Q&A: Dan Jennings of Monster Slippers

Dan Jennings was busy running a successful logistics company when he came across a fledgeling business he simply couldn’t ignore. Monster Slippers. Since buying in 2008, he and his team have turned the business around and made it a roaring success.

I caught up with Jennings to find out what its like running such a seasonal business and why he’ll never sell in-stores.

So Dan, how did it all begin?

Originally Monster Slippers was owned by a customer of ours. We were (and still are) running a logistics company, working with retailers as third party fulfilment. We have a big warehouse where online sellers store their goods and dispatch around the world.

We know most of our customers and so I got chatting with one of them. He had started Monster Slippers in 2006 and felt he had taken it as far as he could – he  also looking for a deposit for a house and was keen to sell out. I thought the business sounded funky and a long way from what we were doing on the logistics side so I decided to buy the company in 2008.

At the time he was just buying the styles and selling them there was no design element so we put our thinking caps on and went from there. We now design everything ourselves, we get the products manufactured in China and import them by the container load.

What was it like setting up online?

In our existing business we has serviced a lot of different websites and had a good feel for what looks good and what works from a mechanical point of view. Many websites suffer from bad connections from their websites to their suppliers.

We worked really hard to make the electronic interchange as fast as possible so orders would come through within minutes and we could process, pack and dispatch very quickly.

We stayed with our original website for a while but it had bad functionality so we redeveloped it with a company called Site Wizard. We knew them fairly well and they ticked all of the boxes in terms of SEO. A big mistake that many people make when they redevelop their sites is not to carry their URLs over to the new site.

If you lose continuity within your URLs your search pattern is lost and the SEO you built up over years with Google can be lost. We made sure we carried ours over and didn’t lose any SEO at all.

We also improved on design and made it look a lot more professional. You can see at a glance if a website has been created by amateurs – design and functionality are very important to us. We are always trying to add functionality and grow the site.

We are thinking of redeveloping again because if you go to developers with a list of things you’d like a add or takeaway, it often adds up to the point where you may as well completely redevelop.

Is your website mobile optimised?

Yes, we have mobile and tablet optimisation. Part of what we do is always be aware of what is going on in the world of ecommerce. Augmented reality, QR codes etc. We are a small company but we look at the big boys with millions to spend and see what they are doing. We don’t just copy them but adopt some ideas.

Mobile was important to us so we got a mobile website up and running last year. The website looks good – it draws information from the main site and converts it – we don’t have to maintain it at all it automatically updates any changes we make on the main site to mobile.

What are the differences in running a logistics company and a B2C ecommerce site?

The customers are the big difference. We have 50,000 monster slipper customers and within logistics we have 50. You still have to be very careful though, you want to keep everyone happy. We give the same level of customers service to both sets.

We want to make sure we give people more than they expect – respond to their emails quickly and provide a personal touch – more than they would get at the bigger retailers.

Do you sell on any online marketplaces?

Yes, we sell on Amazon and eBay. Amazon is a very hard taskmaster – very hard indeed. But  they do very well for us. Obviously they take a commission but we have access to millions of shopping through the platform.

It is hard because Amazon gives you promises to maintain. We have a certain amount of time to respond and get products delivered – this is not always within your control. Amazon doesn’t care if there’s a postal strike or if its snowing!

It also doesn’t understand that we don’t want to work weekends. If we get an order over the weekend and we don’t answer they will downgrade our rating and this is something customers can see. Luckily we have been able to maintain a 99.9% score but you have to keep on top of it.

Would you ever sell in-store through a third party retailer?

We are approached by offline retailers quite a lot but we would never sell with them because of the margins. We work with a number of charities, Born Free is one example. We have certain products that when we sell, we give a donation to the charity. It’s good for us, the customers and the charities. I would rather give away part of my margins to a charity than a retailer.

Also to be perfectly honest they would end up copying out designs.

How has the business grown since you bought it?

When we bought the company it was selling off around 1,000 pairs per year. We have just ordered a shipment of 75,000 pairs which we expect to sell no problem. We tend to design around this time of year until around March and then send off the designs and have them manufactured until July – shipping in one big container in August.

We have suffered because the business is seasonal – turnover isn’t consistent, it grows throughout winter, rockets around December then slows to a dribble around June, July. We have added extra ranges and diversified to fill the gap so hopefully that will work. We have flip flops now and we are branching into children’s animal dressing gowns etc.

Is there any advice you would give to people setting up online?

The most important thing is keeping an eye on what everyone else is doing. Keep an eye on the market leaders and try to stay abreast of new developments. Things are very fast moving and there are always new opportunities.

SEO is massively important – and you should always look at your analytics. We monitor these very closely.

Most importantly you should enjoy it! We think we can have fun selling slippers and we do. I started running my own business and I love it. It is important to look forward to going to work everyday.