Stanley Gibbons overhauls websites

Stamps and collectibles specialist Stanley Gibbons has gone live with a new website for its Fraser’s Autographs business as part of a wider strategy to overhaul its ecommerce presence. The flagship Stanley Gibbons site will relaunch in the spring.

The new Fraser’s Autographs website, built by Sceneric on the Hybris platform, is simpler to navigate with an improved search functionality. Launched on 10th February, it also allows for bundling, discounts and special promotions, something the old site couldn’t cope with.

“We’ll now have a proper ecommerce platform that will allow us to maximise search-engine marketing and affiliates,” says Keith Heddle, Stanley Gibbons’ director of sales and marketing. These programmes were already in place, he adds, but the company didn’t want to drive customers to sites that weren’t “fit for purpose”. The new websites will also enable Stanley Gibbons to have an email contact cycle in place. Previously, says Heddle, emails were “broadcasts” and not particularly engaging or on-brand. Heddle is wary of segmenting too deeply at this stage and says the emails will not be targeted to buyers of specific genres of autographs or stamps, but rather will encourage customers to visit the websites and see the whole range. Adding to this is the fact that Stanley Gibbons has little online transactional history at this stage to make truly intelligent segmentation choices, he says.

An eye on international
“We have a market-leading global brand, albeit in a niche market,” says Heddle. However, “neither site represented the brand’s premium position”. The relaunches across the group will reinforce the brand’s values and heritage, allowing the business to trade internationally more effectively.

Approximately 10 percent of sales currently come from overseas, with Heddle seeing significant room for growth—especially in attracting new overseas customers interested in stamps as an investment. To this end, Stanley Gibbons is also looking at opening offices in “ultra high-end” locations such as Switzerland, Hong Kong and Singapore, to attract and service these customers.

The role of the catalogue
Stanley Gibbons produces a quarterly catalogue for Fraser’s, which “ROI-wise”, says Heddle, “doesn’t wash its face”. However, Heddle, who worked at Direct Wines before joining Stanley Gibbons in 2009, appreciates the catalogue has a “coffee-table-ness” and that it drives a trickle of orders—usually more expensive purchases.

The company also produces a quarterly catalogue for Stanley Gibbons and Heddle understands the value of the catalogue to the business, explaining that there is a significant proportion of the Stanley Gibbons customer base that doesn’t shop online or even own a computer.  

The company is currently undertaking a second IT project, which sees its catalogue data digitised into one database from software supplier Stibo. The content and digital asset management system will hold all the images and data on all its products allowing Stanley Gibbons to create a “virtual album” and eventually create print-on-demand catalogues for customers.

The other aim is to create a philately marketplace—an ambitious project designed to rival eBay and Amazon’s marketplaces. In a bold move that enables other traders to sell through the site, the marketplace will allow individuals and dealers to buy, trade, swap, and auction their stamps. Stanley Gibbons will be on hand to legitimise the merchandise and take a fee from each sale. Heddle aims to have the marketplace up and running by the end of 2011.