00:00.031 –> 00:07.340
[SPEAKER_00]: The main thing for cars to cash has been organic SEO ranking on Google.

00:07.360 –> 00:18.735
[SPEAKER_00]: So, in the first couple of months to up to a year, the ranking on Google wasn’t there, and we didn’t see a major aspect of people coming into the website.

00:19.155 –> 00:27.085
[SPEAKER_00]: However, since focusing on the SEO aspect, we’ve seen a massive jump in sales and a massive jump in customers.

00:29.545 –> 00:32.673
[SPEAKER_01]: It’s the e-commerce master plan podcast.

00:32.693 –> 00:37.185
[SPEAKER_01]: It has to help you solve your marketing problems and grow your e-commerce business.

00:37.205 –> 00:45.327
[SPEAKER_01]: Cutting through the hinder to bring you inspiration and advice from the e-commerce sector and beyond, here’s your host, Chloe Thomas.

00:47.838 –> 00:49.100
[SPEAKER_02]: Hello and welcome.

00:49.120 –> 00:50.202
[SPEAKER_02]: It’s great to have you here.

00:50.282 –> 00:54.008
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for hitting play and choosing to listen to one of our inspiring guests.

00:54.048 –> 01:01.520
[SPEAKER_02]: Now it’s not often that we tie an episode’s content to a date or to a time of the year or the month.

01:01.600 –> 01:07.770
[SPEAKER_02]: But we have done this time because when I was looking at and preparing for this interview,

01:07.750 –> 01:23.487
[SPEAKER_02]: I thought I could, we could put this out at a time which is really going to help this person and their business because we’re going to be chatting today to the founder of a business that buys gift cards from people and when do people most want to sell on one to gift cards between Christmas and New Year?

01:23.507 –> 01:28.753
[SPEAKER_02]: So I thought I’d show I guess a bit of extra love by putting it out at the right time of view for him.

01:29.293 –> 01:34.399
[SPEAKER_02]: So for once we’ve actually time allocated our episode.

01:34.379 –> 01:35.823
[SPEAKER_02]: But it’s reciprocating.

01:36.184 –> 01:44.267
[SPEAKER_02]: It’s fascinating enough just to listen to the complexity of his business what he’s doing and how he’s doing it, how he’s incentivizing customers to buy and to sell.

01:44.347 –> 01:49.401
[SPEAKER_02]: He’s got a super duper focused approach to the marketing.

01:49.381 –> 01:57.512
[SPEAKER_02]: He’s had a lot of work on optimizing the text act, so sharing some tips around that, and then some fascinating stuff around AI and payments as well.

01:57.813 –> 01:59.055
[SPEAKER_02]: We pay to log into this one.

01:59.075 –> 02:00.056
[SPEAKER_02]: I think you’re going to enjoy it.

02:00.557 –> 02:07.086
[SPEAKER_02]: Please also listen to the end of the episode because you don’t want to miss out on his top tips and my own take on the episode.

02:12.989 –> 02:15.192
[SPEAKER_02]: and now to introduce our special guest.

02:15.693 –> 02:23.504
[SPEAKER_02]: Caleb Slater is the Managing Director at Cards to Cash, a platform enabling customers to sell unwanted gift cards.

02:24.085 –> 02:29.513
[SPEAKER_02]: Founded in 2022 when Caleb was just 16, it operates on a custom website.

02:29.893 –> 02:36.443
[SPEAKER_02]: Has recently expanded into Ireland and has already grown to over £500,000 in annual sales.

02:36.523 –> 02:37.784
[SPEAKER_02]: Hello, Caleb.

02:37.804 –> 02:38.305
[SPEAKER_00]: Hi, Eclary.

02:38.445 –> 02:39.587
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you very much for having me.

02:39.854 –> 02:40.977
[SPEAKER_02]: Very cool to have you here.

02:41.038 –> 02:43.124
[SPEAKER_02]: I think your business is fascinating.

02:43.224 –> 02:45.371
[SPEAKER_02]: So I’m very much looking forward to hearing about it.

02:45.872 –> 02:48.581
[SPEAKER_02]: First off, though, how did you get started in e-commerce?

02:48.601 –> 02:51.670
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I’m guessing that this was your first e-commerce operation.

02:52.072 –> 03:05.849
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I’d always been wanting to have like a little bit of a side hustle, say, from a really, really young age I’d had an eBay account that belonged to my mum and I’d buy things from auction and resell them on eBay, so I’d always had that entrepreneurial spirit.

03:06.009 –> 03:20.087
[SPEAKER_00]: However, it got to a stage where I had so much stuff on eBay and I wanted to expand and I’d obviously been able to generate enough revenue and income and that’s where the idea of cast cash came in.

03:20.523 –> 03:37.114
[SPEAKER_02]: I would imagine it’s been a really complicated site to build, because you’ve got validity, you’ve got customers selling customers’ bikes, it’s kind of a marketplace, it’s kind of a verification site, has the tech stack been the hardest part of it for you?

03:37.364 –> 03:41.512
[SPEAKER_00]: I’d say definitely one of the hardest aspects has been the website.

03:42.153 –> 03:53.854
[SPEAKER_00]: I was lucky enough to find a freelancer that I worked with very closely during founding the website and we took a couple of months where I was

03:53.834 –> 03:56.296
[SPEAKER_00]: basically we were we were building it together.

03:56.316 –> 04:04.464
[SPEAKER_00]: I gave him the ideas and he came back with with the final result and yeah there was there was a lot of back and forth.

04:04.945 –> 04:22.322
[SPEAKER_00]: However, in the end we got version one of the website which went live and yeah the amount of technology that’s involved different systems that you would never thought would have needed to be embedded and finding what

04:22.302 –> 04:26.948
[SPEAKER_00]: everything like that, from the user experience to the experience of me.

04:27.429 –> 04:32.956
[SPEAKER_00]: And when we were building it, I didn’t factor in having a team that would have to navigate the systems.

04:33.697 –> 04:38.323
[SPEAKER_00]: So as we’ve grown things like work for me, obviously, aren’t working for everyone else.

04:38.563 –> 04:40.365
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, it’s been a journey.

04:40.926 –> 04:42.668
[SPEAKER_02]: A bit too customized to Caleb.

04:42.768 –> 04:43.850
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it’s definitely.

04:45.292 –> 04:47.955
[SPEAKER_02]: So what does the team look like now?

04:48.256 –> 04:57.109
[SPEAKER_00]: So we’ve got a small team, they’re all in the UK, in Northampton, and I’ve been very strong about keeping everything local.

04:57.229 –> 05:14.314
[SPEAKER_00]: So I’ve got an assistant that helps me with all my daily stuff and finances and everything, and then we’ve got a team of that deal with the customer service and operations and everything, helping the customers as the first point of call, and then leading our expansion into other countries.

05:15.357 –> 05:18.120
[SPEAKER_02]: So Caleb, I’m ready to run ahead and ask you harder questions.

05:18.180 –> 05:20.883
[SPEAKER_02]: We haven’t really explained the audience what the actual product is.

05:20.923 –> 05:25.467
[SPEAKER_02]: So talk to us a bit about the selling and buying process and the product that you’re selling.

05:25.768 –> 05:26.388
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, sure.

05:26.769 –> 05:34.176
[SPEAKER_00]: So cardster cash is a gift card market place where people with unwanted gift cards can sell them to cardster cash.

05:34.196 –> 05:39.081
[SPEAKER_00]: And then we list them on our website at a discount and then buyers can purchase them.

05:39.642 –> 05:41.324
[SPEAKER_00]: So it’s a win-win for both sides.

05:41.424 –> 05:44.487
[SPEAKER_00]: If you’ve got an unwanted gift card, you can sell it and get money for it.

05:44.467 –> 05:52.355
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you want to save some money and why you’re shopping online, you can purchase a gift card from us at a discount.

05:52.776 –> 05:55.759
[SPEAKER_00]: And then basically save and get free money.

05:56.620 –> 06:05.149
[SPEAKER_02]: So it’s less of a marketplace, more of a, almost a re-commerce scenario where you’re buying unwanted product from consumers.

06:05.870 –> 06:10.575
[SPEAKER_02]: And then you’re owning the merchandise to then sell it onto other consumers.

06:10.893 –> 06:20.706
[SPEAKER_00]: So to make the marketplace sustainable, we don’t process payment to sellers until a new buyer has purchased it, but everything goes through us.

06:21.007 –> 06:33.804
[SPEAKER_00]: So the seller sells it to us, and then we validate and my team check that it’s a legitimate gift card, it’s got a balance, and it’s been acquired legitimately, and then we list it on the website, and then someone else purchased it.

06:33.824 –> 06:39.972
[SPEAKER_00]: So everything else is controlled by us, and then the process goes through very seamlessly.

06:40.441 –> 06:43.827
[SPEAKER_02]: And do you handle physical gift cards and digital gift cards?

06:43.848 –> 06:46.232
[SPEAKER_02]: Because I imagine that’s a bit of a complexity.

06:46.833 –> 06:50.580
[SPEAKER_00]: So most gift cards can be just a bloated viral portal.

06:50.941 –> 06:56.432
[SPEAKER_00]: The seller will take in it picture off the gift card and then we can validate it from that.

06:56.652 –> 07:03.445
[SPEAKER_00]: And if the buyer needs a barcode to scan or something like that, we will upload the picture.

07:03.425 –> 07:04.950
[SPEAKER_00]: along with their purchase.

07:05.010 –> 07:07.277
[SPEAKER_00]: So they can click a link and they can access the image.

07:07.999 –> 07:17.147
[SPEAKER_00]: However, there’s a very few select gift cards that need the physical card in which case we ask the seller to send it to us and then we post it to the buyer.

07:17.583 –> 07:20.227
[SPEAKER_02]: Nice, you’ve eradicated most of the physicality of it.

07:20.608 –> 07:21.470
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, definitely.

07:21.790 –> 07:23.293
[SPEAKER_02]: Like the commerce dream.

07:24.635 –> 07:26.798
[SPEAKER_02]: No physical product, no post is to deal with.

07:27.299 –> 07:32.288
[SPEAKER_02]: So you said most of your team are involved in the customer service side of things.

07:33.510 –> 07:35.733
[SPEAKER_02]: Is that because that’s more difficult?

07:35.794 –> 07:42.645
[SPEAKER_02]: Is that because that’s where you see growth coming from, giving good service and therefore the growth comes?

07:43.013 –> 07:55.341
[SPEAKER_00]: So one of my core aspects of running this company is providing an exceptional level of service because I understand that there might be one or two other platforms out there at the moment doing the same or similar thing.

07:55.381 –> 08:02.237
[SPEAKER_00]: So giving a top tier level of service to our customers is something that’s so important.

08:02.217 –> 08:08.907
[SPEAKER_00]: And it kind of, it ties in line with all of the company values and how the company operates.

08:09.488 –> 08:14.315
[SPEAKER_00]: So I try and get everyone in my team helping with customer service at some point or another.

08:14.715 –> 08:20.884
[SPEAKER_00]: So that say we have a Christmas weekend where it’s mentally busy and there’s so much to deal with.

08:21.025 –> 08:24.750
[SPEAKER_00]: That we haven’t got only one person that can deal with customer service.

08:24.810 –> 08:30.098
[SPEAKER_00]: We’ve got an array of people that are able to help and step in at times when it’s needed.

08:30.685 –> 08:31.046
[SPEAKER_02]: got it.

08:31.547 –> 08:36.137
[SPEAKER_02]: And obviously that focus on quality is going to help you grow in the long term.

08:36.197 –> 08:45.859
[SPEAKER_02]: In the short term, I guess you’ve got the double challenge over and above what most e-commerce business has had, which is you’ve got to recreate the sellers as well as the buyers.

08:46.480 –> 08:48.525
[SPEAKER_02]: So how do you go about doing that?

08:48.860 –> 09:14.209
[SPEAKER_00]: So the main thing for Costa Cache has been organic SEO ranking on Google, so in the first couple of months to up to a year, the ranking on Google wasn’t there and we didn’t see a major aspect of people coming into the website, however, since focusing on the SEO aspect,

09:14.189 –> 09:23.798
[SPEAKER_00]: and really, really tying that in as a foundation that we need to get right, we see a massive jump in sales and a massive jump in customers.

09:24.641 –> 09:28.232
[SPEAKER_02]: And is that that’s still your number one marketing channel?

09:28.499 –> 09:32.725
[SPEAKER_00]: that’s number one followed by email marketing to our existing customers.

09:33.106 –> 09:58.422
[SPEAKER_00]: So our new customers are 99% of the time obtained through SEO and then the other one we do some search engine, adverts and Instagram adverts and things like that during sale periods such as the Apple launch or Amazon Prime Day or Christmas time is when we generally do a small bit of paid advertising,

09:58.790 –> 10:04.287
[SPEAKER_02]: So with that advertising, would that be something like for primed day, want to save even more?

10:04.608 –> 10:07.838
[SPEAKER_02]: Come and get an Amazon voucher for 10% off.

10:08.206 –> 10:26.904
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so we do exactly that and then for example at the most recent Apple launch, we had this really, really cool image that basically looked as if it was the Apple image and we’d put our logo on it and say and it said save 5% on the Apple launch use cards to cash.

10:27.125 –> 10:35.833
[SPEAKER_00]: So basically, we tie it in with our massive marketing stunts on those big events and then every other time

10:35.813 –> 10:41.572
[SPEAKER_00]: It’s the primary mal by this and save this or sell and save and things like that.

10:42.235 –> 10:46.007
[SPEAKER_02]: Nice and do you find there’s a big overlap between your customers and your sellers?

10:46.690 –> 10:48.034
[SPEAKER_02]: Are they one in the same people?

10:48.419 –> 11:00.140
[SPEAKER_00]: No, so we find that while there is an overlap, we generally find that there are more sellers wanting to sell unwanted gift cards, which makes sense.

11:00.961 –> 11:07.272
[SPEAKER_00]: And then once we have a buyer that wants to sell it or patches a gift card from us,

11:07.252 –> 11:15.046
[SPEAKER_00]: We generally find that they are a repeat customer that will stay with Kafka for more than two or three years to be honest.

11:15.587 –> 11:24.383
[SPEAKER_00]: So on average, a buyer will save over £400 with us in a year if they purchase gift cards regularly throughout each month.

11:24.363 –> 11:37.125
[SPEAKER_00]: So, we generally see that once the seller has sold a gift card and they’ve been paid, they might come back once or twice, and that’s what we use our email marketing for to get them back on the site.

11:37.486 –> 11:42.895
[SPEAKER_00]: And we also have an option of a cast-to-cash balance payment so that

11:42.875 –> 12:09.760
[SPEAKER_02]: If they do want to use our site to purchase, they’ll get a little bit more by selecting to be paid by their cards to cash balance and get that reward of I can swap a gift card for another gift card for example and overall come out better in the deal because I’m exactly saving a bit because you don’t have to part with the cash very clever so we mentioned earlier that you had quite the interesting text act journey are there any particular

12:10.128 –> 12:16.982
[SPEAKER_02]: Changes that you found, you know, without bad mouthing anybody, but any particular optimizations of that text that you found really paid off for you.

12:17.485 –> 12:28.964
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so I would say generally at the start of the journey, we started off with with a very basic sort of understanding and level of the systems.

12:29.425 –> 12:40.523
[SPEAKER_00]: However, as we’ve grown, we’ve implemented fraud controls and fraud systems so that we can be 100% sure, but all of our transactions are legitimate.

12:40.773 –> 12:44.359
[SPEAKER_00]: We’ve also focused on a bank transfer system.

12:44.519 –> 12:51.590
[SPEAKER_00]: So we found the need that our buyers wanted to bank transfer directly instead of using debit and credit cards.

12:52.111 –> 12:59.683
[SPEAKER_00]: So we implemented an automatic transfer system that will find a bank transfer within a minute of a buyer send the and that’s 247.

12:59.924 –> 13:03.169
[SPEAKER_00]: So that was another really big step for us.

13:03.824 –> 13:07.468
[SPEAKER_02]: Wow, that’s a payment method that almost nobody would anticipate.

13:07.889 –> 13:08.330
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.

13:08.430 –> 13:11.153
[SPEAKER_02]: But the tech exists out there if you can find it.

13:11.714 –> 13:12.134
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.

13:12.355 –> 13:17.080
[SPEAKER_00]: And we’ve seen a massive, like, a doctor of this method.

13:17.241 –> 13:21.646
[SPEAKER_00]: And we give our buyers a one-percent saving when they use bank transfer.

13:22.227 –> 13:26.292
[SPEAKER_00]: And the volumes that we see going through bank transfer, it’s phenomenal.

13:26.312 –> 13:31.418
[SPEAKER_00]: I would have never expected it to be like that.

13:31.853 –> 13:33.296
[SPEAKER_02]: four a discount already.

13:33.316 –> 13:34.638
[SPEAKER_02]: They’re in discount mindset.

13:34.698 –> 13:37.223
[SPEAKER_02]: One more percentage point really speaks to them.

13:37.504 –> 13:38.265
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, exactly.

13:38.345 –> 13:48.204
[SPEAKER_00]: And if I say they’re purchasing an Amazon gift card that is already only at a three or four percent discount because it’s priced at the demand, an extra percent on that.

13:48.505 –> 13:49.367
[SPEAKER_00]: It’s quite major.

13:49.387 –> 13:54.857
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you’re purchasing a thousand pounds and it’s another 10 of that you’re saving just by sending a transfer.

13:55.462 –> 13:57.167
[SPEAKER_02]: as simple as that, love that.

13:57.347 –> 13:57.969
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, cool.

13:58.069 –> 14:05.590
[SPEAKER_02]: And any, any advice to anyone who’s thinking but trying to find some wins in their text act for 2026, where would you look?

14:06.447 –> 14:09.411
[SPEAKER_00]: we are really investing in how AI can assist us.

14:09.891 –> 14:33.282
[SPEAKER_00]: Now I know everyone will be talking about AI and it can do all of this and that but having while it might cost employment and it might cost a rut if it is giving you the equivalent of another member of staff or something like that then you can you can justify it because it’s relieving that workload of here are the simple requests that you see coming in on a daily basis.

14:33.262 –> 14:45.060
[SPEAKER_00]: If you can have an automated response with all of this that’s tailored to the customer then that is really ideal so it’s something that we’re working on and it’s not really yet, but it will be ready soon

14:45.378 –> 14:52.646
[SPEAKER_02]: So there’s a lot of talk at the moment about adding AI and saving time with AI and a lot of people are doing it badly.

14:52.826 –> 14:58.893
[SPEAKER_02]: I read a report the other day that 95% of businesses don’t think they’re gaining anything from their AI work yet.

14:59.293 –> 15:06.061
[SPEAKER_02]: So what’s your key advice for actually embracing AI in a way that delivers?

15:06.121 –> 15:11.487
[SPEAKER_02]: What are the key steps to making sure you’re not just wasting time and having fun playing with a new tool?

15:12.007 –> 15:17.397
[SPEAKER_00]: what I’m going to say is making sure that it works and it does exactly what you want to do.

15:17.998 –> 15:29.880
[SPEAKER_00]: And some customers they won’t want to speak to AI, they’ll want to be transferred to a human agent and that’s fair enough we are here to support and that links back to the exceptional support level that we provide.

15:29.860 –> 15:36.949
[SPEAKER_00]: So if a customer wants to speak to a support agent instead of going through AI, it will just transfer them straight across.

15:37.109 –> 15:44.038
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think the reason why it’s taking us slightly longer is because we want to prepare and we want it to actually work properly.

15:44.078 –> 15:46.361
[SPEAKER_00]: And it’s not going to give you an incorrect answer.

15:46.421 –> 15:50.626
[SPEAKER_00]: It’s not going to give you just something that isn’t going to be useful.

15:51.027 –> 15:53.229
[SPEAKER_00]: It’s going to look at your request and it will answer it.

15:53.590 –> 15:56.914
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you don’t like the answer then one of my team will be able to help.

15:57.772 –> 15:58.653
[SPEAKER_02]: nice.

15:58.673 –> 16:13.292
[SPEAKER_02]: And I know that as we’ve been talking it’s it’s quite clear you’re very focused on the percentage points because that’s you know how your business operates is all percentage points off of the cards as they come in and percentage points off of the customers and then the percentage points with the backs.

16:14.234 –> 16:19.881
[SPEAKER_02]: Is there any other ways in which you’ve improved the percentage points on your transactions that you’re willing to share?

16:20.553 –> 16:40.063
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, I think there is one major aspect, so about just over a year ago now, I think we switched payment partners from our previous partner to our new one who’s called exactly.com and in doing so we’ve saved over 20,000 pound and payment processing fees, we’ve.

16:40.043 –> 16:55.830
[SPEAKER_00]: streamlined operations we’ve increased up time and it’s I know all of these numbers sound like massive and they are and to us while we’re working on such like small margins because that’s the aspect of a marketplace.

16:56.411 –> 17:01.680
[SPEAKER_00]: Those sorts of savings where at B5%

17:01.660 –> 17:13.610
[SPEAKER_00]: So with that new implementation we’ve saved with our fraud costs, we’ve saved, we’ve got a lower chargeback rate, we’ve got decreased payment issues and things.

17:14.011 –> 17:18.943
[SPEAKER_00]: So that has been a major aspect of changing from one solution to another.

17:19.514 –> 17:37.590
[SPEAKER_02]: It’s interesting because I’ve been around conversations about payment providers and percentage rates and all that kind of stuff for the last 20 years and certainly for the first 15 of those years, the only part of the discussion that anyone was talking about was the transaction fee.

17:37.570 –> 17:42.198
[SPEAKER_02]: That’s all I need one cared about was the transaction fee, the transaction percentage, and that was the entire ballgame.

17:42.619 –> 17:44.002
[SPEAKER_02]: But you’ve listed, I lost track.

17:44.022 –> 17:50.133
[SPEAKER_02]: I think you’re like six or seven other benefits to switching from systems, time saving, accuracy, etc.

17:50.193 –> 17:56.524
[SPEAKER_02]: It’s, it’s, I find it mad that there’s that much you can get from changing a payment provider.

17:56.774 –> 18:00.898
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it’s all about finding the right solution, the works for your business.

18:01.658 –> 18:04.821
[SPEAKER_00]: And when I started, I was obviously only 16.

18:05.402 –> 18:11.227
[SPEAKER_00]: And all of the major payment providers say, you have to be 18, so that’s one thing I’ve got over come.

18:11.647 –> 18:17.973
[SPEAKER_00]: And then when I found someone that said they would do it, they looked at the website and they said, oh, you do gift cards, now we’re not gonna do that.

18:17.993 –> 18:20.435
[SPEAKER_00]: So that was another hurdle that I had to overcome.

18:20.575 –> 18:26.781
[SPEAKER_00]: So we had two instant nodes basically.

18:26.761 –> 18:44.854
[SPEAKER_00]: that would say accept me for no trading history, be for no, like basically on my age at 16 and then see of the industry that this website is in was a mammoth hurdle and that’s why I had to settle further company that we used at the beginning.

18:44.834 –> 18:46.877
[SPEAKER_00]: and they were great.

18:47.718 –> 18:49.601
[SPEAKER_00]: They got the solution set up.

18:49.621 –> 18:59.617
[SPEAKER_00]: We got it integrated and while the commercials might not have been viable, it was the only real way that I saw setting up the business possible at that age.

18:59.777 –> 19:01.520
[SPEAKER_00]: So I had to take the hit.

19:01.600 –> 19:05.145
[SPEAKER_00]: I had to be able to if I wanted to do the business, if what I had to do.

19:05.746 –> 19:10.133
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I met my new payment partner at the e-commerce expo.

19:10.113 –> 19:17.468
[SPEAKER_00]: and we got the ball rolling from there basically and obviously the savings have been massive.

19:17.868 –> 19:21.997
[SPEAKER_00]: We are we are able to process much quicker, much easier.

19:22.037 –> 19:26.265
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, it’s it’s been a real big stepals solutions.

19:26.785 –> 19:42.364
[SPEAKER_02]: Congrats on all of that and I think so many of us we have no concept of the fact that age is a factor when you start so young what’s next on the radar for your business k-lovers We go into 2026 what if you got planned a few that you’re willing to share

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[SPEAKER_00]: So, obviously, we’ve just launched an island, which is really exciting, that’s growing gradually.

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[SPEAKER_00]: However, our next plan, we’re going to be launching in Germany in the next month or so, and then we’re going to be growing from now.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We’ve got a list of European and worldwide countries basically that we’re going to be launching in to bring Costa Castro to the world.

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[SPEAKER_01]: E-commerce most at land is supported by some of the greatest companies in the E-commerce sector.

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[SPEAKER_01]: Here’s a reminder of who they are.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, I love this section because it’s me and I’ll list us some really quick ideas for taking our businesses to the next level.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Caleb, you ready for the top tips?

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[SPEAKER_00]: Sure, yeah.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, here we go then.

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[SPEAKER_02]: The book top tip.

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[SPEAKER_02]: If everyone listening to this podcast agreed to take Friday off and read a book to make their business better, is there one book you would recommend?

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[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so I would say the lean start-up by Eric Ryos.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It’s a brilliant for understanding how to test and how to scale ideas efficiently, without over-complicating things and spending huge amounts of money.

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[SPEAKER_02]: I think we can all see that that one must be in your DNA.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, great recommendation.

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[SPEAKER_02]: OK, traffic top tip, which marketing method do you either prize above all others or think doesn’t get the press it deserves?

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[SPEAKER_00]: I think as we’ve covered SEO is the major aspect of how we’ve got to where we are and doing that organically is the best way forward.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it’s I guess for you guys the the trust element is paying off there as well, you know, there’s more consumers have more trust in an organic list and they’re doing a paid listing and with what you’re doing, they’re almost trusting you with their own cash aren’t they so in their mindset if not in reality.

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[SPEAKER_00]: and having that trust pilot score of Big Excellent, which is what we pride ourselves on.

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[SPEAKER_00]: That is a major aspect because when Google sees the trust pilot score increase, it will see the credibility of your website increase.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Nice, okay, tool top tip.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Maybe a collaboration tool, a social media plug in a phone app or just a way of working, is there a cool little tool you use that makes you and your team more efficient from day to day?

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[SPEAKER_00]: We’ve wide variety of tools, however, the one that I’d say says that’s the most time is talk to you and that’s our live chat help desk ticketing program and it really allows us to be able to communicate and collaborate as a team on how to resolve issues for all of our customers.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Nice.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Finally, the carbon top tip.

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[SPEAKER_02]: What’s your favourite way to reduce the carbon footprint

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[SPEAKER_00]: I’d say the remote operations of our business really helps improve our emissions and our carbon footprint basically because by running our support team online and everyone working from home, we cut the travel emissions and energy usage, more staying flexible as we go.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Love that.

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[SPEAKER_02]: I do that too.

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[SPEAKER_02]: I think it’s one of the easiest ones to do and it does make it really builds up the amount of impact it makes and it saves quite a lot of cash as well.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Caleb, before we say goodbye, it’s late December.

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[SPEAKER_02]: I suspect our audience may be wanting to sell some things to you.

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[SPEAKER_02]: So could you please let them know when they can find you and how they can get in contact?

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[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, absolutely.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Well, as we all know, about 50% of people just everyone in the UK basically will have unwanted gift cards from Christmas.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It’s a massive statistic.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So if you’re looking to sell your gift cards and you want to find the best rate possible, then you can visit us at cards to cash.co.uk

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[SPEAKER_02]: excellent.

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[SPEAKER_02]: And I hope in this very busy post-Christmas period that you and your team are calm and enjoying it and having lots of happiness.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Please bear with us if you email us.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Caleb, thank you so much for coming on the Ecommerce Master Plan podcast.

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[SPEAKER_02]: I’ve been fascinating learning about your business and thanks for being so generous sharing it all with us.

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[SPEAKER_00]: That’s like a thank you very much for having me Chloe.

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[SPEAKER_00]: That was brilliant.

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[SPEAKER_02]: a fascinating business model.

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[SPEAKER_02]: I think it’s one of those.

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[SPEAKER_02]: I’m like, why do I think that?

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[SPEAKER_02]: That’s it’s so clever.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Buy gift cards back from people, sell them at a bit of a discount to customers, everybody wins, hugely automatable, if or rather complex text act.

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[SPEAKER_02]: I also loved Caleb’s points around

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[SPEAKER_02]: I got up, but his focus so clearly on a couple of marketing channels and getting them absolutely right.

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[SPEAKER_02]: So organic social being crucial for trust and traffic, which, you know, if you think about what you do, if you’re trying to get rid of a gift card, it’s what you do.

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[SPEAKER_02]: You’d search first and foremost, and I’m sure those that work is starting to pay off in the world of the LLM’s as well, then email marketing to keep the customers buying and to convert the sellers the buyers.

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[SPEAKER_02]: And then finally, the super targeted adactivity on days when people are spending lots of money online, or when lots of people are spending lots of money on the same things online to the Apple launches and Amazon Prime Day as well.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Very clever.

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[SPEAKER_02]: I am fascinated to see what Caleb would achieve in the coming years.

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[SPEAKER_02]: I hope you enjoyed that.

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[SPEAKER_02]: And of course, if you are

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[SPEAKER_02]: Why not sell it to Gailab?

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[SPEAKER_02]: Right, do you can get your hands on our notes from this episode, including those top tips and links to what we’ve mentioned by heading over to ecommercemasterplan.com.

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[SPEAKER_02]: You could also use our direct episode short links that’s ECMP.info forward slash the number of this episode, just slot that into the URL bar and you will go straight to the right page of the website.

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[SPEAKER_02]: When you get to the website, go on, join email list.

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[SPEAKER_02]: You know you want to.

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[SPEAKER_02]: If you like this episode, then make sure you check out Episode 4169, so almost exactly two years ago, we released this one, where I’m talking to Bartos Swachek, from G2A, who are another digital marketplace, and really, really, they’re in games, and it’s really fascinating to see

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[SPEAKER_02]: The parallels between Caleb’s currently small business and Bartost’s huge business.

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[SPEAKER_02]: So I think you’ll really enjoy that one if you’ve enjoyed listening to this one too.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Now, you can also hear all our episodes with smaller startups at ECMP.info for such startup.

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[SPEAKER_02]: I bring you a new interview every week because I want to inspire and help e-commerce business owners just like you to succeed and thrive with your businesses, including progressing along the path to that zero.

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[SPEAKER_02]: So if you know someone this show can help, please tell them to listen to the e-commerce master plan podcast.

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[SPEAKER_01]: I hope you have a great week and don’t forget to keep optimizing.