Local supermarkets have made many small businesses an endangered species. With large, spacious stores, low prices and a vast array of goods under one roof, supermarkets have been blamed for the ‘death of the high street’ as small firms are squeezed out of business.

Finding a way to combat such retail giants isn’t easy, but Tim and Kevin Slatter have managed to save their struggling business using ecommerce.

The brothers were running a struggling bakery business which had a 70-year history and four stores across south London, but precious little future. Local superstores were undercutting the Slatters’ bread prices, badly damaging profits.

Things were looking bleak until the brothers decided to launch an online cake store, www.thecakestore.com

“We found an ace up our sleeves with a dynamic cake decorator called Steven Howard on our payroll, whose skills were totally unexploited,” explains Tim. “With Steve making a spectacular range of cakes and my brother Kevin running the business, I began developing our website www.thecakestore.com which we launched in October 2001.”

“We closed and let two of our shops to concentrate more on web sales, freephone orders, production and deliveries. Running a shop is extremely expensive. Why bother when our customers are either prepared to travel to collect cakes or pay for delivery?”

Tim used Actinic Business software to drive his ecommerce site, spending just £3,000 on software, digital photography equipment, hosting and search engine placement. After six months of marketing, press coverage and word of mouth, the site began to take off and now attracts over 80,000 visitors a month.

“The software is easy to use – great for me as I trained as a chef and am not a techie. Plus it suits any product and is really flexible. With my brother doing the photography and me maintaining the site there are few ongoing costs and we are highly profitable,” he says.

The Cake Store now employs 25 people and Tim is able to work from his home in Ayr, Scotland, without any real problems.

“There’s no doubt that ecommerce saved us,” admits Tim.

So what advice would he give to anyone thinking of opening their own online shop? “Do your research. Make sure you have a unique product that customers will want, and above all ensure that orders can be fulfilled promptly.”