5 min read
Solhem Inredning - "I want to advise others to dare to try"
In 2011, Erika and her brother Anders took over the business that their father started in 1982. They still have the same premises, warehouse and shop space as when they started, but over the years they have developed and changed the range of the business.
When the business started up they sold textiles and corporate gifts to companies and at that time the premises were mainly an office space with a small exhibition area but over the years it has evolved into a retail space with a warehouse attached. Erika and Anders have a keen interest in interior design and when they took over the business they changed the range to focus more on interior design. With that change, they also started selling to private individuals instead of corporate customers and then they also started up an online store in addition to make it more accessible to their customers.
Now, the small family-owned company has gone from a small showroom to a physical shop and online store with a wide range of designer furniture and interior design.
We spoke to Erika Ullvin for more details:
We sell designer furniture and interior design in Danish design with simple and beautiful styling. The furniture is in a consistently Nordic and Scandinavian style and the vision is to cover all rooms in the home and to offer high quality design. The range and style is a celebration of the simple and beautiful - in a sustainable Scandinavian style. Danish design has a strong position in the range with brands such as Oliver Furniture, Hubsch, House Doctor, Madam Stoltz, Sika-Design and Nordal.
Why did you start a webshop as an addition to your physical store?
Our physical store is a bit off and tucked away and to get more visibility we started up a webshop in addition to the physical store. In the beginning we worked with the webshop as an addition to the physical store and the focus was on the store, but over the past few years we have changed our focus and now we focus mostly on the webshop. We have adapted our business to the way our customers shop. In the past, people wanted to come to the store to see and feel the products, but now they prefer to check out and read about the products on the website and then order the goods to test the furniture on site. If the goods don't fit, you send them back or return them to our shop. Even though we have both an online store and a physical store, we are mainly focusing on marketing ourselves in the Stockholm area so that we can deliver the goods ourselves. So we strive above all to have a market in Stockholm and the surrounding area, but of course we have customers all over Sweden.
Why did you choose Abicart as your e-commerce platform?
When we were about to launch the webshop in 2011, I read that Abicart was an easy and cheap option and since you could try it for free, I did and I got hooked on the platform. For our needs it is more than enough and I appreciate that it is so easy to use. I am really happy with the platform and it suits our business very well. We definitely recommend Abicart, it's a simple and nice platform to work in.
What is the best thing about running your own business and online store?
The best thing about running your own business is that it's fun to work on what you enjoy. I find it very fun to work with our products. I like it when we get new collections so I get to add new pictures and write texts for everything on the website. I like that you get to choose what products to bring in and what to work on, it makes me very inspired and excited to go to work every day. Another good thing is that you can borrow the tasks that you find boring, which in my case is for example bookkeeping. You can also adjust how much you want to work at times by increasing or decreasing the amount of advertising. For example, we are closed during the summer from 28-30 and then we take a break from advertising. If we want to sell a lot of work during these periods, we advertise more and do more work.
Do you have any tips for others who want to start an online store?
I would like to advise others to dare to try, even if all the pieces of the puzzle are not quite ready. If you want to run a small business, you don't need to have everything ready from the start. Most things will work out along the way, everything doesn't have to be ready before you start up. Start small and grow as you go, make sure you don't bring in too many suppliers from the start and choose products that are of good quality or you'll end up with a lot of returns and complaints. It's very easy to incur a lot of costs so keep a lid on expenditure and do a lot yourself or make sure you know what the cost will be and that it's worth paying for the service.
Which of our subscriptions do you use and why?
We use the Plus subscription and it suits our business well, we have what we need. In addition to the subscription, we have bought design help which we were very happy with, it really looks the way we wanted it to look.
Visit Solhem's lovely online store!
Solhem combines physical store and online store
What do you sell in your shop?We sell designer furniture and interior design in Danish design with simple and beautiful styling. The furniture is in a consistently Nordic and Scandinavian style and the vision is to cover all rooms in the home and to offer high quality design. The range and style is a celebration of the simple and beautiful - in a sustainable Scandinavian style. Danish design has a strong position in the range with brands such as Oliver Furniture, Hubsch, House Doctor, Madam Stoltz, Sika-Design and Nordal.
Why did you start a webshop as an addition to your physical store?
Our physical store is a bit off and tucked away and to get more visibility we started up a webshop in addition to the physical store. In the beginning we worked with the webshop as an addition to the physical store and the focus was on the store, but over the past few years we have changed our focus and now we focus mostly on the webshop. We have adapted our business to the way our customers shop. In the past, people wanted to come to the store to see and feel the products, but now they prefer to check out and read about the products on the website and then order the goods to test the furniture on site. If the goods don't fit, you send them back or return them to our shop. Even though we have both an online store and a physical store, we are mainly focusing on marketing ourselves in the Stockholm area so that we can deliver the goods ourselves. So we strive above all to have a market in Stockholm and the surrounding area, but of course we have customers all over Sweden.
Why did you choose Abicart as your e-commerce platform?
When we were about to launch the webshop in 2011, I read that Abicart was an easy and cheap option and since you could try it for free, I did and I got hooked on the platform. For our needs it is more than enough and I appreciate that it is so easy to use. I am really happy with the platform and it suits our business very well. We definitely recommend Abicart, it's a simple and nice platform to work in.
What is the best thing about running your own business and online store?
The best thing about running your own business is that it's fun to work on what you enjoy. I find it very fun to work with our products. I like it when we get new collections so I get to add new pictures and write texts for everything on the website. I like that you get to choose what products to bring in and what to work on, it makes me very inspired and excited to go to work every day. Another good thing is that you can borrow the tasks that you find boring, which in my case is for example bookkeeping. You can also adjust how much you want to work at times by increasing or decreasing the amount of advertising. For example, we are closed during the summer from 28-30 and then we take a break from advertising. If we want to sell a lot of work during these periods, we advertise more and do more work.
Do you have any tips for others who want to start an online store?
I would like to advise others to dare to try, even if all the pieces of the puzzle are not quite ready. If you want to run a small business, you don't need to have everything ready from the start. Most things will work out along the way, everything doesn't have to be ready before you start up. Start small and grow as you go, make sure you don't bring in too many suppliers from the start and choose products that are of good quality or you'll end up with a lot of returns and complaints. It's very easy to incur a lot of costs so keep a lid on expenditure and do a lot yourself or make sure you know what the cost will be and that it's worth paying for the service.
Which of our subscriptions do you use and why?
We use the Plus subscription and it suits our business well, we have what we need. In addition to the subscription, we have bought design help which we were very happy with, it really looks the way we wanted it to look.
Visit Solhem's lovely online store!