JP Stamps Online was conceived a few years ago as a sideline business to the parent company of Penrith Rubber Stamps. It was conceived out of a desire to give something back to the Justice of the Peace community across Australia who were being poorly serviced by stamp providers.
“I could see a need and wanted to fill the void that was out there” says Maggie Crowell, owner of Penrith Rubber Stamps. Maggie did extensive research to see how they were being serviced. “It was only being done as a bit of a sideline, I worked hard getting templates together and all the relevant wording required for the different states. I knew that the JP’s were worth having something special and easy to use, after all they provide the service for free and I feel we need to support them. By using the template method we are able to provide them with first class stamps at a reduced price.”
It was at this point that Maggie contacted us to develop a new site for them, stand alone from their main Penrith Rubber Stamps website.
I knew that the JP’s were worth having something special and easy to use, after all they provide the service for free and I feel we need to support them.
It was decided to build a full ecommerce solution for this project, (even though their main site was not ecommerce enabled) and while we got to work on the design and build, Maggie developed all of the stamp designs, gathered all the information for JPs in each state of Australia, and then fed through to us each of the products, which we added to the site.
In addition to the product information, we needed to gather the customers Name and Justice of the Peace registration number for the stamp at the time of ordering. The site was a fairly simple build and Maggie was very efficient in providing us with site content so it was a very painless build for both of us.
After SEOing the entire site, we launched and waited….three hours later the first order came through, and they have kept on coming through to this day. Job done.
We really did not know what to expect but we are truly pleasantly surprised… it has become an integral part of our business”
JP Stamps Online was started with intentions of servicing a community that was neglected online, however Maggie was unsure how well it would work initially: “We thought it would be a little sideline, we had no idea how many JP’s were out there and of course once you have your stamp you don’t need to buy another until things change with the JP process.” It did not take long for orders to start coming through, and Maggie soon realised the market was significantly larger than expected, with repeat orders being a large part of the sales.
We recently asked Maggie how well the site has worked out for their business and if it met their expectations: “Well and truly exceeded it. The website that Retail Labs created is simple to use and when the orders come through they have already been paid for so we don’t have to worry about having to chase payments etc. We really did not know what to expect but we are truly pleasantly surprised.”
As a result of the JP Stamps Online website going online, it has become so much more than a sideline to the Penrith Rubber Stamps business. In fact, it is now responsible for around 35% of the business revenue. Finding a niche market that is not being serviced well and providing them with a simple, and effective online portal to shop from, can provide your business with a significant increase in revenue and profit.
