The Fish Society, a mail order and online fishmonger, is looking
to grow the business by 20 percent by next year thanks to several
new service offerings.
The first of these is the Quick N Easy shop. The service, which
is still in beta mode, is different from The Fish Society’s
traditional model. Usually, says managing director Alistair
Blair, customers order several items that arrive frozen and in a
very bulky box. The cost of delivery for the Fish Society is
“significant” says Blair. The Quick N Easy shop,
however, caters for those who only want one or two items and
whose average order comes to £20 not £80. Delivered
using a next-day service, there is also no need for the produce
to be frozen, and so it does not need as much packaging. In
addition, whereas customers pay an additional delivery charge on
regular orders, in the Quick N Easy shop, delivery charge is
factored into the price. “This has required a bit of
reengineering to be done cost-effectively,” says Blair.
He’s been working on the concept for the past three or so months,
and has been testing the new system for the past six weeks. Among
the glitches he’s identified is Saturday delivery. Blair’s usual
courier charged too much for the service, and Royal Mail weight
bands mean that an item weighing 1.9kg costs around £8 to
post, whilst something weighing 2.1kg-just 200g more-costs around
£21 to despatch.
Currently there are 21 high-end, specialist items available in
the Quick N Easy shop, but Blair plans to increase it to 50 items
in the coming months. He says the addition of the service is
already contributing to higher conversion rates from web visitors
and Blair hopes to double conversion by next year.
The Fish Society is also working on adding meat to the fish
range, but this is very much on the back-burner, says Blair, who
is fully aware that the company has not built its brand on meat
products. For now, The Fish Society is concentrating on its core
fish and seafood offering, but will still pursue developing a
meat range as a secondary project.
Another big development Blair is working towards is the launch of
The Fish Society on the Amazon.co.uk grocery store. When
contacted, Amazon refused to comment on a launch date for the
site.
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