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Expatboxes.com is a new internet site e-commerce company based in the heart of Devon, England.  The company went online in November 2000.  Susan Ubl has lived abroad for 20 years. Susan says, “After returning to the UK five years ago I have been constantly asked by all my expat friends to send them various essential things they miss from home!" This is the story of their start-up, a feat easily accomplished with a little of that ol' British fortitude and ingenuity. To visit the Expatboxes.com website - Click Here - Additional Resources Expatboxes website  more on Ecommerce  Advertise on Escape Artist

Last summer I was in the Nuffield hospital about to have an operation, having just been given a dose of tranquilizer, when the idea for Expatboxes suddenly came to me - the name, the concept, the whole picture (could it have been the Valium?).  Before being wheeled into the operating theatre I made a call to my brother to buy the name on the Internet.  On coming round I telephoned him and he confirmed that he had purchased the name Expatboxes.com for me. The idea of Expatboxes.com was to sell British expats living abroad the things they miss from home, ie. Marmite, Colman’s mustard, Branston pickle, PG Tips tea, Mc.Vities Digestives etc.  Having been an expat myself for nearly twenty years I well know how Brits abroad crave the things no longer available to them.

Your Expatboxes Management Team Jean, Karen, Susan, Louise

Having had this flash of inspiration the ground work was about to start.  My Father kindly agreed to help financially and the rest I put up myself.  My friend and Expatboxes Manager Karen Knight joined us and between us we started on the road of discovery.  To work:  Firstly I turned the dining room into an office and bought a new, fast computer and got onto the Internet.  Sorting out a website was the first priority.  As an Internet newcomer it was all a new world to me full of jargon I did not understand, but not for long. I started looking through the options available.  It became clear that setting up an ordinary website was relatively easy and something one could do at home with all the various tools available.  The problem I came up against was that I had to offer an on-line purchasing facility, so that customers could actually purchase the products directly from the website, ie. an electronic store.
 

I looked at several of the package type deals available, such as Shopcreator, Sage, Actinic etc.  Most of these were fairly cost effective and included a shopping facility.  Unfortunately most did not offer joining up with a merchant bank for accepting on-line credit card payments such as WorldPay.  The number of products one could offer was also often limited, with monthly hosting costs rising dramatically with over 10 products on offer.  Eventually I decided on VirginBiz – an excellent all round package, not particularly  sophisticated, but offering good simple website design and setting up the WorldPay account as part of that package.  VirginBiz offer several options.  Either you can design the website yourself using their software (which I tried and found too complicated and time consuming), or the next step up is what they call the Gold option, where they will design the site to your specifications and present you with a fully functional e-commerce shop within 2 days – however you then have to maintain and make any changes to the shop yourself, or the Platinum option, where they will fully design and set up the site, and also maintain and implement any changes to the shop.  There is also a huge support package with VirginBiz, such as search engine registration, marketing advice, technical support, all the tools one needs when starting out in the world of e-commerce..

The Expatbox of those savory British Sauces

Having sorted this option out, work began on photographing the products.  I decided to offer 15 ready made up hampers of British goods.  The weather was fine so I did all the photography outside using a Sony digital camera with 2.1million pixels.  The images were e-mailed to Virgin in jpeg format, and they incorporated them into the website.  (Here I should thank my brothers Simon and Nicholas for their fantastic support and advice.)  Almost as an afterthought I included a souvenir section offering pens, bottle openers, fridge magnets etc, in the Union Jack design, and also a ‘Pictures from Home’ section with photos of the Devon countryside – both these sections have proven incredibly popular, especially with Brits in the States, which goes to show that what you think is going to be popular is not necessarily right.  I have found that I have started out with offering a basic set of products which have been either phased out or developed according to feedback from customers.  I then had to provide shipping weights and costs.  Each hamper was weighed at Parcel Force with packaging, and the shipping price to all the various country zones deduced.
 

That brings us to yet another new area:  Packaging.  I would have liked to have had cardboard hampers made up with the Union Jack pattern all over them.  After contacting many packaging companies I realised that this was going to prove very expensive (2 colours), so had to re-think this as customers would probably not want expensive packaging, but I wanted to offer quality packaging which was unique to us.  Eventually the Sales Manager at SCA packaging in Exeter came up with the current design of a white box with our logo printed on the lid in a stable cardboard grade (yet another world, single wall, double wall – I now inspect every package I receive with different eyes!), and an outer transit box.  I made an initial small order of 1.000 boxes and when they were delivered to my house on the back of a huge lorry, the first thing the driver required was my (non existing ) fork lift truck to remove the palettes from the lorry.  Expatboxes went on-line in November 2000.  Our work is now getting our name known in the UK and abroad.  We have links on many expat-related sites and have been featured in the Weekly Telegraph, but a lot is word of mouth from our satisfied customers.  We will be expanding and diversifying according to our customer feedback.  The souvenirs have proven an amazing success and we will certainly be adding to our range in the near future.  Our job is a joy, knowing we are bringing pleasure to so many British expats out there!

The Expatbox of those toiletry necessities

To visit the Expatboxes.com website - Click Here -