Meet a Business Member: The Interior Outlet on Selling Furniture
Preloved is the UK's most trusted marketplace, and as part of this we like to learn about our members to understand why Preloved works for them...and that goes for our Preloved business members too! With home improvements on the summer horizon for some of us, we caught up with one of Preloved's furniture business members.
Meet The Interior Outlet
After accidentally working together to refurbish a run down boozer into an inviting gastro pub, Annie and Martin decided to put their collective skills to good use by going into business together to provide a service of good quality furniture at affordable prices to the Yorkshire population. For the last year or so, Annie and Martin have been using Preloved to help promote their business, so we caught up with them to learn more!
How did you first get involved in the furniture business?
By accident really. A few years ago Annie decided to refurbish an old run down pub, but within weeks of us meeting, (and I’ve still no idea how it happened!) we were operating together, using our combined skills to transform a badly neglected boozer into a warm inviting pub with fab food and great service. Sadly we had to leave when Annie became ill, as she was unable to walk, needing surgery and long term rehabilitation. However, whilst refurbishing the pub on a budget, Annie had found suppliers of liquidated premium quality furniture, so once she was well enough, we decided to use this knowledge to set up The Interior Outlet with a vision of providing Yorkshire folk an outlet where they can buy luxury quality furniture at a fraction of the high street store prices.
All of the images on your adverts are quite beautiful and aspirational. How important is that when it comes to promoting your products or business online?
Its absolutely essential. The majority of visitors to a website are either browsing or in search of information, therefore you need to provide the information they are seeking for as quickly and clearly as possible. Great quality images say more about a product than a thousand words, as we all need to visualise ourselves sitting on that sofa, or how an item of furniture would work in a room. Getting the right shot can often be time consuming, but the feedback we get tells us it’s time well spent.
For customers who may not be able to get to your store in Wakefield, do you offer a delivery service?
Definitely, in fact we now have the capability to deliver pretty much anything to anywhere. We utilise a number of local delivery companies for carriage in the Yorkshire area and for deliveries further afield we engage specialist furniture delivery companies, which allow us to provide a low cost nationwide service, which also deliver to Ireland and can even deliver our furniture into Europe. Because we use these companies on a regular basis, we’ve been able to negotiate really low nationwide delivery fees, such as a sofa for just £59.99 or say, a TV unit for just £39.99!
You have a fantastic ‘4.9/5’ score on Trusted Shop. Almost all comments mention not only the wonderful furniture but also the incredible service they received, many mentioning you both by name. How important do you think great customer service is for independent businesses ensuring their customers return again and again?
It’s all about creating the best possible experience for each customer, one they’ll want to repeat and tell all their friends about. Having great products is just one part of what we do, we believe it’s essential to operate our business with old fashioned values, so we always try go the extra mile for our customers so they can have the most enjoyable buying experience possible, which is how it always used to be and how we'd like to be treated when we're buying spending our hard earned money.
What are the benefits of advertising your business on Preloved?
One thing that really stands out for us is the quality of the enquiries we receive through Preloved, but it also puts us in front of an expansive client base for a very reasonable fee which more than pays for itself every month. Being able to offer unlimited images is incredibly important to us, along with a link to our website, so potential clients can get the info they require, with speed, but can also check us out before deciding to purchase too.
The site has quite a warm friendly feel to it (not an easy thing to create online) which no doubt influences the type of visitor it attracts and we can honestly say we’ve been delighted with the levels of good quality enquiries our Preloved membership generates for us, so can wholeheartedly recommend other business users give your business membership a go. At the end of they day, you guys put your money where your mouth is by offering the months free trial, so there’s really nothing to lose.
