore and display the ratings on the site and embrace the criticism, you are no better than your worst review.
4. Dare to go for it if you have an idea. Check out the market first just so you find a niche that doesn't already exist, otherwise, it will be hard to break through. Bring in things you would buy yourself and that you are passionate about and do it in your unique way. Listen to yourself and dare to run, I promise it will be a hell of a rush when things go well and you succeed.
5. Always make sure you have products that the market is demanding and don't be afraid to fail. Then it is important not to do too many things at the same time, you do not have a lot of time so make sure to dispose your time on the most important for the moment and bring in external help on the pieces you yourself do not have time for or are less good at.
6. Be visible. This can be done in many different ways but either at events, fairs, and more or post interesting content on the social channels of your target audience. Another important part is to be on price hunt and pricerunner, no matter what price level you are at, it is a good way to be visible even if you are not offering the cheapest price.
7. My last tip is not to try to sell too few products, it is very difficult to survive if you have few products, if you broaden your business with many products and accessories you broaden your market enormously and it can be the difference if your business survives or not.
Which of our subscriptions do you use and why?
We have the Plus subscription with you and I have always had it. You offer the features we need and so far we are doing well.
The factory theme I have also had from the start, it allows me to build a simple and easy-to-use online store for my customers.