Buy your sensitive skin products online....or not

It’s been a week of ups and downs at Queen Cosmetics. We were really pleased with our new ad which featured in magazines such as the Saturday Times Magazine at the weekend. The new artwork looks lovely and fresh (we think!) and the ad did stand out. The response too has been very pleasing with lots of women ‘phoning in or emailing for details, asking for advice and asking lots of questions about the range.

Many of the emails we have received are along the lines of this one from a lady in Lincolnshire: ‘I have very dry sensitive skin and the beauty products I have been buying have done no good whatsoever’. This does back up our belief that there really is a need for a good, tried and tested range of speciality products for sensitive skin and that there is room in the overcrowded cosmetics market for Queen. It is just a question of plugging away at getting the Queen name and our specialist beauty range for sensitive skin out there.

The next up came when we saw we had lots of orders via our online shop. The Sensiderma range – cleansers, toners, moisturisers for dry or mature sensitive skin – was very popular in addition to our make-up for sensitive skin. A down was soon to follow. As I excitedly clicked on each one to see what they had ordered, the message came up: ‘the customer quit the process before payment was made.' While this is not unusual once in a while, it did seem odd that none of the orders made it to the payment stage. I tried processing an order myself and quickly found the problem was the HSBC secure epayments site via which customers can pay for their products. The HSBC page just wouldn’t load.

I tried throughout the weekend with no luck. To have new customers visit the site, try to buy and find they can’t is the worst possible scenario and to have it coincide with the launch of our new ad campaign was devastating. I am sure that no one at work on Monday believed me and thought it was the Queen side of the site, for which I am responsible!

So, today I was mightily relieved when a letter arrived from the Group General Manager, Commercial Banking at HSBC saying: ‘The Secure ePayments gateway was unavailable to you from approximately 11.30 Friday 28 March until 07.30 Monday 31 March 2008……Please accept my profound apologies for this failure in our service and the impact on your business.’

Further consolation is that some of the ‘lost’ customers have re-visited and finalised their orders this week but some haven’t, perhaps put off by our seemingly hopeless system. We keep our fingers crossed they may give us a another chance!

We also ran an ad in trade publication ‘The Pharmacist’ magazine with a view to increasing the number of stockists of Queen products. The magazine appeared yesterday and the ad does, again, look very striking. We have a small number of wonderful stockists around the country, including beauty therapists and independent chemists, but it would be nice to add a few as we do appreciate that many women prefer a real shopping experience when it comes to buying cosmetics. Given that Allmay (who took their lead from Queen back in the 1920s might I say) is no longer to be sold through independent chemists in the UK (I don’t know if it will still be available in the bigger chains), pharmacists and buyers should be looking for a range for sensitive skin.

Our Managing Director, David Lees, made his weekly pilgrimage to John Bell & Croyden, our major stockists in London, on Thursday to tell people about the Queen range and to give out samples of our Medicated Cleansing Lotion and Moisturiser. In his weekly report, he writes:

“I am now operating Summer hours, starting a bit later so that I can finish later and perhaps catch those after-work shoppers. It was a joy to see so much stock had sold and to be told by staff that the profile of our buyers is broadening all the time. Traditionally, we have appealed to older ladies and, while we are delighted to have them as customers, many of our products are designed for/are suitable for young skins. Queen focuses on all types of sensitive skin – from oily to very dry and from teenage to very mature skin.

“The store was very busy with lots of interesting ladies to talk to, including an American actress called Anne Whittman and a lady calling herself ‘Gillie’ who said she was well known in the PR industry. She said she knew just the person who could work with us as a PR consultant so we will wait and see if she gets in touch.

“I was intrigued by the reaction of ladies to the somewhat diminished Queen stocks (huge gaps on the shelves!) and found it a useful PR tool. ‘Look, our products are so good, they are flying off the shelves.’ Two ladies were convinced by my sales banter and snapped up a number of products, leaving further gaping holes. Hopefully, a new consignment will arrive early next week to replenish supplies.”

Back to the factory floor, we are working on our ‘natural’ cleanser for sensitive skin and hope to get it ready to rest over the weekend. While we never tamper with the formulations of our existing products, we do think there is a gap in the market for products which adhere not only to the Queen philosophy - no fragrance, perfume or essential oils and only a few ingredients per product - but which also will be suitable those customers who have been led to believe (by certain companies marketing their own products) that they should be wary of a number of ingredients. We are interested to see the reaction to this cleanser and to gauge whether it is worth rolling out the concept to include moisturisers and body lotions.

Have a great weekend and come back soon.