myHermes turns out to be ideal new partner for online retailer Racquetworld

About Racquetworld

E commerce business Racquetworld provides top quality branded tennis racquets and other selected sports items at the lowest prices available on the internet. Established in 1996 the company started out as a wholesaler selling to sports shops, then in 2004 they made the transition to selling directly to consumers. Business turnover has grown year on year at around 20% with online trading quadrupling since the move into e-retail in 2004.

Challenges faced by Racquetworld today

Racquetworld’s primary marketplace is eBay since they’ve found this to be the fastest, most cost-effective route to the mass market. But while they became an overnight success on eBay back in 2004 times are tougher nowadays. As owner Mick Batten points out

“At that time we had the advantage of being one of the first businesses to use eBay professionally. Nowadays competition is far fiercer.”

Success on eBay depends on Racquetworld being able to offer the lowest priced racquets on the net with ‘Buy it now’ and ‘Best Offer’ listings offering better returns than auction listings.

Racquetworld customers love free postage too, so being able to offer this is key to the company’s sales’ efforts, as is being able to provide customers with ‘Next day’ delivery.

This meant that Racquetworld had to find a courier that can offer them competitive shipping fees despite the fact that their items are generally not a standard shape. That ruled Royal Mail out of the equation – especially considering their recent price hikes and new focus on the size and shape of packaging as a main indicator of postage costs.

Efficient delivery was also essential for Racquetworld in order to get good feedback ratings – vital to any seller on eBay. So they had to find a courier company that could not only deliver on price, but on reliability.

Why did you choose to partner with myHermes?

Previous to partnering with myHermes Racquetworld had been using another third-party courier as opposed to opting for delivery via Royal Mail.

And owner Mick is quick to point out that his company is generally loyal to their business partners and don’t ‘swap around’ unless they have to. As it turned out however, their preferred courier failed to live up to their expectations, with Mick feeling there was a lack of transparency on their behalf.

Having become aware that myHermes’ reputation was growing in the marketplace as a reliable courier, and having checked out their prices and finding them competitive Racquetworld decided to try them out.

Now, several months down the line Mick is very happy he made this decision.

Key benefits of using myHermes

According to Mick

“I’ve found myHermes 99.9% satisfactory in terms of delivery and they’re quick to handle any occasional problems that arise. This has given us the confidence to expect we’ll never have any reason to move away from them.”

“We now give almost everything that they cover in terms of services with them”.

He also expressed a desire for myHermes to take on even more of their deliveries in future, as they increase the types of services offered.