Building an e-commerce retail website with Nicola of Waxx plus business resilience

Practical advice on e-commerce and business resilience from two expert guests.

Nicola Middleton-Groom runs Waxx, selling men's, women's and kids' underwear, swimwear and other apparel.

Her business has the UK distribution rights to this French firm's funky, fresh and colourful products. Nicola's involvement started while she was at University in Manchester.

Nicola discusses how she developed the brand in the UK – and built an e-commerce website from scratch to sell underwear directly to consumers. "Retail is where the fun is at for me," she says.

Nicola researched WooCommerce, Magento and Shopify before she settled on Shopify to build the Waxx website. She described why she chose Shopify and how she developed the site to include clear and simple navigation to make it easy as possible for people to buy.

She covers templates and their limitations, the pros and cons of Shopify, testimonials and integration with ERP and accounting systems. Nicola also explains why her business, with its own e-commerce site, has a presence on Ebay and Amazon.

Our other guest was Steve Knowles – the accountant with a heart and a soul – making a return visit to the studio.

It's always a pleasure to hear from Steve even though he came in bearing worrying predictions about the economy. But that's the point: don't stick your head in the sand.

In our chat today Steve discussed protecting your business from external events, a potential downturn or recession.

Steve runs through some excellent tips (to implement now) about credit control, strengthening and protecting your cashflow, building positive relationships with your bank, the importance of continuing to invest in training and marketing, and more.