Ben Slater, co-founder and operations director of WAE+ explains why he thinks his one-year-old, self-funded business will take £15 million in sales next year, after a dazzling growth trajectory in a popular and ‘under-served’ niche.
When and why did you first decide to set the business up?
I first decided to set up WAE+ with my business partner Darren Cresswell when I ran Turn90, a company that specialises in developing ecommerce websites and, after working on a number of successful sites for other retailers, we decided to launch our own retail business.
We started working on WAE+ in 2011 as an office supplies retailer, but have since branched out to consumer electronics, toys, wholesale food and drink, and parts and components.
When did the business become a reality?
WAE+ was launched in September 2011.
What help did you have in setting up your business?
I worked with my co-founder, Darren Cresswell – we didn’t have any external help in setting up the business. We are self-funded as banks are currently very cautious about lending to start-ups. As we have grown we have started to get more support from Government organisations but it’s taken a while to appear on their radar.
How difficult was it to start as an ecommerce business?
There were a number of challenges – technical, economical and logistical – involved in setting up an ecommerce business but, thanks to having web development experience and funds from our previous venture, both Darren and I were confident we could make it work.
Planning is very important as, with the growth of the business, you quite quickly become a more conventional retailer – with hiring staff, moving into bigger offices and getting a dedicated warehouse – so you need to be prepared for those changes.
Were there any hurdles that you had to overcome, and if so, how was it done?
Our main hurdle to setting up in 2011 was the recession so, to ensure success, our focus was on keeping costs low. This was achieved by working on the website design and sourcing manufacturers, suppliers and couriers for products and delivery ourselves.
When did you really start to feel like you were taking off as a business?
When our first year results came in. We beat our projected revenue of £1.5 million to achieve a turnover of £1.65 million in our first year.
We’ve also been recruiting and, on our first birthday, we celebrated with 16 members of staff compared to two a year ago. We’re now on track to do 10x the business that we did this last year so everything is changing very rapidly. It’s a challenging but fun time and great to see our ideas coming to life.
Any advice you would give to people wanting to set up their own ecommerce business?
Find a niche or sector that isn’t being supplied well. We have an extensive wholesale food and drink offering which other online retailers may struggle to compete with. I would also advise that companies wanting to enter this space invest in their technology platforms and customer service.
Be prepared for the bad times, there is a hard slog ahead and it will undoubtedly be stressful at points so always think positively. I find writing lists of what I need to do and checking them off is a satisfying way of seeing what progress you are making/have made.
What software did you use when setting up the business?
We built our own software platform.
What plans do you have to grow the business?
We have just launched a toy range ahead of Christmas, so anticipate having to recruit even more staff in the run up to the festive period, to meet demand. Also, with customer conversion increasing as quickly as it has done over the past 12 months, we expect next year’s turnover to jump from £1.65 million to over £15 million.
We are just opening a new Distribution Centre to ensure we can efficiently serve many thousands more customers a week from across our huge range.
If you could have done anything differently, what would it be?
We would have been ensured that our delivery service actually delivered on time! We have switched to UPS now and they have so far saved us from any headaches.
Hi Ben I know your a busy man, I have recently bought 3 products from a 3dsamsung tv and then all the 3d glasses and now a cinema sound system been very pleased with price service for first 2 orders but now can’t get a reply from phone or fast track it’s leaving me thinking is your business still there simply because nobody gets back I live down on south coast what do people like me do is it just a matter of time or does some one get back to us eventually a. Response from some one wouldn’t go amiss cheers Colin loft
Ben and Darren : u had better start delivering on your promises otherwise u will not be in business for very long……………………………please go on-line and read your recent reviews and when so doing organise the delivery of my TV without furtherado – or refund the cash forthwith.
Kelvin W. Aldus – one of your overseas customers
Ben and Darren : u have had a very successful launch but in order to maintaın same u need to bolster your Organisation for from my ordering experience u r not able to cope wıth demand.
Please take a look athe recent reviews on WAE which are self-explanatory!
Furthermore, kındly see to it that my TV ıs despatched whıch ıs nearly one month on order.
Kelvın W. ALDUS…………one of your Overseas customers from Turkey
their main problem is not with delivery agents
The fact that they say a item is in stock take payment for expedited delivery when the do not have the item in stock or know when they can get it . Customer service abysmal
Mostly, he’ll make that sort of money because his company are basically robbing b*****ds.
Google them, it’s unbelievable how shoddy this lot are.
There is no way this business will survive. Their service is terrible. I think most people would prefer to pay a little more and get the item they ordered on time and working. They use every excuse in the books but the main one is that the item is on its way from their European warehouse to their UK location. They provide a web site to provide order updates but it is completely useless. For example what does “item allocated” as a status mean. You either have the item in stock or you don’t if you have it in stock you ship it. I only wish I had read the reviews before I ordered instead of after I encountered problems.
Hi
After almost 40 days of cancellation, still have not receive my refund! Your website doesn’t work anymore. Have lots of promissing emails but no money back so I have to take the legall actions,
Looks like there is no end to this con of taking money for items that they say are in stock but cannot deliver. I purchased a monitor which was showing as in stock and paid for 1-2 day delivery but am now being told there is a problem with shipment and it could be another week. They have canceled the order but i cant have my money back for up to another 30 days I would really like my money back as i cannot afford to buy another monitor whilst waiting for a refund. Also my kids are now struggling to complete they course work without a computer. Please can i have a refund now.
AVOID WAE+ Like the PLAGUE
They take your money and then change delivery dates, I tried calling to Cancel but after being on hold for 30+ minutes I tried there ‘Fast (Sorry should be Extremely Slow) Response’ while order was in “Awaiting Fulfilment”.
2 Days later they replied via Fast Response (still won’t answer phone or call back) saying ‘Items Allocated’ am I sure I want to cancel….tried ring again after being on hold for 20 minutes I messaged back saying ‘yes please cancel’. 2 days later I logged in to see ‘Item Shipped’ I again called no answer so bombarded them with messages and called UPS courier who said label had been printed but items not picked up yet. Finally I got a reply saying ‘Shortage of staff through sickness was to blame’ (not being funny that is not the customers problem.
I then emailed the managers and finally got an apologetic reply saying ‘Items will not be delivered and they understood why I was upset’
I finally thought it was a human being but no, 10 minutes later I got a message saying to reject items that day…At this point I was confused and emailed the manager again who eventually replied ‘Items not out for delivery, will not be coming to you, refund will be processed’.
I then ordered from a reliable retailer along with other items from other sources and went off to work leaving family at home to accept my parcels. To my surprise when I got home I had my replacements and other items but WAE+ had shipped them even after confirming on 3 different occasions the items would not be posted and my refund was on the way.
I immediately tried calling (why they have a phone I don’t know) so emailed the Managers who were very rude and said it was all my fault and if I wanted a refund I would have to send back at my expense.
I have refused this as they are to blame for this whole fiasco.
After reading other review sites and experience WAE+ do not seem trustworthy.
I have emailed Trading Standards and will be contacting my Bank, but please if you want your items
BUY ELSEWHERE. I would rather spend twice as much if needed than deal with this untrustworthy website.
Hi Your Company is crap!!!!!! and you will get shut down if you carry on the way you are doing.
Pay people back their refunds straight away when you have not got the items INSTEAD OF PISSING THEM OFF
Hello Ben, let me warn you. If i dont get my money back i will personally track you down and take it out of your pocket myself.
You have been warned.
John I’m with you mate shall we pay him a visit?
Dear All,
We are sorry for any problems you are having with WAE+.
Unfortunately, we can’t answer your customer service queries on this forum, but for any query re our range, customer service, returns or refunds, please use our contact us page: http://www.waeplus.co.uk/contact-waeplus/ or call 0121 663 0433.
We have increased our customer service centre by 50% this week, so aim to get a response to you quicker.
Do mention esellermedia in your correspondence with us.
Regards,
Customer Service Team at WAE+
WAE+ owe me money for an item which was advertised as ‘in stock’ when in fact it was not. If I cannot get it back via your website team I shall come get it from you personally Ben. That’s a promise.
I am starting to worry, I bought something from them and it never turned up, so I asked for a refund and got no reply, twice. Now when I track my order it has disappeared off their website.
I am not a wealthy man so I really need this money returned to me. I don’t want to have to wait months to get my money back, it’s my money. Is everybody’s money just sitting in a bank account somewhere earning them interest? Surely pretending a product is in stock is breaking trading standard law.
I wish I’d never used google shopping search now which lead my to WAE+. Google you’ve let me down, allowing crappy companies to list on your engine,
If I don’t get a quick refund Visa and Ann Robinson will be getting a call.
Don’t even consider purchasing from WAE+, you will then avoid involuntarily subscribing to providing this company with a 30+ day interest free loan (when your IN STOCK order becomes unavailable several days after banking your payment, due to issues beyond your control).
Learn from my mistake/experience and avoid any purchase or transaction with WAE+
Ignore the dubious “glowing 5 star” reviews (see http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2013/jan/26/fake-reviews-plague-consumer-websites).
FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE HAD A SIMILAR WAE+ EXPERIENCE, PLEASE VISIT
http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/shut-down-wae-plus-for-conning-millions-of-online-shoppers
I guess that the self funded business model that the article refers to, is significantly boosted via 30+ day interest free involuntary loans taken from hundreds of unhappy WAE+ customers.
I believe that WAE+ is the child of WEAREELECTRICALS another company founded by yourself and Mr. Cresswell (same address as WAE+, so just a change of name really). I recall that firm was highlighted in The Guardian newspaper a couple of times, cross referenced you too. I just cannot think what the story was about now.
Oh well, I can always google it I suppose.
I appreciate Mr Slater’s enterprise in setting up an e-commerce site, but unless he improves his customer service he will continue to have many disgruntled, unhappy ex-customers. Like others, I have had to wait an unacceptably long time for a refund and the service I received was appalling. You can contrast this with the excellent, helpful response you receive from retailers like Amazon for instance. If he actually cared about his business and his customers he would focus on this aspect, as unhappy consumers don’t come back! I also do not appreciate being sold obviously ‘grey’ imports with European adaptors which are passed off as UK stock.
In the UK it’s an offence to sell electrical goods that don’t have a UK plug (or have an approved adaptor fixed on). I’d take this up with trading Standards.
Absolutely abismal service, ordered a product almost 30 days ago thats was “in stock”, status is still “awaiting fullfilment”,many calls to their indian call centre often waiting 30 minutes on hold with untrained idiotic members of staff who tell me “maybe it will turn up next week?”, will it? how about you give me some tracking details for that? Oh wait you can’t. Its at that point its not too hard to understand why you will take (steal) £15million. I hope you’re company fails spectacularly and i can’t wait to take legal action to get my money back.
Ordered my item on express delivery on the 10th March. Item didn’t turn up within a week. Was only then told they didn’t have the item in stock and couldn’t source it. I immediately requested a refund and have been chasing a refund ever since – it is now 23rd April and I received this email.
BEGIN
Dear Customer,We are contacting you in regards to complications that have arisen with your order therefore your order has been cancelled. This has affected our ability to process a full refund due to problems with our previous payment merchant. As a result, we must unfortunately notify you that you will need to file a dispute with your bank for the transaction, as we are unable to complete the refund now from our side. In many cases this should be straightforward, and quick. Charge-backs are there to protect the consumer in situations where they are unable to receive their funds back via normal methods. We realise that this is asking more of you than is normally expected, and we can only apologize for this, and any inconvenience this may cause you. Should you have any issue regarding this, let us know and we will see what we can do to try to help further. We regret that we are unable to refund your transaction
and hope that your bank can assist you with a swift conclusion.
END
Scammers. They need shutting down.
Despicable con men, until my purchase of a Samsung Smart TV, not European version as we know it in the UK…it has Eastern European settings…wasn’t aware until updates…DS time changes…the guide is worthless…you cannot watch live tv.
I digress…the TV ordered Nov 2 2012, arrived 7th Nov…with no power adapters as promised in the description? I told them, nothing, I had my carer contact them, nothing, I ended up in hospital…and they ridiculed me on email to each other, but accidentally cc’d me in.
Without consulting with me, They arranged for UPS to collect TV, but would not confirm refund etc…they sold me a lemon. Tags shipped from France, but had to resolve power adapter with Samsung…as WAE+ breached Plug and Socket Safety Act 1994, by supplying only plug adapter…which is not allowed in UK.
These folks have the audacity to take people’s money, fir faulty, unsatisfactory quality good, or just not supply goods, change their T&C to suit only them…30days to refund!
35,000 orders they claim they had in Oct, Nov, Dec 2012…imagine even 2% interest on those payments…that’s how they make their money…real you in with low price, upsell you on shipping, only to fob you off with excuses…until you ask for refund…then they milk your payment….all the while trying to avoid your calls, emails and demands for your money back.
Remember, Section 75…if item purchased is over £100 … Your credit/debit card should be able to get all your money back.
Banks will also help, but takes a little more time.
Long distance selling regulations, you have rights see http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/business_leaflets/general/oft913.pdf
WAe+ Despicable
Same experience for me, ordered, website says in stock , Wae banked payment and 2 weeks later am told item unavailable from suppliers, why when its supposed to be in stock. So Wae have had my money and interest – they have told me now money will be refunded “soon” . Wish I’d read this post before.
This company is run by criminals who take your money and don’t deliver. Appalling customer service – impossible to escalate complaint or resolve issues. They sell items they can not source. Avoid at all costs.
Con artists of the highest order!!! I am having to go through visa to get money back, for an order that never even got dispatched let alone arrive. they actually laughed at me and put the phone down. have been in touch with trading standards watchdog and everyone in between. your going down bitch!!