Alva International
Llanelli, Carmarthenshire

Alva International, based in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, was founded in 1999 by Phil Bowen.  The business specialises in the manufacturing and distribution of their own specialist brand of aromatherapy products for horses.  During many years of preparing and showing his multi-award winning Welsh Cob, Phil discovered the benefits of Aloe Vera, Tea Tree and other essential oils, leading him to develop the Alva International range of  Equine aromatherapy products.  The range includes shampoos, coat conditioners, detanglers and highlighters as well as natural remedies for sweat itch, mud fever, rain scald and fly repellent.

The company employs 3 people who control the formulation, distribution and mail order supply of the products with an annual turnover of approximately £0.1 million.  Most of the company’s business is to wholesalers in the equestrian trade in addition to end-users which come into contact with the company through horse shows and exhibitions or have heard of the company through advertisements, word-of-mouth and increasingly through the company’s Web site.

The company had ambitions to use the Internet to generate increased on-line sales, to improve customer services/dialogue, to save on marketing costs and to service existing customers and to generate new accounts.

In the summer of 2002, it was decided that the business needed to improve its revenue from eCommerce by replacing a Web site that was not performing to expectation or potential.  With support from Carmarthenshire Enterprises and an Opportunity Wales eCommerce review, plans were made for the re-development of their site and the introduction of eCommerce facilities for on-line selling.  

“My aromatherapy based preparations are endorsed by many top show producers and we already had a vast database of satisfied customers but I was keen to use the Internet to generate increased on-line sales, to improve customer services and to save on printed marketing material”, says Phil.

The eCommerce review highlighted a number of areas which needed changing in order to improve their current Web operation.  The recommendations included changing their connectivity provider due to limitations of services; changing their ISP; redesigning the site to incorporate new functionalities, improved navigations, improved graphic presentation, and search engine visibility; register with search engines and achieve proper ranking; introduce an eCommerce package and credit card facility; undertake eMail marketing.

These recommendations were addressed with a fair degree of success.  The strategy for the use of eMail as a marketing tool introduced two developments into Alva International; a way of soliciting and accumulating eMail addresses using electronic forms on the Web site and a way of managing those contacts once they had been obtained.  By undertaking this simple activity the company has accumulated over 1,000 eMail addresses, obtained with permission, and this list increases by between 5 – 20 new names daily.

One of the strongest recommendations from the review was that the company should take out a ‘merchant account’ in order to be able to accept payments by credit card.  Up to this point wholesaler and end-user customers had to pay by cash or cheque.  As a result, Alva International opened a merchant account with Barclays PDQ which provided them with a swipe card machine on the premises with permission to take ‘customer not present’ payments, essential for mail-order type businesses.  This has transformed the business by giving it a much more ‘professional’ impression and leading to a big jump in sales volume.  Over 90% of their sales now come through this route.  The next step is to transact credit card payments on-line using a third party payment gateway and it is anticipated that this will be done shortly as the volume of transactions increase to a level where it becomes impractical to do them manually through the swipe card machine.

They invested £500 in new software and Web development costs and also purchased a new computer to help with the administration of the Web operation.  Their investment in upgrading their on-line sales operation has turned out to be an unqualified success.  Since updating their previous Web site, Alva’s revenues have increased substantially and eCommerce now accounts for nearly 20% of their sales.  The company employs three people but following increased sales a further expansion is planned.

Alva International is not standing still.  They are continually reviewing their site and are looking at the option for integrating their on-line sales with an accounts package and taking credit card payments on-line.  The Web site has made them think of new business opportunities linked to their existing business, and also dramatically widened their customer base to achieve sales in cities as far afield as Dubai.  Such developments would never have been possible without the power and reach of the Internet.

www.alva-inter.com

This company is one of the many Opportunity Wales clients that have taken up our Implementation Support package, offering high-value, advanced eCommerce support at a very attractive price. Implementation Support is available to all new and existing Opportunity Wales clients. Further information is available on our Implementation Support page, or Contact us for further information.