Another Question for you!

[uniquecorals]

Glad someone else agrees with me!

Now that I think about it, TBH I think the biggest reason why I haven't bought anything from the site and something that I find unattractive is that... the online shop's selection... I can find practically all of it at a decent LFS.

I don't want to be paying for shipping and having to place an online order for corals that I can find readily at my LFS. I only go online to find pieces that are unique and "rare," things that I can't find at my LFS. Things that make shipping worthwhile. I really do think that the online portion of the site should be mostly to showcase the collector corals that your facility has to offer. I want that "wow" and drool factor (we really need a drool smiley on R2R btw) with the livestock every time I see an update from you guys. Located in socal, it's like the gold mine of cherries. The LFS' in the Bay Area drive to LA just to cherry pick! I want to see... unique corals (eh eh? see what I did there? lol!).

I hope that I didn't come off as "post up more ridiculously marked priced corals," but more unique frags and less everyday corals at an affordable price point. A great example is the new blueberry shortcake. It's definitely one of a kind with you guys, and the price point is great. Great prices and one of the best customer services and guarantees and you guys have yourself a killer store.

Awesome points!

I agree that we want to have some stuff you don't see elsewhere everyday, but we also have to have a lot of great varieties of corals that people know and love. For every crazy Acro we sell, you'd be surprised how many good 'ole Sunset Montis or Rainbow Acans people buy. We feel that not only do we need to have unusual or hard to find stuff (I agree with you there!), but we need to have very high quality pieces of corals that consumers are more familiar with, too. You have to remember, we deal with people all over the U.S., and not everyone has access to the LFS with good selection...To some of our customers, we ARE the LFS, in a strange sort of 21st century way! Granted, we can't be all things to all people, but we can be more of a one stop shop; one of our stated goals is to become a "catalogue of coral", with all sorts of stuff for many different types of hobbyists. Will you find $900 per micron frags on our site? Nope. But you will find some crazy rare stuff. It's kind of fun trying to hit a variety of market targets, and we're still learning the balance...which is why feedback like you just gave is invaluable to us!

We often say that "every coral is unique", and it's true. We've been building up a great core inventory of conventional, unconventional, and downright obscure corals for almost a year. Now, with our new emphasis on WYSIWYG, I think you'll see a greater mix of items, including more rare and hard to find stuff! Its definitely an evolution!

Thanks,

Scott

 

[uniquecorals]

personally I don't have a LFS and there isn't a decent one for 175 miles, there could be more zoas and chalice but I like the pricing and really appreciate the fact you guys grow your own instead of leaning towards the overpriced market. Just wish I had a bigger tank.

BINGO! My point exactly...We try to keep everyone happy as much as we can, without going to either extreme. The best compliments that I hear from customers and visitors to our facility and at shows are, "You guys really care", and "Your corals are top notch", and "The service was great"...Beleive me, we have, have had, and will in the future have some crazy rare stuff. But mostly, we want to have crazy GOOD stuff! And we want to back it up with a customer experience that you can't get elsewhere. You CAN get lots of cool corals from a lot of sources, but you don't get US! LOL (may have sounded a bit arrogant- was definitely not the intention...)

Thanks,

Scott

 

[uniquecorals]

I like what you guys are doing overall, I do however think that more high end, cherry picked, WOW factor pieces added to the site will increase your site traffic immensely...nowadays the online coral game is all about the next "gotta have" "killer piece" in corals, start bringing in those funky chalices and mind blowing z's and p's, acros and people will go nutz but at the same time continue the sustainable coral farming you guys are so amazingly doing as the backbone of your operation....people make a very good point about LFS stepping up there game and offering up more high end stuff to reefers where they don't have to buy online because they can score it right down the road from where they live...that WOW factor has to be the cornerstone to draw them in

I love your point...And as mentioned before, we'll continue to offer some cool stuff, maybe even some crazy stuff...But we will never forget our core market strategy, which is to provide a really wide variety of great quality stuff that you can't find everywhere else under one roof. I guess where we have been perhaps deficient in our marketing duties has been generating lots of hype about the latest stuff...we are much more understated, and perhaps that loudness is not our style...But I think we will become increasingly less low key about the breadth of our selection, and perhaps the rarity of some of our stuff...An old expression in advertising and marketing that still holds true is that "if you aren't standing out from the clutter, you're contributing to it!"

Thanks for the feedback!

Scott

 

[CookieJar]

Regarding your original question, I vote for less subcategories. Being an LPS lover I need to look at 4 categories to find your entire collection; Misc LPS, Chalice, UC hall of Fame and UC collection. I'm not saying have only 1 category, maybe just 2 would suffice, 4 is too many in LPS. or simply have an 'all LPS' category that I could find everything there. Also rather than 30 being the max shown per page, a large quantity like 100 would be better. Overall you have a real nice selection, love your bowerbankis- keep up the good work!

 

[uniquecorals]

Regarding your original question, I vote for less subcategories. Being an LPS lover I need to look at 4 categories to find your entire collection; Misc LPS, Chalice, UC hall of Fame and UC collection. I'm not saying have only 1 category, maybe just 2 would suffice, 4 is too many in LPS. or simply have an 'all LPS' category that I could find everything there. Also rather than 30 being the max shown per page, a large quantity like 100 would be better. Overall you have a real nice selection, love your bowerbankis- keep up the good work!

Thanks so much for the kind words and feedback! We have been sort of reviewing the "Hall of Fame" and "UC Collection" concepts, and may be evolving them out of existence! Glad to see that you notice these categories, although they are more for enjoying rather than shopping, so they may just be retired at some point!

So, a vote for simplicity!

Regards,

Scott