The wait is over. The first online pound shop is open for business. We take a look at what’s on offer.
The first online pound shop has been launched.
Hereforapound.com is offering all the value of a pound store without the hassle of going into one.
The founders are a couple from Exeter in Devon, Donna and Matt Baker, who also run Hereforaday.com, a daily deals site.
Pound shops
Pound shops are one of the great success stories of the recession and have become a familiar sight on UK high streets.
They sell an ever-expanding array of items - often name-brand - for a quid.
But the big names in one-price-fits-all shopping like Poundland, Poundworld and the 99p store have yet to embrace the world of e-tail.
They all have websites where you can view products online, but you can’t buy anything to be delivered to your door.
[SPOTLIGHT]This gap in the market is keenly felt according to the people behind Hereforapound as they found over 200,000 people in the UK are searching for ‘pound shop’ online every day.
The race to be the first
Poundland founder Steve Smith - who sold his stake in the company in 2002 - has been planning to launch an online pound store called poundshop.com in conjunction with rival Poundworld.
But the Bakers have managed to pull it off ahead of the pros.
The couple came up with the idea after noticing how popular £1 pop-up offers did on their daily deals site.
They launched a pilot version of their online pound shop back in October 2013, and now the full site is open for business.
What you can get
Hereforapound says it aims to stock everything you would expect to find in places like Poundland and Poundworld.
You can shop for toiletries, household essentials, food and drink, pet products, kids’ toys, technology, stationery, beauty and fashion items – many of which are branded. And throughout the year seasonal items will become available.
The website also has a feature called Express Shopping, which bundles together bestseller items for you to add to your basket in one click and make routine purchases easier.
For example, the Baby Bundle has seven items including four packs of Huggies Wipes as well as one bottle of Johnson’s Baby Bath, Baby Shampoo and Baby Lotion.
The online pound shop will also offer limited one-off ‘star’ buys, where it slashes the price of more expensive brands for a short period.
At the moment OPI Nail Lacquer, which normally costs £11, is available for £1 – that’s a 91% saving!
The potential drawbacks
One obvious drawback of an online pound shop, is that the savings start to diminish once you factor in the cost of delivery.
Hereforapound offers free UK delivery on orders over £30. So you need to pick up 30 items to ensure you make a saving.
This may seem a bit of a stretch but the Bakers found when they trialled their online pound shop back in October 2013 that shoppers spent an average £19 each visit. So it seems people tend to buy a lot in one go rather than buy only one or two items.
If you don’t manage to spend £30 you will have to pay £4.50 for standard delivery or £6.99 for next day delivery. So buying only a few bargain items could end up costing you much more.
However, for those that don’t live near to a pound shop the savings could still shine through. There's also no minimum spend.
It’s rumoured the competition in the form of poundshop.com will offer a click and collect service or customers can pay £3 for delivery. But there could be a minimum spend of £23 on orders.
Why they think it will work
Other online pound shops are bound to open up soon. Poundshop.com is on its way and it’s got one of the leading pound shop entrepreneurs at its helm.
So how do the Bakers think they will fare against more established pound shop brands?
Well with three quarters of pound shoppers estimated to be women, Donna Baker thinks her leading role and a board that contains two female directors puts Hereforapound in a good position to understand its target audience.
The other main pound shops in the UK are all run by men.
And she’s got high expectations - aiming to attract 250,000 customers in the first three months following its full launch this month.
What do you think? Will you be shopping online for your £1 bargains or will you be sticking to the high street?
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