Case Studies
LambdaTek
Founded in 2005, LambdaTek won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in 2015. It supplies IT components to customers across Europe and specialises in “the needs of the Hi Tech community.” Owner Tom Felici chose PayPal to support the firm’s efficient back office and give confidence to international customers:
“German customers seem to be much more security conscious and they trust big brands more. PayPal has proved to be indispensable in helping us enter our target international markets.”
Internet Fusion
Founded and run by action sports enthusiasts, the firm sells clothing and equipment for extreme sports, wild adventures and survival around the world. Find out how they do it, with a little help from PayPal:
“It is crucial to meet customers’ expectations, especially regarding delivery and import duties. We don’t want customers to receive an unexpected bill for duty and we don’t want to be caught out by unexpected courier costs.”
Jedi Robe
When owner and MD Wayne Bower started Jedi Robe, geographical boundaries never crossed his mind: “That one box of goods was available to the world.” He explains his approach:
“When you start out, you rarely have any money, so I adopted a strategy of picking a country and allocating just £1 per day for search engine optimisation. When I got my money back, I would increase the investment and pick another country.”
EWM
Edinburgh Woollen Mill (EWM) owns a number of highly regarded fashion and retail brands, including: Peacocks, Jane Norman, Pondem Home, the specialist golf clothing company ProQuip and kilt maker Hector Russell. As the group expanded international, online sales, it selected PayPal as its payment partner:
“PayPal has a ready-made infrastructure for operating in international markets, and it provides ready-made credibility which is key for us when we enter new markets.”
Hawes & Curtis
A well-known Jermyn Street shirt-maker, Hawes & Curtis has built its reputation on quality and service. Its past clients have included the Duke of Windsor, Earl Mountbatten, Cary Grant and Fred Astaire. Overseas customers were already using Hawes & Curtis’s UK website, so the firm took an evolutionary approach to building international sales:
“PayPal has amazing reach and it is used by a range of upmarket sites. Customers accept it as safe and secure. A lot of people respect the brand, and it’s easy to use.”
Jackson’s Art Supplies
Jackson’s Art Supplies started in 1995, when a friend brought home some very cheap, very high quality paint from Russia. Originally selling through a mail-order catalogue, toady the firm is largely web-based with £1 in every £8 coming from international sales:
“A lot of our customers had been asking to pay with PayPal. We already used PayPal on our eBay shop so it was an easy decision to … get PayPal to handle all our web-based payments. We knew there was customer demand and we felt that the familiar PayPal logo would give new customers peace of mind.”
The Pro's Closet
The Pro’s Closet
Owner Nick Martin keeps the wheels of his business spinning by selling pre-owned gear to cyclists worldwide. Find out how he does it with a little help from eBay and PayPal and hear his advice for other business owners hoping to expand internationally:“Our most valuable tools for selling internationally are PayPal and eBay. Without those tools it would be impossible for us to reach [customers] in those markets.”
Penzu
Penzu, the online journaling platform, started as a small idea in 2009 and has now grown into a lifestyle embraced by a million people across 202 countries, including Australia, Canada, India, Japan and Germany.
“Over 2 billion people are online today, and that number is growing fast. PayPal has helped us reach a wide audience – globally.”
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