Manufacturers of well known brand-name "Trodat" stamps and Southern Africa's largest manufacturer and distributor of rubber stamps, Rubber Stamp & Engraving Co, has opened an on-line store which can be accessed via their web site at www.rse.co.za. A large variety of consumer goods which include trodat stamps, pens, machines and art supplies are available direct to the public. In addition to their own store they will be utilizing the buyonline shopping portal (www.rsebuyonline.co.za) to direct additional visitors to their store.
After receiving quotes from five different companies and evaluating the various options available, Inex CommerceCourt software was chosen. Iganic (Pty) Ltd, resellers of Inex CommerceCourt, and part of JSE-listed Synergy Holdings, offered an already developed product that just needed the bells and whistles added.
Philip Kuhn, Managing Director, of RS&E said, "Our international Associate Company, Austrian based Trodat Werke GmbH has viewed with interest the development of our e-commerce store, which is essentially a packaged out of the box solution. We chose to go the more economical route which entailed becoming as self-sufficient as possible, allowing us to manage and control the store ourselves," said Kuhn.
Clive Heydenrych, General Manager added, "We were very impressed by Iganic's knowledge and their service. They are an incredibly helpful group of people and have offered sound advice. A thorough needs analysis was done with questions asked that we did not realise needed to be considered when setting up a site."
The Internet is the medium of the future and RS&E realized early on that they needed to take advantage of this. Heydenrych said, "Traditionally we have marketed our products to retail stores who then sell to the public. With the launch of our on-line store we now have an avenue to market and sell direct to the public." The on-line store will be targeting those customers who were previously outside the reach of traditional retail stores. To avoid alienating stockists, products purchased over the web will be sold at the full retail price plus courier charges, and RS&E is also investigating providing terminals and internet connections at a variety of stockists.
An electronic catalogue of the numerous options and accessories will give the buyer an excellent overview of the useful stamp aids for both the office and the home. A database comprising stockists will soon be available, so with a few clicks you can locate your nearest stockist to an actual suburb.
Delivery times are substantially reduced with the introduction of a typesetting facility within the site. Customers can typeset their own stamp, word for word and submit it direct to RS&E and have the stamp delivered nation-wide within 48 hours, reducing delivery time by one and a half days - a major advantage in any business. Stockists presently send faxes backwards and forwards between RS&E and now they too will be able to send orders via the on-line store.
Personalised gifts are created by the unique laser engraving service - done in just minutes. This service encompasses engraving on plastic, wood, glass, aluminium, leather and a multitude of other surfaces. For the keen hobbiest, there is a wide arts and crafts section incorporating all that is needed to satisfy the hobby of art stamping (creating greeting cards, book marks, jewellery etc.) Products for children are also included with such fun products as Inkums and Blopens.
"This product provides an incredibly simple yet immensely powerful E-commerce solution, which allows for the easy maintenance of an online catalogue and web store without the costs involved in complex design and infrastructure," said Herman Prinsloo, Client Liaison Manager at Iganic.
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