Inside the dotcom company

Two of our favourite words collide when we talk about Cyprinus: quality and value. In less than half-a-decade, the Swindon-based dotcom company has gone from zero to one of eBay’s biggest sellers of branded carp gear. And that doesn’t happen by chance. It’s the result of brilliantly made products which are sold on to you at a super competitive price combined with a super fast and efficient service.

A man with a vision: Cyprinus owner, Andy Train

Andy, Cyprinus has been trading for five years now, so can you give us an insight into the history of the business?
“Cyprinus was born from a desire to move fishing retailing into the 21st century. We wanted to encapsulate everything that the internet had to offer and use this new evolving technology to reduce the costs of tackle to the man in the street.”

Your structure to the business is extremely slick and streamlined for a fast, efficient service. Can you run us through the development and infrastructure?
“The computer system used here is state of the art and has been developed in-house to reduce costs in every way possible. With many years background in IT we were able to streamline every process from goods-in to goods-out, enabling us to get most orders out on a next day service (if ordered before 2pm) no matter how many hundreds of orders we may receive per day. In fact, our warehouse can handle thousands of orders each day with no problem.”

Explain how your business operates given you don’t have any retail outlets?
“We were one of the early adopters of eBay and Amazon, recognising that both companies were leading the UK’s internet revolution. To us, it seemed pointless at the time to waste our time trying to make anything better ourselves and this in turn left us alone to do what we did best. With the internet being our “thing” we decided that we would stay true to our roots and opted not to stock shops etc. By stocking shops the prices would have had to go up and we were very concerned that we didn’t want that to happen.”

One stack of many!

Dispatch

Can you give us a run down on your current product range and is there anything new in the pipeline?
“Our current range of products is still limited compared to some of our larger competitors. However, we do have a great range of our core products, these being bivvies, shelters, bedchairs and sleeping bags. We are very pleased to say that we have many new items arriving in the coming weeks – more beds, more bivvies and more sleeping bags. We even have a great weigh sling coming in which again will be fantastic quality but exceptionally well priced.”

So what are your current best selling products, and how many orders do you process a month?
“Our best selling products have been our bivvies, day shelters and furniture (beds and chairs etc.) which we are currently processing around 3,000 orders per month. It’s fair to say that we have been struggling to keep up with the demand. Thankfully that is all set to change as we have huge stocks on their way and we’re hoping for the ‘Out Of Stock’ message to be a thing of the past.”

We have seen and used quite a few items from the range ourselves, and we have to say, it really is great product at a fantastic price point.
“Thank you. Quality has been very important to us. It is easy to have a “cheap” product and sell on price alone, but this is not what we are about. We prefer the word “value”. We feel that for every £100 you spend on a Cyprinus product you will get more for your money. It’s as simple as that! It’s true you can buy cheaper than us, but will it be of the same high standard? In my mind, probably not!”

Cyprinus run a very slick and streamline system so you get a super fast and efficient service

A stack of orders which have been picked and are now ready to be packed and sent out – post FREE!

You offer a 14-day, no quibble, money back guarantee, which is awesome, but do you get many returns?
“We get very few returns to be honest. The most common type of return we get is if a wife or girlfriend ordered and ordered the wrong item. Products are very seldom returned due to faults or manufacturing defects – this is why we feel confident enough to offer our ‘14 Day Money Back Guarantee’. We want our products to last a very long time, and with that in mind, quality control is vital. It also gives the angler, the purchaser, the peace of mind they need. After all, even at our prices, carp fishing can be a big investment and you want to be 100% happy with your purchase.”

Amazingly, you also offer free postage – is this on everything, even including large items like bedchairs?
“Yes. We have tried to make ordering as easy as possible, therefore the price you see is the price you pay – nothing extra – even on the larger items. What’s more, most items will arrive the following day as long as it is ordered before 2pm (excluding weekends and Bank Holidays).”

Finally, what does the future hold for Cyprinus?
“The future for Cyprinus is looking pretty good to be honest. We have great new products on the horizon, all at great prices. We even hope to be bringing out a range of top quality rods before Christmas which we are very excited about.”

For more information on Cyprinus and their product range, head over to cyprinus.co.uk

Products

From 99p!

Cyprinus are now auctioning off their products on eBay with prices starting from just 99p! To grab yourself a bargain click the link below...