I’d accidentally let the black versions of Simplr‘s high-quality minimalist straps sell out (whoops!) so we had a gap for a couple of weeks where they weren’t available.
The DHL man arrived today with a box of stock from the US and that’s all been loaded onto the site now. There were no new items or limited edition straps this time around so it’s just the core range getting it’s inventory topped up.
If you’re thinking “what’s Simplr?” here’s a little explanation:
Simplr straps are a little different from most camera straps. Rather than bulky padding, leather and lots of hardware, they’re designed to be lightweight, minimal and extremely quick to adjust, making them particularly well suited to mirrorless, rangefinder and smaller cameras. The F1 can be worn around your neck or cross-body and quickly shortened or lengthened using its simple adjustment tab, while keeping bulk around the camera to a minimum. They’re also made in the USA from tough, lightweight materials designed to stand up to regular use.
Rigu is the only UK stockist of Simplr straps, so you can get one without waiting for an order to arrive from the US or having to deal with international postage, import VAT and handling charges.
I’ve been doing a fairly thorough stock check recently and it confirmed something I already suspected: I’ve simply got too much stuff.
Over the years Rigu has ended up carrying a very broad range of camera straps, filters and accessories. In some cases that’s useful because it means there’s usually a colour, size or style to suit almost everyone, but there comes a point where having so much choice means quite a lot of money is sitting on the shelves in products that only sell occasionally.
For a small business like Rigu, that isn’t particularly sensible.
One of the slightly awkward things about buying niche photography products is that it’s always a bit of a guessing game. I might find something unusual that I really like and think customers will like too, but there’s no perfect way of knowing in advance whether I should order five of them, twenty of them, or whether one particular colour or size is going to be much more popular than the others. That’s how I end up getting big boxes of stock, because I tend to think the awesome new thing I found is going to fly off the shelves.
Sometimes I get that judgement right, and sometimes I end up looking at a shelf a year or two later and thinking, yes, I definitely ordered too many of those. It’s an annoying feeling, because failure as a stock buyer is very visible, whereas success just makes you feel like you should have ordered even more of them. It’s hard to win.
In many cases it simply means I was a little too optimistic about how many people would want a particular version, or that one colour or size turned out to be much more popular than another.
So I’ve been going through the stock properly and making some decisions about which ranges I want to keep carrying in full, which ones I want to slim down, and which products I’m quite happy to sell through and not replace.
That includes a mixture of camera straps such as some Kodak straps, and effects filters, and various other lines where I’ve decided I’m holding more stock than I really need.
There’s nothing wrong with the products and in most cases they aren’t being discontinued by the manufacturer. This is simply me looking at what actually sells at Rigu and trying to make the stock holding a bit more sensible.
Some products are being cleared completely, while with others I’m just cutting down particular colours, sizes or variations that have been sitting around for too long.
I’ve always liked being able to offer a slightly unusual and varied range of photography accessories, so I’m certainly not planning to turn Rigu into a shop selling five products. But I do need to be a bit more disciplined about how much money is tied up in stock that might take years to sell.
The upside for customers is that there are now some genuinely good reductions available, including on products that would normally stay at full price.
As usual with clearance stock, once a particular item, colour or size has gone, I may not be replacing it.
From 12 August 2026, new EU packaging rules known as PPWR have come into effect. Unfortunately, they mean that Rigu has had to temporarily stop accepting orders for delivery to the EU.
The aim of the rules is straightforward enough: reduce packaging waste, improve recycling and make businesses more responsible for the packaging they send to customers.
The difficulty is that they also create new registration, reporting and compliance requirements for businesses selling into EU countries. For a large company, that is another administrative cost to absorb. For a very small business sending a relatively small number of parcels to Europe, it can quickly become impractical.
So, for now, EU shipping from Rigu is paused while I work out whether there is a realistic and affordable way to comply, or if it’s possible for me to comply in a few individual countries.
It’s very frustrating that being a small ecommerce seller means you have to keep dealing with all these new obstacles. Last year it was GPSR, this year it’s PPWR, then you have to try and keep on top of what is happening with US tariffs. It would be nice if occasionally it got “easier”, but I can’t remember the last time that happened.
One thing that has always frustrated me about the site is that the brand pages are a bit boring. They are essentially a “product dump” that just gives you a long list of everything that I sell from a particular manufacturer.
They get the job done, but when Rigu is a specialist in bringing unusual camera products and brands to the UK to make them available without the hassle of importing them yourself, often from small brands you might not have heard of… I think they need to be more than that.
I’m slowly creating new brand pages which will give people a much better idea of what a brand is about, as well as what they sell. This is partially for SEO reasons, and I’ve always believed that a good customer experience should naturally follow through to also be positive for search engine visibility and results. If I’m giving people what they want, I’m probably giving a search engine what it wants too.
Simplr are the first brand where I’ve taken this approach, and I think the difference is pretty dramatic. Simplr are a one-person brand based in the US producing minimal straps for people that want to carry their camera securely, safely, and in the most lightweight way possible. People that buy their straps are looking for something specific, and a product dump brand page doesn’t get that across at all. This improved page let’s you know more about the product and what kind of cameras are appropriate for each of their strap models. It also just looks nicer and is more attractive to browse on both mobile and desktop.
There’s also now a block at the bottom of the page that lets people know more about Rigu too. If you’re looking for Simplr in the UK you might not necessarily have heard of Rigu before, and getting people to understand that I’ve been around for almost 15 years, stock everything in the UK (no drop shipping, and no import fees to pay), and have an excellent reputation is important, and I’m not that comfortable boasting about my service levels and reviews, so I probably don’t talk about this enough on the site.
Has it made a difference?
I’ll caveat this with 2 things. The first is that it has only been a month, and the second is that brand pages don’t get that much traffic for small brands, so I’m not working with much data and there’s a good chance that any real changes are also being influenced by natural month-to-month variability which is making any improvements look bigger than they are.
That said, most metrics look positive. As a landing page rigu.co.uk/simplr has received double the search impressions, and also double the clicks according to Google Search Console. The average position in search results has dropped, but I’m actually taking this as a good thing, because I can also see that the page is showing up in a lot more generalised camera strap searches, whereas before most of the clicks were from very focused terms like “simplr camera strap uk”. I’m still getting those people, but the additional content on the page now looks to be gaining some ranking with people looking for an ultralight camera strap and even really general terms like “nikon camera strap.”
Looking at Google Analytics, people are spending 80% more time on the page, and rather incredibly, the bounce rate has dropped 88%, going from an already pretty respectable 32% to 3.7%. To be honest, that number is so low I’m not sure if I can trust it.
But have you sold more Simplr straps?
Put simply, no. Sales were same this month as last month. As I said, we’re dealing with fairly small numbers here, so with the amount of traffic gained to that landing page I wouldn’t expect it to lead to a big jump in sales, but over a longer time period I think it would make sense to expect a small rise.
Any other thoughts?
Ultimately, I made this change to sell more Simplr camera straps, and that hasn’t happened (yet), but I still think it was worthwhile. More people are visiting that page and they’re spending more time on it, which suggests to me that I’m providing a better visitor experience, and that can only be a good thing for Rigu and the brands that I stock.
It will be a slow process but I’d like to roll this out to more brands to see if it does cumulatively help improve the customer experience, search traffic, and ultimately make more sales.
I also think that it’s probably good for me to write about these things openly since ecommerce these days is hidden behind paid courses and “gurus” that aren’t willing to share any data, or accept when things have gone wrong or they made a mistake. If people want to hear more about the ecommerce side of Rigu and think it would be interesting I’ll be happy to write about it.
Part of me wonders why I spend so much time trying to find nice tripod clips to sell, but then I remember that Rigu is about finding new & interesting products (well, as interesting as a tripod clip can be) and giving people good value, so OF COURSE I spend hours looking at screws and then buying them to test.
These anti-slip tripod screws by Bexin contain a genuine innovation that I’ve not seen before, so I’m quite excited to add them to the shop, and give people another choice when connecting their camera to their HoldFast Gear MoneyMaker harness (or another… lower quality copycat harness).
The problem that people usually have with a tripod mount clip is the risk of it coming undone when attached to the camera due to the camera twisting and turning when you’re working. Cheaper clips tend to just be a screw with a rubber buffer to prevent scratches to the camera body and also provide additional friction. The HoldFast clip goes one better and adds in a patented nylon bar that runs through the screw thread to provide more friction again
I actually occasionally get emails from customers claiming that their HoldFast clip has an issue because it’s hard to screw into their cameras tripod mount. It’s a classic “it’s a feature not a bug” situation, where I have to explain that it being harder to screw in means that it’s harder for it to come undone, and that there’s no danger to their tripod mount.
Anyway, the Bexin anti-slip tripod clip has a different method to prevent the clip from coming undone and keeping your camera securely in place. You screw in as normal whilst pushing down on the head, and then when it’s fully screwed in, let go and the head will pop up slightly as it’s being pushed by a spring which allows the head to float and spin freely. That means on a MoneyMaker harness you’ve got the slider sailor clip that spins, and a tripod clip that can spin, which I think massively reduces any risk of the clip coming undone accidentally.
Wondering how you unscrew it if the head can float? You just push the head down and turn until you find a small notch that you push the head into further, and then unscrew as normal.
Here’s a short video I made demonstrating how it works.
A new batch of Spektrem Effects filters has arrived here in the Lake District from designer and maker Brandon Aguilar in Chicago.
I’ve been stocking them for a while, but for anyone new Spektrem Effects is a small, one-person brand, and Brandon designs and makes the filters himself in small batches. They are not polished, mass-produced optical filters made in a large factory. They are handmade creative tools designed to produce unusual flare, colour, blur and distortion directly in camera.
That means you may notice small variations or signs of the making process, but that is part of their character. These filters are made for photographers and filmmakers who enjoy experimenting and do not necessarily want every image to look clean and perfect.
Warp and 7C are now available in 77mm
The biggest change in this delivery is that the unusual Warp filter is now available with a 77mm filter thread, and also the multi-colour 7C filter. Brandon said it was a pretty big project to make larger sizes of them possible, but I think it was worth it since larger sizes are generally compatible with a wider variety of lenses since both of these filters can be used with step rings effectively.
As with most creative filters, the results will depend on your lens, aperture, lighting and how you position the filter. Bright lights, backlighting and wider apertures usually help bring out stronger effects, but a lot of the fun comes from simply moving the filter around and seeing what happens. I always say that there’s no “right” way to use creative filters
Rigu is the exclusive UK stockist for Spektrem Effects, so the filters are available with free standard UK delivery and without the extra import costs or delay of ordering from the US.
As they are handmade in small batches, some designs and sizes may sell out fairly quickly.
After a brief period of being out of stock, these affordable alternatives to the official HoldFast tripod clips are available again.
I’m always upfront about these; they are not as good as the HoldFast version, but they also cost less than a quarter of the real thing and do a pretty good job, so it’s worth having one or two as a spare in case you lose your HF branded tripod clips and need to keep shooting at a wedding or event.
The main difference between these and the HF version is the lack of a nylon bar threaded through the screw thread, which is a really effective way to add friction and make it harder to remove the screw accidentally when you’re shooting.
The cheaper alternative clips don’t have that nylon bar so you’re relying on the friction of the screw thread and the rubber stopper, which is usually more than enough, especially if you keep it in mind to do an occasional check on your gear whilst shooting, and also use the safety lanyard for some redundancy.
A big box of HoldFastGear goods arrived earlier this week, providing a much needed boost to the inventory of MoneyMaker dual camera harnesses (and some of their other accessories).
A few models (mostly medium sizes) had been out of stock for a little while, so it’s great to have most of the range available again.
Items going out of stock is always frustrating for both me and customers. I miss out on a sale, and customers can’t get the thing they want quickly.
The obvious answer is “just hold more stock.” However, there are 111 different MoneyMaker options when you account for sizes, colours and then the standard, skinny, no D-ring, vegan and Solo versions (which come in left and right handed models).
Once you factor in needing to have more than one of most items, clearly that’s a lot of harnesses to be holding in stock, and a big investment for a small company like Rigu. Balancing how much I need to hold is really hard to predict, and something that I’m always working on.
Buying from Rigu remains the cheapest way for UK photographers to buy a MoneyMaker harness, and they will get it cheaper and quicker than ordering from the US. Even in those times when an item is out of stock, it can often make sense to wait the month or so for a restock to arrive since it will mean saving around £50 on a harness after import costs.
I hate raising prices, and avoid doing it as much as possible.
The Royal Mail have raised my postage prices a few times over the last couple of years, and it’s finally reached a point where I can’t take the additional cost any longer without passing it on to customer. Special Delivery options especially seem to have jumped up.
These aren’t massive price rises, but I think it’s only fair to be transparent and let people know when things like this happen rather than sneaking it through and hoping no one notices.
“Free delivery” with a signature required is now 79p
Upgrading to Royal Mail 24 is now £2.50 extra
Royal Mail 24 with a signature required is £3.30 extra
Special Delivery Next Day by 1pm is £9 extra for package under 1kg, and £13.99 for over 1kg.
The majority of customers opt for the “free delivery” option anyway, so for most people it’s business as usual, and hopefully it will be feasible to maintain a free delivery option on all orders for the foreseeable future.
This is a quick reminder that Rigu uses the Royal Mail to send out almost all orders, and as the Royal Mail do not collect or deliver on Bank Holidays it is not possible for me to send out orders on Good Friday or Easter Monday.
All orders placed after today’s 3pm collection will be sent on Tuesday April 7th.
Email/social responses will be slower than usual during the long weekend, as I won’t be in the office, no one will answer the phone.
