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~ Rarewaves ~

We meet Brad Aspess and Rob Evans, Co-Owners at Rarewaves.com, at the Light Box in
Chiswick, London. It is a modern building packed full of entrepreneurial businesses; the
kind of offi ce that fi ts a fast-growing and developing business that benefi ts from fl exibility.
It’s a bruising environment where Aspess, Evans and their team of energetic people are

working to service consumers all around the world.

Sure, being visible is important. However, we choose to go to the
he one million SKU club customer rather than waiting for the customer to come to us.”
Rarewaves.com seems like a typical company that
Tfocuses on media and entertainment. Maybe not all As Rarewaves.com created an important market position for
mainstream media, but you can buy DVDs, CDs and vinyl itself, what does the company do to maintain it? Aspess smiles.
records. However, fi ve minutes in the building shows us Rare- “We believe it is all about being agile, about getting and keeping
waves.com is much more. Its assortment varies from music, the business quick on its feet. We are a self-funded company,
DVDs and CDs to clothing, electronics and toys. In need of of- we aren’t beholden to budgets. We do not have a marketing
fi ce products? Th is is the company where you need to be. Evans department with budgets to maintain a position. Encouraging
confesses, embarrassedly, that even he isn’t fully up to date on our employees to make decisions and take ownership to realise
every product the company sells. Looking at the diversity of the new potential: that is what we do. If they fail, it’s a shame, but
assortment, it’s not hard to believe why. it is okay to make mistakes. It’s the best way to learn. We are all
Before selling online, Aspess owned a music wholesale company way too worried about failure these days. Our blind spot is to
and later started doing business with department stores that sold only look at the negative, even though there lies a positive learn-
media. “One of my previous companies was a brick-and-mortar ing opportunity in every failure. You know, the best ideas rarely
concept,” Aspess explains, “Our business model was commis- come fi rst.”
sion-based. We would provide the products and the stores would “Th at is only one side of the story,” Evans adds. “When looking
get a commission on each sale. With Rarewaves.com, we are at our target audience, we have optimised some very important
doing this on marketplaces, platforms that provide us with the Unique Selling Points (USPs), which we continuously focus on.
opportunity to sell a wide variety of products anywhere in the In the end, this all comes down to a pleasant shopping experi-
world.” ence. Th e crucial aspect being to convince buyers we are the side
to choose.”
With more than one million SKUs on diff erent marketplace
platforms worldwide, Rarewaves.com has expanded its product It makes sense. Being better is one part, convincing the audience
range with a wide variety of items. Th is way of working paid off that you’re better is another. “Over the years, we have gener-
and in 2018 the company was awarded the Queen’s Award for ated millions of positive reviews on the marketplaces we sell.
Enterprise: International Trade 2018 in the United Kingdom. While we might not always be the cheapest, we realise price is
Aspess: “Th at award was something which told us we are on the important. However, we believe consumers will choose service
right track, and it really was a team eff ort. Currently, we sell in over price almost anytime,” explains Evans. “Consumers who
179 countries - talk about a global scope!” buy from Rarewaves.com do so because we can assure them of
a reliable ordering process, as our 5-star reviews are showing.
Evans: “As we are selling all over the world, lots of suppliers Consumers can feel confi dent knowing they are dealing with a
can relate to our ambitions and to what we do. Th e core of that reputable seller. Th at is what they want to know.”
is based in a good relationship. We believe our suppliers are as
important to us as we are to them. When they approach us to Aspess adds: “Take Amazon, for example - lots of consumers on
collaborate, it is an opportunity to enlarge our variety of prod- Amazon don’t realise they aren’t buying directly from the Ameri-
ucts. If we believe a supplier matches with us, we are very keen can retailer. Th ey have no idea they buy from an independent
on developing a long term relationship with them.” company, through Amazon. But it makes sense for Amazon to
do this, as consumers have a positive purchase experience with
Vision on e-commerce these sellers.”
As e-commerce fl ourishes, companies are trying to convince the
consumer to choose their off erings over others every day. Fancy Analysing customer service and fulfi lment
websites, harsh advertisements and huge competitiveness are Key USPs in the Rarewaves.com strategy are their customer
daily business. Evans: “Our approach might be a little unconven- service and fulfi lment. Th e company has native customer
tional. We decided not to make a website, as we do not believe service agents to cover the larger marketplaces in its UK offi ce.
there is any point in competing and spending loads of marketing Others are working remotely in Hamburg and Tokyo after a
and Pay Per Click (PPC) budget on getting noticed in that way. spell in the head offi ce in London. Aspess says: “Having a

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