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The Gifted Ones
If you're looking for a unique themed gift basket to celebrate occasions ranging from Hanukkah to housewarmings, The Gifted Ones probably has it. And because the 17-year-old store launched a Website in September, you don't have to trek to New York's Greenwich Village to shop there.
Owned by David Titus and Tim Riches, The Gifted Ones last year merged with Gotham Baskets, an online gourmet shop opened in April 2003 by former Wall Street executive Charlie Susi. The Gifted Ones Website is logging 1,400 visitors a day, says Susi. The $1 million company's overall sales have doubled since going online.
Prices range from $29 for the Movie Munchies Gift Basket, which features a box of chocolate stars, movie-trivia fortune cookies, flavored popcorn, and old-fashioned movie candy, to the $200 Simply Red gift basket, which includes Mumm Champagne Truffles, jalapeno cheese biscuits, truffle cocoa, and DiCamillo's biscotti di Prato. The Website's average order value is $75.
To promote the site online, the company is relying on search word optimization, using Google Adword. Offline, The Gifted Ones mails a three-page foldout brochure to 3,000 customers before major holidays to drive customers to the site.
HRP World
Peoria, IL-based HRP World, which sells replacement parts for race cars, is gunning for sales on its Website, launched in July 2003.
The company, which has a five-year-old print catalog, considers the site a cost-efficient way to provide additional service to customers. “We can upload more technological information on the Internet, which will allow us to include PDF specs of products,” says vice president of business development Jason Mitchell. “If they're looking to get information after hours or wanting to place an order after hours, we don't have to have somebody here.”
The 15,000 products offered range from 15-cent caps for plumbing lines to $15,000 transmissions. The average order value is $300-$500; popular products include break pads, break fluids, and tool supplies, or what Mitchell refers to as consumable items that last for a few races. The company is seeing five or six orders placed per day.
Whereas the print catalog is geared toward racers, the Website also features products for auto enthusiasts. For instance, the $199.95 Icard System software for Nintendo Gameboys allows users to pick up signals from the transponders attached to each car so that they can calculate the time and distance of each car while the race is in progress.
In January the company launched a promotional campaign that included placing banner ads on search engines and running ads in auto-racing enthusiast publications. Links to the site were also placed on auto racing association site SCCA.com.
Shady Lamp Workshop
Philadelphia-based Shady Lamp Workshop aims to turn people on to its lampshades and home accessories via its Website.
The site, which became transactional in March 2003, started out selling only lampshades, but general manager John Wilson says the company quickly learned that it had to branch out to lighting and home decor. Prices range from $2 for candle rings to $500 for chandeliers, with most products falling in the $8-$15 range. The average order is $50. Wilson says the Shady Lamp site receives 500-600 visitors a day and has a 1% conversion rate.
To increase its online success, the company is investing in search engine advertising using Google and Overture. Shady Lamp also places small ads in the back of The New Yorker magazine, as well as ads in publications such as Southern Living and Country Living. In addition, it includes the Web address in the local print advertising it does in Pennsylvania. For now, the company has no plans to mail a print catalog.
Condimental
Gourmet food retailers now have a cybersource for restocking their shelves. New York-based wholesaler Condimental in July 2003 launched a Website selling products such as jam, olive oils, crackers, and fish delicacies by the case.
Prices range from $25 for a case of Mucky Duck Mustard barbecue sauce to $408 for a 14-oz. tin of caviar. President Thompson Bellingrath says a typical order is 10-40 cases of jam, priced at $40 per case. While Condimental processes the orders, each vendor drop-ships the order to the customer. Also, “suppliers manage all of their own information,” Bellingrath explains. “So if someone wants to change pricing or add a new image, they just log in and make the changes themselves.”
A former gourmet food buyer for a store, Bellingrath started Condimental in 2000 as a business-to-business network; he receives a commission on each sale from the site. The results so far are encouraging, says Bellingrath. Five hundred to 1,000 visitors view the site daily. As for product sales, he adds, “We saw continued growth through the second, third, and fourth quarters of 2003, and we're pleased with it and looking forward to 2004.”
To promote the site, Bellingrath plans to take out space ads in trade publications such as Gourmet Retailer, Specialty Food, Gourmet News, Fancy Food, and Culinary Products. Online he invests in search word optimization using search engine Overture.
Bellingrath is considering creating a 20-page print catalog within the next few years. Instead of putting all the site's products into the book, he would highlight a few products from each supplier.
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