Hello folks,

Bear with me on this one… It is going somewhere.  

One of my functions at PB.HQ is to merchandise our product categories. Without going into too much detail I basically have to ensure that all of our best selling, newest, most popular and most heavily stocked products are well represented on the website.

Alongside this we also have to consider seasonal peaks and troughs (personalised calendars sell better in November and December for obvious reasons), as well as promoting aspirational products - such as this £27k king kong climbing frame. Finally Supplier sweeteners… erm… I mean… incentives are taken into consideration when positioning products in our site.

Now, this may sound easy, but it is actually massively time consuming and involves all sorts of considerations, algorithms, reports and statistics.

Anyhoo here’s my point, or moreover my question. After ploughing through and positioning endless products - from mini winnies to croquet sets - it dawned on me…

What is Prezzybox.com? And are we any good?

The simple answer I normally sprout out when people ask is that we are a gift retailer selling a veritable array of gifts and goodies ranging from tiny r.c. helicopters, through to rocking horses and racing car days.

But is that all we are?

Others - including some of my colleagues - feel that because of the breadth of our product range - we are an online department store.

But then are we guilty of trying to be all things to all men? Is this to our detriment?

In some ways I think it’s great that we’ve got stacks of product categories as we can ordinarily cater for any body’s gift buying needs be it a gift for their granny or their half cousins, brothers mother. It also means we can populate most searches on our now legendary gift wizard. But part of me does envy the likes of Firebox who it would appear have a distinct demographic customer base and thus a clear idea as to the types of products that will fit well and be adored by their loyal followers, as not only does this assist the buyers in what sort of products to offer, but it also makes it easier to do marketing, write product copy, find promotional partners inter Alia.  For us, it’s a little difficult. Like most websites we sort of “fell into” our current offering as in the early days we literally bought from the few companies who were prepared to supply us and categorised them accordingly. Consequently this has shaped the website and our product offering as we are today.

So, my final question is…

Should we continue to offer as wide a product range as we do or should we have a mass clear out of products, narrow our range and focus on specific customer demographics?

It’s a ‘tuffy!’ Answers on a postcard please.

TBW.

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