It’s no secret that plenty of traditional brick and mortar businesses have long expanded their operations to the world of e-commerce. Online merchants have grown tremendously because of the emergence of the shopping cart technology, the huge development in online transactions, and more.
However, along with these developments are the technical problems that sometimes can’t be avoided. At times, businesses run into challenges and setbacks along the way.
This is exactly what Rocket Fireworks went through.
A Background on Rocket Fireworks
Rocket Fireworks began way back in 2007 when their founder Tom Jacobs decided it was time for him to step up and transform his ideas into reality.
From his initial journey toward becoming a professor to his part-time job at a fireworks company and finally to the fruition of his own fireworks business, he was able to overcome numerous challenges and come out successful in the end.
Ahead of other players in the industry, he’d started selling his fireworks online years ago, even before he opened his physical stores! Today, Rocket Fireworks is not just well-known in Toronto and Ontario, but the company also ships their products across the entire country of Canada.
Owner Mr. Jacobs says, “I have been selling online since before I opened bricks and mortar locations. It is what I do best. I love running our site. I love the artistry of it and the opportunity to be creative and to give people an exciting and positive experience!”
For many years now, his company has been providing joy and satisfaction to many customers around the world, with their online platform and system playing a major role in their overall sales.
Furthermore, the customer service is exemplary simply because of the passion and enthusiasm of the owner and his staff.
“I love to do things that, on the surface, do not add directly to the bottom line but get people to say ‘Hey, who is that? What are they doing? That’s interesting!’” Mr. Jacobs continues. “I definitely know that bricks and mortar sales are moving online in my industry, just like most others.”
Common Challenges
A lot of people would think that being in the fireworks business may not be profitable since the sales are seasonal. There’s some truth there, of course, but Rocket Fireworks has long been supplying products to different communities and ethnic groups in Canada which have their own holidays and celebrations. Hence, fireworks are not just in demand during the New Year. For instance, Halloween is actually considered the biggest fireworks season in British Columbia. It’s a good thing the company is able to have fireworks shipped there.
What’s more, the most difficult challenge for this kind of business is dealing with fireworks laws. According to Mr. Jacobs, various types of laws like importing laws and shipping laws can be a real pain.
He says, “Laws are the bane of our existence in fireworks— importing laws, shipping laws, selling laws, storage laws. If red tape stresses you out, then this business is not for you. Fireworks are regulated in Canada by the Federal Explosives Regulatory Division. Local laws are becoming more standardized to federal regs over time, but there are still many singular, arbitrary and senseless laws on the books in certain municipalities. We must always be on point where our knowledge of the law is concerned. As for selling to the US? That’s impossible. Ever since 9/11, it’s been rough trying to take explosives over the border!”
A Major Setback Online
One of the major setbacks that Rocket Fireworks experienced in their online transactions was when all of a sudden, potential buyers could not add items to their shopping carts using their Apple devices. What made it even worse is that this happened during the time leading up to New Year!
With so many customers using iPads, iPhones, and MacBooks, this was definitely a tremendous blow on sales and profit.
“We knew that returning customers would call and ask for help, but that many new customers would just give up and go to another site,” Mr. Jacobs points out.
It was definitely devastating for the company’s revenue if it had not been resolved quickly.
The Turnaround
Tom Jacobs is one heck of a businessman. He didn’t give up, naturally, after some attempts at resolving the issue. Upon consulting Your Store Wizards with this urgent matter, his business was rescued from the negative repercussions.
Mr. Jacobs narrates, “I emailed Your Store Wizards with this urgent issue just a few days before Christmas. To my surprise and pleasure, Don dissected the problem within just a few hours and offered a solution that would give us immediate relief and remedy while we worked on rewriting our shopping cart code to comply with new Apply security protocols.
The service and attention was amazing. I believe we finished the testing and publishing together at about midnight on a Saturday. I was so thankful and impressed by this I cannot tell you. I know in our business, we go beyond the call of duty on many occasions. But I also know how rare this is. And so I appreciated this dedication and incredible service all the more when I received it from YSW.”
This is just one of the many things that an online-based business would benefit from when working with an expert shopping cart provider.
Your Store Wizards specializes in helping all types of online merchants and sellers design and run an Internet platform that services customers excellently while ensuring topnotch sales.
You can visit the Rocket Fireworks website at https://www.rocketfireworks.ca/, and when you’re there, don’t forget to say hello to Tom!