Online vintage toy retailer takes advantage of new e-commerce platform features

Online vintage toy retailer takes advantage of new e-commerce platform features

Vintage-Toys.co.uk has launched its business on e-commerce platform Magento Go in time to take advantage of a recent update addressing international tax laws and shipping regulations.

Vintage-Toys.co.uk launched in May 2012 as a new online venture. Lisa Laurie, director at www.Vintage-Toys.co.uk, said the main challenge prior to launch was experience, as we have never designed or built a website before.

Competitive e-commerce package

“Having looked at a number of package options on the market, including using a web designer to do the work for us, it was obvious from the start that Magento Go would do what we needed (and more) for a fraction of the cost to the competition,” Laurie said.

“For a new business like us, cost, ease of use and features are key and Magento Go excelled in all. Most importantly, with a wide range of templates to choose from, all we needed to do was upload our text, pictures, logo and background and we were ready to start trading – no previous web design experience required.”

She said extensions and plug-ins are one of the most beneficial parts of Magento: “We have taken full advantage of these to tweak our site to our individual needs,” Laurie explained.

“Instead of having to pay costly web designers when we need to customise elements of our site – such as automating our customer’s delivery costs at checkout based on order weight and postcode – we simply downloaded the extension required, updated our costs and postcodes in the spreadsheet provided, and this was then automatically integrated to our site saving on lots of man hours and hourly rates.”

Adding localised functionality

The e-commerce platform provider and division of eBay company, X.commerce, recently announced the release of new UK-specific features for the software as a service (SaaS) version of its platform, Magento Go.

To better meet the needs of small online merchants in the UK like Vintage-Toys.co.uk, these new and localised features include local shipping capabilities using Royal Mail and VAT itemised orders; cookie compliance, with an embedded ‘Cookie Restriction Mode’ for visitors; an eBay ‘M2E’ extension; and PayPal integration.

Following its initial launch in February 2011, Roy Rubin, general manager of Magento and chief product and customer officer of X.commerce, said the additional functionality will meet growing demand from UK merchants.

“We’re continuing to see an uplift in merchants based in the UK who are facing unique tax laws and shipping regulations,” said Rubin. “Magento Go is now equipped with additional market-relevant features to help our UK customers more effectively compete in the crowded online space. We’re taking the pain out of selling goods and services online by ensuring our customers are armed with the some of the most flexible, e-commerce tools available.”

Magento Go is available for UK merchants starting at £9.99 per month and offers a free 30-day trial.