Nineteen Ninety-Nine, the year we began MowDirect, now seems like a world away and in many ways it was. Mr Bill Clinton was in the White House, New Labour, led by a fresh faced Tony Blair, had been in power just two years, the teenage Britney Spears released her debut album and Arsenal and Manchester United were heading up the football league in England….err, ok, so not everything was so different. But the world of the web has since been transformed. In those early days of shopping online Google was barely a year old and our customers were more likely to reach us through the likes of AOL, Yahoo and Alta Vista. Shopping Comparison Sites were in their infancy and in one case we remember free of charge for us retailers – extraordinary when you consider the exorbitant charges they now make us pay to offer their ‘impartial’ views and reviews of our products. (Sorry for the gripe – our problem not yours you might think, but we’ll explain more in a later post covering pricing on the net.) Nineteen Ninety-Nine was also the age of the dial-up internet connection when, before the wonders of broadband, download times were painfully slow and the number and size of images on each page of the site were kept deliberately small. Compared to now, website design was basic and could be quite crude by current standards.
Despite all the developments and differences between then and now, the aim we initially set out with almost ten years ago hasn’t changed. Namely, as it still says in our terms and conditions, MowDirect ‘will provide our customers with the most direct and comprehensive access to garden machinery products within the U.K.” Not exactly an earth shattering statement in the wider scheme of things – and I doubt we are ever likely to transform the web in the way say You Tube or My Space have done – but its one of those tiny small elements that makes up the whole and supplying lawnmowers and garden machinery is something I believe we do better than anyone else. Talking of social networking websites, at MowDirect we do like to keep abreast of developments and some of the new technology Web 2.0 has brought us. Last year for instance we launched the UK’s first regular online news source for garden machinery and garden related news with stories being produced on a daily basis to keep you informed of all the latest products and developments. We’ve also of course launched this Blog and in the coming weeks and months we will be discussing some of the main issues you may be considering when purchasing a new lawn mower or other item of garden machinery as well as offering seasonal product reviews, technology updates and practical advice for using our products in your garden. There will be lots, lots more of course – including some major announcements and maybe the occasional special offer for regular readers – so thank you for reading so far and please really do watch this space!
The Editor
