An online furniture store specialising in high quality bespoke solid oak tables, homewares and accessories, Little Snug was launched in May, and offers over 300,000 product variants. Furniture News spoke to co-founder Russell Lambert to find out more …
Why visit your website?
First and foremost, if you’re in the market for high quality furniture, then we don’t think we can be beaten on price. Almost all of our tables, chairs and large item furniture are made from solid oak. Most items are hand crafted in the UK, which is increasingly important to people who recognise that the production values in the UK are exemplary.
How did you enter this industry?
Daniel Barlow (also a co-founder) is a qualified carpenter. I moved into a new family home and was having a hard time sourcing a table for my kitchen. Dan’s an old buddy so I asked him to help me make what I was looking for. Subsequently, loads of my friends asked me where I'd got it, asked for their own to be made and so we saw a gap in the market for affordable, bespoke furniture.
Who is your e-commerce hero?
Jeff Bezos who founded Amazon.com. He said: “You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well.”
We’re earning a reputation to do hard things well by challenging the major established brands by offering bespoke products, hand-crafted in the UK, delivered in 2 weeks and at off the shelf prices.
Describe a typical working day
I get up at 6am, check my e-mails and review our overnight sales. I get the kids up, arrive at the gym for 6.55am, workout, then get to the office for 8am. In the morning I review figures, forecasts and targets, go to strategy meetings for sales, social media and product development. Then I grab lunch, check the status of any orders, check any customer queries, oversee the sending out of any sample boxes, and hopefully get home in time for the kids’ bedtime! Wow, when you put it down on paper, it looks like a busy day!
What is the one part of your job you’d prefer to avoid?
Picking up calls from PPI companies!
What has been your greatest single challenge to date?
Running two businesses in parallel.
How much do you invest in making your site more visible?
As much time, money and resources as possible. After investing so much in the the development of the website, particularly the ‘Design your Table’ section which required a lot of work, we had to start-up with limited funds. We’ve called on a lot of friends and contacts for advice and favours!
What’s your take on how the relationship between online and physical retail might develop?
Tactile and sensory experiences are one of the few things that cannot be replicated online. The importance of that ‘touchy feely’ experience is one not be underestimated when it comes to influencing a purchasing decision. We’re very sympathetic to that so we like to push the fact that for no cost we’ll send out a sample box containing examples of our edge styles and a colour pallette.
“Confidence in buying large scale items online is growing and those without a serious online offering are missing out”
Having said that, confidence in buying large scale items online is growing and those without a serious online offering are missing out. It’s incredibly important to have a good returns policy. Ultimately it’s a lot easier to buy online but the customer needs to trust you, and trust is earned.
What are your growth plans for the business?
We have ambitions to become one of the UK’s leading home furnishing retailers by staying true to our roots of having a core number of pieces per room than are bespoke. Ultimately, we have plans to move into different areas of the house! At the moment we’re focused on kitchens/dining rooms. The next phase will see us move into bathrooms, so watch this space!
What advice would you offer an aspiring e-tailer?
Know your customer. Don't be afraid to try something that no-one else offers as that will help you with marketing. Oh, and you'll need to learn a lot about search engine optimisation!
