With the pressure on businesses to bring out new products in shorter and shorter timescales, the knock-on effects on sales and marketing can be equally as great. Customers need to be kept informed as new products become available and order processing needs to be kept simple and as easy as possible. The Charms of London wholesale company, based in Southgate, London, has been gradually growing its sales of sterling silver charms over the last few years and wanted to improve its company image and customer communications. GoldStreak Studios were called in to see what they could do to help. They decided to categorise possible actions into short and medium term, laying out a simple step-by-step approach of how Charms of London could take advantage of the Internet. An uncomplicated online catalogue of the expanding product range was published on www.charmsoflondon.co.uk.

“We are not ready for taking online orders,” explains Ben Nass, director of Charms of London. “So, GoldStreak Studios designed a compact, double-sided hardcopy brochure that our customers could use for quick reference, together with a separate, single page order form. Orders are either faxed, posted or phoned through to us.” Charms of London produce an extensive and growing range of sterling silver charms for sale to retail jewellery, tourist, souvenir and gift shops. Its expanding business now covers most of the United Kingdom with concentrations at tourist attractions within town and cities such as London, Bath, Stratford-upon-Avon and York. “Our customers want to see photographs of new products as soon as they become available and our website allows them to do just that. The website also features close-ups of each charm which would take up too much space in a printed catalogue. Because in this niche area of the jewellery trade expensive, exotic photographs of jewellery pieces are not a necessity, GoldStreak Studios were able to produce the photographs themselves and keep to the agreed, strict budget. I’m very pleased with the results,” continues Ben.

The catalogue has been designed and built in such a way as to easily permit online ordering to be added, should Ben decide to take that step, but without any of the upfront costs. Ben concludes, “We appreciated the gentle, step-by-step approach advised by GoldStreak Studios, so we felt comfortable about ‘going online.’ We can move at our own pace and can count on GoldStreak Studios to support us as we grow the business.”

The online catalogue can be viewed at www.charmsoflondon.co.uk.

To find out how GoldStreak Studios can help your company establish or improve its web presence, call 01992 449373 for a free consultation.