Good usability and a 111 % money back guarantee - light11.eu

The intelligent home lighting solutions that light11 is offering in its shop create the perfect atmosphere for modern-day living. The company’s core competencies lie in the area of health and well-being. light11 is an international brand standing for quality light, timeless designs and competitive prices. Especially the unique 111 % price guarantee is an interesting feature of this Shop. Find out more about this feature and the Trusted Shops effect in the following aricle.

What is the idea behind your online store?
To make a long story short, I would say:
1. very fast delivery to all European countries
2. free shipping and
3. 111% price guarantee

Why did you decide to start an e-commerce business?
We founded the company end of 2003 and went online at the end of 2004. We started as a “one man show” with a desk and a laptop computer at home. The idea was to sell design-lighting combined with an innovative sales-channel. Our easy room-navigation enables the costumer to find the right light by clicking on the area of the room for which light is needed. F.E. click on an armchair or sofa to get the right reading light or click on a dining-table to get the right light for dining-tables.

Could you tell us about your professional life before you started your online store?
I have studied electro-technics with a focus on light-technology. After that I worked as a lighting designer in Munich. During that period I planned the lighting for the munich airport center and other big objects. Until end of 2002 I worked as a managing director in a lighting company. This company produced luminaires for big projects such as the airport in Düsseldorf-Germany or the RWE skyscraper in Essen-Germany. In 2003 I finally founded light11.

Do you work fulltime or part time for your online business?
I work 1 day a week for light11 and I am responsible for the strategic business. The operative business is run by Mr. Kempf, our general manager. light11.de has 12 employees.

Where are your customers located?
Our costumers are located mainly in Europe with a focus on Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Since the pound is quite week, the current turnover in the UK is quite week.

Which shop system are you currently using?
We are using osCommerce. At this time we have one external programmer who does all the customizing for us.

Which payment systems does your Shop offer?
At the moment we offer the following payment systems:

1. Advance payment transfer with 4% discount
2. Direct debit for invoice recipients based in Germany
3. Credit Card
4. Cash on delivery

We plan to offer PayPal and American Express in the future.

What are the advantages of your online shop against a high street store?
1. Easy and comfortable Shopping form home. You do not have to drive into a crowded city
2. Fast delivery. Many of our luminaires will be delivered to our customers in 24h to 7 days in almost every country in Europe.
3. We offer a 111 % low price guarantee: If a customer finds an identical product under the same terms at a cheaper rate within Europe within 14 days of the customers order we will refund the costumer 111% of the difference.

Do you also run a physical store?
We also run a physical store in Lünen near Dortmund, Germany. At this location we have our main storehouse and our main office as well. The main benefit of having a store and a storehouse at the same location is that the customer can take his luminaire right with him. In a normal store he will have to wait up to 4 weeks until his luminaire arrives.

Does your store have any special features or functions?
It was very important for us that our shop design is consistent with our corporate design. The colors, the style, the furnitures etc. One example is the color of the floor. It is specially adapted to one of our company colors warm grey. In addition we have taken our application driven philosophy - light for homes, escpecially for living rooms, dining rooms etc. - from the online shop into our store. We show luminaires in different applications f.e. a luminaire over a dining table or reading lights beside a couch or an armchair.

What measures have you taken to increase consumer confidence?
Our main goal is to satisfy our costumer. If he is not happy with the product he can send it back to us free of charge with a “money back guarantee”. So there’s no risk at all. In addition we are certified as trustworthy by “Trusted Shops”. The renowned “Trusted Shops seal of approval” communicates confidence to the consumers that visit our website.

In addition to that we aim at maintaining a website with a good usability where customers find all the information they’re looking for.

What did you do to increase the visibility of your shop?
Mainly advertising in Google Adwords and search engine optimisation.

Are you using web 2.0 approaches for your online business?
We are thinking of some web 2.0 approaches which will be realized in 2009.

Where do you gather information about online shopping and web-retailing?
I gather information in the www.shopbetreiber-blog.de and the magazine “Der Versandhausberater”. Here you get quite helpful information.

Which recommendations would you give to other e-tailers?
Do not sell products, sell solutions …

What are you currently working on?
At the moment we plan to introduce a new ERP-System which helps us to improve our internal processes to provide our costumers with a better service and become more efficient.

What is your favourite online shop as a customer?
I like “amazon” because it is fast and easy to use.

To find out more about light11 click here.