Fed up with impertinent questions about how he lost his leg, Dr Mark Williams OBE decided to give his stem prosthetic a makeover. He created a fiberglass cover using his leg measurements and decorated it with the khaki spray paint he’s been using while renovating a second-hand car.
After sharing a picture of himself and the tricked-out car in an amputee forum, Williams was surprised to receive more questions about his leg cover. One request turned into several, and soon he was leaving behind his 27-year career in international sales for an entirely new venture.
The founder of LIMB-art explained how e-commerce enabled him to sell his innovative product beyond the UK and build an award-winning business in the process.
Global market
Once he started crunching the numbers, Williams said he quickly realised there was enough of a market for LIMB-art’s leg covers worldwide to make selling the product overseas viable.
In the UK, 650 people lose a leg each month, while in the US, that figure is closer to 600 per day. Worldwide, it’s estimated that there is a total of 30 million leg amputees.
“The only way to reach them was through social media”, he says. Using Facebook and Instagram, the company has been able to target its marketing towards amputee groups.
Many customers preferred having their leg measured for the cover by a medical professional than doing it themselves, and it was one such professional enquiring on behalf of his patients that eventually became the firm’s first distributor.
“The business just exploded from there, because every single person he sees is an amputee”, Williams explained.
He retooled LIMB-art’s business model accordingly, with B2C word-of-mouth eventually attracting distributors in 14 markets worldwide, including the US, Australia, Canada and large European markets like Germany, France and Italy.
Once in place, he ensures the firm’s website directs customers to the relevant distributor to avoid duplicating orders.
De minimis challenges
The new wave of protectionist trade measures introduced worldwide has posed challenges. For firms trading via e-commerce, the most notable change is the removal of the de minimis threshold by both the EU and US.
Williams explained that the company had easily been able to export leg covers two-at-a-time to scrape below the US$800 de minimis threshold.
Evaluating the financial damage new US customs duties would do, with the support of a Welsh Government business advisor Williams learned that there was a tariff-free solution to the problem.
Emphasising the importance of correctly classifying your product, it transpired that, of the four commodity codes that could be applicable to Limb-art’s leg covers, one doesn’t attract duties.
Selecting the right commodity code isn’t just vital to avoid fines, the wrong choice can be costly in other ways.
Administrative solutions
Williams adds that there’s still paperwork associated with proving that your goods can be imported duty free.
Each LIMB-art shipment is sent with a “covering letter”, reiterating the commodity code and why it doesn’t attract duties. Despite this level of due diligence, sometimes a charge is still levied, although the business is clear on how it handles this.
“If there is a duty, we absorb it,” Williams says, “the biggest damage is the product getting stuck at the port”.
“There’s a time pressure on us to resolve it and we’ve also got a very upset customer at the other end, waiting for their leg cover.
“So at the moment, we’re happy to have our shipper automatically pay for the tariff, if one is charged.”
Reflecting on his dealings with US customs, Williams advises firms to have all documents in order and paperwork at the ready.
“I think the majority of the time our products go through because it looks like it's been sent by somebody who knows what they're doing,” he says.
‘Simple is cheaper’
Asked for other advice he would share with firms aiming to grow through e-commerce, Williams says that spending extra money on intermediaries that can handle more aspects of your trade is often cost-effective in the long run.
“Everything we do, we think ‘let’s just keep this simple’”
Active in a number of business and trade networks, including his local chamber of commerce, Welsh Government forums and the Chartered Institute of Export & International Trade, Williams says he often encounters SMEs that are needlessly making things more difficult for themselves.
“Some companies start their export journey by making it complicated; they've got multiple products they want to sell and multiple contracts, trying to get the cheapest transport.
“It gets to the point where you need somebody working full-time to manage all of that. We keep things simple and work with one shipping firm, and offset the bit of extra money with the time [saved].”
‘Have a story’
When it comes to selling products via e-commerce, Willaims says “you can’t sell a product, you’ve got to sell a story”.
Compared to brick-and-mortar retail, where consumers can examine their purchases, e-commerce is inherently more risky, requiring the customer to place greater trust in the product – especially when the product in question is a quality piece of equipment selling for hundreds of pounds.
“The biggest bit of advice I’d give to any company looking to export through B2C,” he says, “is make sure you've got a great back story and something that builds trust”.
“Once you build the trust, then you can sell the product.”
He attributes some of LIMB-art’s success to the product’s origin as a nifty innovation he first built for personal use, with the business developing out of organic interest from amputees asking him to make a similar leg cover for them.
Making a ‘huge difference’
While business success is welcome – with LIMB-art winning trade gongs from ‘Made in the UK Sold to the World’ to the King’s Award for Innovation – Williams’ focus is on the difference his product has made in the lives of his customers.
Reflecting on life with a bare stem prosthetic, he says “you walked into a room and everyone looks, but nobody knows what to say”.
“But then eventually someone will turn around and say: ‘If you don’t mind me asking, how did you lose your leg’.
“It’s a rubbish way to start a conversation and if that happens once or twice a day, it can really get you down.”
The difference when wearing a leg cover, that both fills out clothes properly and is chosen to reflect your personality, is remarkable. Williams describes the array of custom-designed products the company has made, from cover themed around Pink Floyd and Coldplay, to F1 and Hollywood.
“It makes a huge difference, not just to confidence, but you don’t get those awkward stares anymore, it seems to appease Joe Public.
“I took the major gamble of resigning from my lifetime career, to surround myself with a few talented people, and now we make the world’s coolest prosthetic leg covers.”
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