Bespoke eCommerce websites are the domain of the big retailers – but Shopblocks is aiming to change that.
Founder Kevin Jones says that his platform, developed over five years, will allow small businesses to “create the look and feel of a £50,000 website without the cost”.
“Any large business wouldn’t dream of using a template for their website – they go to a company or designer and get something bespoke created,” he told a BusinessCloud roundtable.
“The temptation for smaller businesses is to use an eCommerce hosted platform, such as Shopify or BigCommerce, where they can self-service.
“But it’s dangerous to have a generic template website: you go on there as a shopper and something feels wrong – you don’t trust it.
“We’ve spent the last two years building a tool called Block Lab where you can go in and visually change the look and feel of your website in the same way that a web developer can do, but without writing any code.”
The 33-year-old, who is also the co-founder of Manchester digital agency Tecmark, said Shopblocks has got rid of themes and templates completely.
“The biggest mistake any business can make is choosing a look for their company which is off the shelf and not personal to them. Their website ends up looking generic – almost exclusively those websites fail,” he continued.