EBizInsider

A Knack for Niches

Joe Tantillo of GreekGear.com is a veteran in e-commerce; he opened his first site in 1999. GreekGear.com provides “personalized products for people passionate about their pursuits.” There are more than 4,000 different personalized items, from key rings to mouse pads, baseball caps, custom flip-flops, trailer hitch covers, coffee mugs and formal dinner/dance fluted champagne glasses. If it can identify a fraternity or sorority, GreekGear.com has it.

After GreekGear.com, Tantillo launched GuidoGear.com, MyChristianGear.com and several other sites devoted to niche markets. His 12th site just came online named GearforGoldens.com (a site for retrievers, not retirees…). “I believe in regular redesigns, constant tweaking and expanding the number of niche sites for our customers,” Joe says. “I’m still wrestling with how to increase our real world presence. Our business model presents certain limitations.”

Learning from Traditional Businesses

The “real world” is very real to Joe Tantillo and he has applied the lessons there to his web sites. “My wife’s family has a brick-and-mortar store,” says Joe. “They update every two or three years. More people are shopping online, and they expect us to change, just like conventional stores.” GreekGear.com and the other “Gears” Joe launched have changed constantly, in spite of their success. GreekGear.com just underwent its third major redesign.

“Traffic is good on GreekGear.com,” says Joe. “Our average sales are up per purchase which suggests we’re getting a better brand of customer. Still, we focused our latest efforts with our designers on making a better site experience for our customers and better shopping cart conversions for us.”

The Better Mousetrap

GreekGear.com redesigned its navigation. Formerly the site had numerous categories with endless merchandise available. Now there is a section head with 5 subsections. “Think of it as a highway,” says Joe. “Before, you got to the fork in the road and there were a hundred options. Now you have five general highways and then smaller roads continually branching off based on your interest. It’s less confusing for shoppers.”

They made their shipping policy information more clear to customers. GreekGear.com also instituted a flat rate of $5 for flat ground shipping. “We play with pricing and shipping a lot,” says Tantillo. “Some of these things are risky if you’re playing with tight margins. It’s why we constantly tweak.”

Most of all, GreekGear.com has done countless little things. They’ve put their phone number in more places on the site. They’ve begun publishing customer testimonials. They redesigned the shopping cart to make the “place order” button larger. They’ve included guarantees to improve customer satisfaction. The net result? In 3 months GreekGear.com increased its conversion rate by 70%. “I’m using GreekGear.com as the test site for improvements my designers make on the other sites,” says Joe.

Cyberspace and Real Space

Joe Tantillo believes that just as all brick-and-mortar businesses should have a web presence, Internet companies should, when possible, have a footprint in the real world. GreekGear.com has, predictably, reached out to college bookstores and Italian festivals with success. “We’re branding for Barnes and Noble’s 600 stores and Follett’s 1000 stores,” says Joe. “We do it all and send them a commission. It’s a great way to grow your business.” He says that sometimes re-branding works for larger stores. The key is to strike the right balance between margins and volume.

Tantillo would like his in-laws to have a larger presence online. He believes it is crucial to be able to reach out to the wider market. Still, he understands the reluctance of people to step outside what they know. “I’m thinking of kiosks in bookstores as a good way to get the word out,” says Joe. Each opportunity comes with its challenges. With so many bookstores that could be a huge undertaking. Then there are staffing issues and slow traffic times. “And tell me, how do you display 4,000 items in a kiosk? I’m thinking of wholesaling the products and let the retailers get the word out for us.”

Joe Tantillo is an Internet vet who never stops tweaking. “The web is changing constantly, with improvements and entire brand new product lines emerging. In cyberspace, if you’re not improving, you’re falling behind.”

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