Flourishing In Testing Times

After seeing a huge spike in e-Commerce sales we’ve moved to a 10,000 square ft warehouse, invested in new stock management software and have added finance payment options plus multi-lingual and multi-currency upgrades to our site. It’s been a frantic 2020 here at Finnmark and we’ve managed to forge ahead despite the restraints of the pandemic. Since the turn of the year, we’ve invested in purpose-built mobile sauna solutions and have moved to larger premises after seeing demand for accessories and for materials only bundles for the DIY market soar during the lockdown.

It's been an unprecedented few months for us online. It seems lots of people want to get stuck into large DIY projects and build their own saunas. Transactions in April were up 532% compared to the same period last year and revenue was up 840%, we have had to take on extra warehouse staff to cope with the number of orders coming in whilst still being careful to implement social distancing guidelines.

Multi-lingual, multi-currency upgrades to the website mean we now have custom language versions of the site in French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish - our US customers also love the fact they can view products and pay in their own currency too. We are using a new stock management system which is working out well in the larger space we moved into recently. Positively, we’ve managed to sell many of our products into Europe despite Brexit. Interestingly, we focus on high-quality Finnish key flag sauna accessories, which we import from Finland, and have even sold accessories back to customers in Finland!

Our PR and Content Manager Robbie Thompson said, “The way we’ve managed to pivot, improve upon and add to our core offering in testing times is testament to our strong team. Through our marketing efforts, we’ve managed to attract new customers by improving our visibility and building up the brand. Our sales team are getting warmer leads and potential customers need less convincing about our core values of quality and authenticity. We are constantly looking at ways to improve and innovate and are keen to make sure users keep having a positive experience on our website." 

He finished, “We’ve taken on six staff since Christmas and to help build on our success further, the next role we fill is going to be a full-time photographer and video editor. We’ve added some nice quirky features to the new premises including a meeting room built out of sauna materials and we plan to tour the UK with our custom-designed sauna trailer shortly. It’ll help us continue our mission of conveying the health benefits of authentic Finnish sauna across the country.”