EBizInsider

I’m no computer expert.
Solid Cactus made it easy for me to manage my pages,
change numbers, add prices, you name it. It’s so easy I’ve added two more websites.

—TR Mutlu, Vacuums24X7.com

Vacuums24X7.com grew from some
brick-and-mortar stores in the northern Virginia area. TR Mutlu opened his first store in 1990, then he came online in 2003 selling vacuum parts only. His company has 4 employees and sells more than 3,000 different parts for many different vacuum cleaners.

“We started with a Yahoo! Store,” TR recalls. “We started out simply, but after awhile it was clear we needed a better online store. We needed something that looked professional and was easy to use. I did the research and we decided on Solid Cactus. Right from that first redesign we looked like a big-time business and not something someone operated from a garage. It was perfect.”

Sadly, times change in e-business and so do the demands on the operators. “We were going to get out of the Yahoo! Platform entirely,” TR says. “It wasn’t Solid Cactus, but we had issues with the Yahoo! Platform itself. Google Checkout doesn’t integrate and the order processing was from the Stone Age.” Be careful what you wish for, as the saying goes. Vacuums24X7.com did indeed switch to a new company who promised they would take care of everything. It didn’t happen. “Suddenly we had a very bare-bones website again,” says TR. “Our orders started falling until they were only a fraction of what they had been. Everything took months to fix and they cost us much more than Solid Cactus. We were happy to come back and especially happy when our orders picked back up to normal.”

Vacuums24X7.com did more than come back to the Yahoo! Platform fold, they’ve taken their partnership with Solid Cactus to a new level by adding two entirely new websites. TR calls them clones of the first store. “We have opened Vacuumpartsstore.com and Kirbypartsstore.com,” says TR. “We’ve been able to reach out to other markets and work everything through our staff working the online side of our business.”

Since then, Vacuums24X7.com has decided on yet another redesign. “There are many new features that make it easier for our customers and easier for us,” says TR. “We want a new faceSelift. I told the Solid Cactus design team I had three stores in mind and we wanted to look better than they did. The three are Walmart.com, Sears.com and Target.com. The first mock-up the design team did for us looks better than those sites look now. Solid Cactus really uses color and visuals better than anyone else in the business. By the time they’re done with us we’ll look much better than those big name sites.”

Vacuums24X7.com also wanted new functionality. They’ve decided to add Snap Shop and they’ll be putting the Shopping Cart on the item page. Naturally, as the internet has become more focused on search engines, TR wanted the latest in search engine optimization. “That’ll be emphasized throughout the redesign,” he says. “It’s strange, because back a couple of years ago we weren’t thinking much about SEO. There are so many more stores out there and so much more competition, you can be sure we’re thinking about SEO now!”

Vacuums24X7.com will have a brand new look and new functionality in a few weeks. “We expect the same results as the last time we went through this process,” says TR Mutlu. “When Solid Cactus did our last redesign not only were there no missing parts, we got more than we counted on. We already know we’ll get great tech support; we always have. You know, when they say ‘Solid Cactus is your partner in e-commerce success,’ it’s more than just a slogan. It’s the truth.”

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