Just stick at it. There will be good times and bad times but stick at it and work hard

April 19, 2016 - PRLog -- Hi everyone, Brendan from Homeline Furniture shares his incredible journey on SellingOnlineToday!

Some thoughts from the interview
"We started in 1981 with a bricks and mortar store. We went through the good times and the bad times and back to the good times again. About 8 years ago we decided to give online a shot which took off, it got very good."

"We offer free nationwide delivery. We sell everything from single mattresses to super king mattresses, we sell suites of furniture, tables and chairs, bedroom collections and basically cover the house from top to bottom."

"The number has helped but what we do find is having a bricks and mortar shop behind the website is an asset to us as you can imagine with furniture there is a thing of wanting to feel the product and touch the product and see it in the flesh and also a feeling of security for the customer."

"If they are spending a large quantity of money as you can appreciate, the average price online people are spending online is €500 to €600 up to a couple of thousand euro depending on the product. So they have the security that you are in business, they can look you up on google plus, they can look you up on street view they can see you are physically there and not some fly by night, that you have been going since 1981 and they are more comfortable handing over their money."

"It is a long trip from where we are in Tipperary up to the top of Donegal so if you are delivering a table and 6 chairs and everything is perfect and they are taking the last chair out of the box and there is a mark on the corner, that chair needs to be replaces. That chair would be too heavy for a courier so we would have to send our own lads back up. It is all expense, that is the disadvantage with furniture it can be damaged in the box."

"We do our best and we always exchange our product if it is damaged."

"We have our own fleet of trucks and vans on the road, we have 7 vehicles on the road covering the country so all our deliveries are done through our own company."

"We do a lot with google ad words and social media and organically but the best advertising we have are the vans out on the road and customer reviews and customers speaking to friends and family spreading the word."

"8 years ago I was of the impression; build a site, put it up there and just watch the orders come in. By no means is it like that when it comes to furniture. They want advice, they want to know how it is finished, is it a stain finish or is it a lacquer finish? If it's a mattress they want to know if it is pocket sprung or how much memory foam is in it? Do you have it stock? How long is delivery going to take? It is almost a full time job for 2 sales people of the phone 9am to 6pm, seven days a week."

"If you sell it to the once and they know you the next time around when they are think of buying furniture they think of Brendan in Homeline Furniture. They are drawn back to that person without even thinking of it, there is the trust which is massive in online selling."

"When we started and we were green to the idea we just set it up and put x amount of money into it and watched it dwindled away. As we got more savvy to it and we got a great company in Dublin managing for it we don't search for general words as furniture as there is no return in it. You want more key ranges or key terms and brands you know are going very well in the bricks and mortar shop so you focus on them online."

"We got into banner ads for 6 months and we have found that extremely good. They're not cheap but they get the name out there and they are constantly on people's computer and in their face that they see this name coming up and reminding people that we are there.  It's all about brand awareness."

"We do a lot in SEO. Ad words is a fast way of getting up there but SEO is the long term way and building up the organic traffic to your site which is the cheapest way to get people to your site. It takes a fierce amount of time and google is always changing how they rank you so there is always work in refreshing it."

"Social media would be massive for us. Facebook, LinkedIn, twitter and all that sort of thing."

"We use Facebook ads. Over the course of the year we would use it as much as possible."

"You learn by mistakes and you learn by listening to people. It's something that is very complicated google and how it works but it is very interesting."

Best Advice: "Just stick at it. There will be good times and bad times but if you stick at it and work hard you will get through it."

What do they offer?

Pretty much everything you would need to make your home of your dreams! Including beds, mattresses, bedroom furniture, bedroom collections, kids & nursery, living room, dining room, bar stools,  relax chairs, home office and sofa beds.

Listen online: http://www.sellingonlinetoday.com/podcast-interview/homeline-furniture-2/

Listen on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/sellingonlinetodays-podcast/id980276311