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When we got married my wife’s family and I owned five stores in three states. Since we went online, we’ve closed four of the brick-and-mortars and sold to every continent except Antarctica.

—Karl Schilling, Kaleidoscopestoyou.com

The “net effect” has been very positive for

Talk about the very definition of “niche market” and you’ve just described Kaleidoscopes To You. Founder Karl Schilling started making and selling kaleidoscopes when he was still in high school. “It helped pay for high school and college,” he says. After 10 years, in the early nineties, he started a series of brick-and-mortar stores in Illinois and Minnesota selling seasonally and ultimately opened a store in the Mall of America in Minnesota. But when Kaleidoscopestoyou.com went online, Karl realized it was the perfect match for his niche business. “We needed lots of traffic for this business,” says Karl. “We had people come from all over to buy our products at the Mall, but we were really made for the Internet.”

Kaleidoscopes To You is 8 people total with a product line of 781 items. Karl runs the business with his wife Jean, a native of Manly Iowa (Karl says with pride that he married a ‘Manly woman’). In 1996 they went online and Karl says he realized that ultimately their success would be tied to cyberspace. “I learned code and designed the first site myself,” he recalls. “It was slow in the early years but I always believed it would work.”

The Schillings found Solid Cactus and had their site redesigned in 2005. Since then he’s been a Solid Cactus client and has continued to ‘tweak’ his site. “As I recall I was a tough sell on the redesign,” says Karl. “Now I’m a junkie for changes.” Among the additions he likes best are the Quantity Price Table (“it’s excellent, clean and concise”) and Snap Shop (“a good navigation tool; the new version is very advanced”). He’s also a big believer in branding through checkout. “As a retailer I’ve seen increases,” he says. “Seeing the shell throughout the checkout process is very comforting for customers.”

Perhaps the best praise for Kaleidoscopestoyou.com comes from his customers. “They tell me that they shop other sites,” Karl says. “But they say we have a more professional look, we have more products and they trust us.”

The net effect has been very positive. “We’ve seen 25-30% growth in each of the past four years,” says Karl. The Schillings are now expanding their horizons. “We had Solid Cactus clone a second site for us called Marblesforyou.com. That site just went live in April, but we have 350 products and we’re very hopeful.”

Karl says he’s more comfortable as an Internet retailer. “I like the marketing aspect,” he says. “I like developing different angles to attract customers and grow our base.” One area where he’s concentrating is on organic listings. “We were spending so much money on our pay-per-click advertising that I decided to get more serious about our natural rankings. That’s what I do now, ‘tweak’ for natural listings. In addition, I try to identify trouble areas and deal with them. We monitor our phone calls carefully for content and subject. I find when I get several questions about the same thing it’s usually a problem that is confusing people. That’s something I can fix.”

Karl is still tweaking Kaleidoscopestoyou.com, as well. Solid Cactus will be adding a blog section to the site this month. He believes the interactive possibilities, combined with general industry knowledge make e-commerce blogs important.

Karl Schilling has advice for making your own site attractive without spending lots of money. “A good ‘about us’ page is valuable if you do it right,” says Karl. “Make sure you include a picture of yourselves and the location of your business. Let people see who you are. It’s hard to make people feel at home online and I believe a good ‘about us’ page gives people a greater sense of comfort.”

We did a business plan, but we’ve already blown it away. Success has come so quickly that we’ve grown much
faster than we thought.

—Dave Jones, FunDogFred.com

Fundogfred.com was inspired by a desire to be in e-commerce, a “total” love of dogs and an interest in design. Dave Jones was fascinated by the possibilities and promise of doing business online. “I had no idea about e-commerce,” laughs Dave. “I just knew I wanted to do something online. So I did lots of research first.” Jean Jones had design experience and a desire to meet new people. “I knew how I wanted fundogfred.com to look,” she says. “The site is fun and so are the people who call. Dog lovers are nice people.” Predictably, the couple has two dogs of their own. “They’re great testers,” says Jean. “The only problem is; they want to keep every toy they like.”

Fundogfred.com is where you come for the latest in dog fashion with designer dog clothes, trendy small dog carriers, designer dog collars, designer dog leashes and hip dog accessories. In addition they offer gourmet dog treats and specialty dog grooming products, fun dog bowls and dog feeders. Fundogfred.com is over 1,000 products, many of which are rapidly filling their basement. “We bought a wide range when we first started,” Jean recalls. “Now we’re narrowing our product lines and going deeper. We never expected this. We’re much busier than I ever thought we’d be at this point.”

Jean enlisted the help of a graphic designer and built fundogfred.com herself. But the couple had already decided on Solid Cactus to bring their vision to life. “I’d read about Solid Cactus,” said Dave. “I knew about their history. I knew that before they ever went into website design, that they’d started theferretstore.com and several pet-related e-commerce sites. For us it meant they not only knew about design and e-commerce, they knew about pets and pet stores. We figured we’d be in good hands.”

Jean sent her design to Solid Cactus. “We knew how we wanted the site to look,” says Jean. “We sent it to them and they nailed it! I liked the fact that it was a team effort from Solid Cactus. We had different people handling different aspects of our site.” It was a basic package but the results have been immediate. “As you can imagine, dog products are very competitive,” says Dave. “It’s difficult getting customers to find you when you’re starting out. Solid Cactus took over our Pay-Per-Click and made us instantly visible. We went from 3,000 page views in February to 60,000 last month. That’s a big jump in a short time.”

With growth come changes and Dave is already thinking ahead. After all, when you ‘blow away’ your business plan, it can mean lots of extra work. “We’re adding Cactus On Demand,” says Dave. “We’re getting busier and we know we want help with our back-end order management.” Jean has changes in mind, as well. “We’re adding Testimonials, as well as Customer Reviews and Blogs,” she says. “A satisfied customer is always the best advertising and I like interacting with our customers. I like dog people. I think blogs are a good way to let people get to know us a little better.”

This is a first venture into e-commerce for Dave and Jean Jones, so far so good. “I love what I’m doing,” says Jean. “I love the interaction with the customers and helping them; I love my vendors. I spent a long time identifying great products and companies before we ever opened our business and I stand behind them. Most of all, of course, I love dogs and dog products and that makes everything easier.” She’s also happy with Solid Cactus. “When we were designing the site I called them all the time,” she laughs. “They were always very helpful and very patient. That’s important when you’re starting out.”

I thought I was on a roll at a recent Solid Cactus Boot Camp. I was holding a seminar, extolling the virtues of the “new marketing,” encouraging the attendees to spend less time and money on advertising and more effort on public relations where the advertising is free. Sadly, one person in the audience rained on my parade. She sells aftermarket parts for an auto maker and she was scared because the car manufacturer was initiating its own big push in e-commerce. She assumed the car maker, with its budgets and billions and warehouses full of parts would soon roll right over her. She asked, when the sleeping giants awaken and discover the Internet, how can small companies possibly compete against “the big boys”?

Let me sum up my answer in two words: WITH EASE!

The simple fact is you have a tremendous advantage over the larger, richer, slower brick-and-mortar companies now lumbering into e-commerce. I have worked for big corporations in marketing and advertising. I know what they do well and where they are deficient. They go with what they know. They go with size. Which makes sense, because that’s they’re strength. However, size is no advantage in the nimble world of e-commerce. Your strategy and tactics are just as valuable as theirs and arguably more valuable because in e-commerce, the focus is on small. Trust me; you have nothing to fear from “big.” Below are 7 reasons why smaller is better when it comes to internet marketing and sales.

Reason #1: Now the big boys are playing by YOUR RULES!!!

Never forget the defining law of e-commerce: equality. No matter how rich they are, everyone gets the same one home page. GeneralMotors.com with its international brand gets the same one page in cyberspace as, say, MotorGenerals.com with their home office space. Their billions mean nothing. Their work force means nothing. In that strangely egalitarian world of the Internet, you are exactly equal. Advantage—you.

Reason #2: You are more motivated…

They may have millions, or even billions. Is that an advantage? The larger a company becomes, the more layers they have in their organization. With more layers come more people, each one less invested in the outcome any single process. I’ll explain. Imagine an order comes in to your business and also to a larger one. You have yourself watching every step from the moment the order comes in until a sale goes out. How many people do they have? One for each step of the sales chain? Can that larger process care about the customer as much as you can? Do they have as much invested in a correct order or a happy customer? Can they possibly be as nimble and sensitive as you are? Of course not. They think customers come by the thousands and “someone else” ultimately takes care of them. You know better. They can’t possibly appreciate what they’re doing as much as you appreciate what you’re doing. Advantage—you.

Reason #3: You are more fluid.

Or to put it another way, their bowels are cast in concrete. The larger the organization, the harder it is to get anything done and the longer it takes. Everything requires a meeting and almost nothing gets decided at just one meeting. In large organizations, everyone wants to make sure the “right” people are invited to a meeting or a decision-making moment. Everyone is afraid to proceed because they’re worried to make a step out of place. It’s no surprise that automakers still need years to solve the gas mileage problem. Imagine how many meetings (and how many years) it took to agree there is a problem! You don’t have such worries. At least, you shouldn’t… Advantage—you.

Reason #4:
They never EVER have good ideas.

My father spent his entire life in corporate America. One of his favorite phrases of indictment was: “A camel is a horse, designed by a committee.” In other words, once you start voting and altering and changing, you can screw up almost anything. It happens in advertising every day. I know—I write their ads! Large companies are forever calling me back after an ad submission and they always say, “Kev—we love it. We just want to change two things.” I know before they tell me. They want to “change” the one thing that made the ad interesting and the one thing that made it funny, thereby guaranteeing that it won’t be either interesting or funny. Basically it comes down to this statement.

The majority NEVER makes the right decision, in anything. This gives you and your little autocracy a HUGE advantage over the larger, slower—dumber people you’re competing with.

Reason #5: When someone has a
good idea—they don’t stop until they screw it up.

You don’t have to look very far to see a wonderful advertising idea that has morphed into something grotesque. My current favorite is the AFLAC duck. When the duck first appeared, the quack sounded like the company name and it was brilliant. AFLAC sales soared and the duck became an instant favorite. In that first ad, the duck was in the park, where ducks belong, listening to two guys talk about insurance. The duck quacked “AFLAC!” and the ad worked. How the ads have changed. It’s clever when a duck quacks on cue in a park. It’s something very different when it ends up in your bed, on a roller coaster or behind the wheel of a race car. That isn’t clever, it’s stupid.

As a side point on advertising, you have an advantage there, too. Traditional mass advertising costs vastly more and is less effective than ever. But remember we’re dealing with corporations, where they think BIG. Whom do you think gets the most attention from corporate? The guys spending millions on TV ads using movie star voices or the newcomers, the folks in the basement grinding away on the internet? Advantage—you.

Reason #6: You listen. They don’t.

Think about that. When a customer calls you, it counts. When they complain, you pay attention or you’re out of business in a hurry. But when companies get big, who’s listening then? Or is it more likely that whoever hears a complaint will file a well-meaning report that higher-ups might read in a day, or a week, or never? The speed with which concerns are addressed varies inversely with the size of the company fielding the calls. The bigger the company, the longer and slower the process of seeing and dealing with customer issues… Advantage—you.

Reason #7: You know the Internet shopper better than they do.

Big companies often commission demographic surveys because they have lots of money. But do they bother to read or heed them? This is a serious question. Many large companies think it’s enough just to do the study. Even if they do read the surveys, is it an advantage over what you have? You have a pulse. You can feel your business and the industry beyond. Can’t you? Can’t you feel which promotions are working, which products are selling and which services are more popular? You have that sense because you are smaller. You listen to people more closely and their business counts more to you because you are smaller. You can react quickly and change quickly to profit from mini-spikes in activity because you are smaller. You know the internet at a gut level better than the big boys because you are smaller.

The big boys are playing in your court by your rules. You have the advantage in cyberspace. That’s the good news. The bad news is you can’t use the big boys as an excuse for not winning. They’re not better, just bigger. You have an edge in every other area.

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.”

We went from being buried in the search engines to being ranked #1 to #3 on Google in all of our relevant categories. I’m sure it’s because of our

web site’s new structure.

—Scott Thomas, AirGunDepot.com

Remember that Daisy BB gun the boy wanted in the classic movie “A Christmas Story”? You can find one at the airgundepot.com. But you can find much, much more. “Air guns don’t really have too much in common with our father’s bb guns,” laughs Scott Thomas of airgundepot.com. “The modern air guns are much more powerful than in the old days. In style and function, they’re very much based on the real thing.” That means real business for airgundepot.com, which now carries more than 1300 products including pellet guns, air rifles, air pistols, bb guns and bb gun accessories, as well as airsoft guns, blank guns and paintball. The air gun industry has many devotees. They include pest shooters, target shooters and even top competitors who want to practice their craft at a high level without the danger, noise and expense of powder-based weapons.

Airgundepot.com came online in 2003, just Scott and a partner. They knew they wanted to be in e-commerce and did months of research before deciding on air guns. “It was a business decision,” says Scott. “It was really a matter of supply and demand online. We weren’t what you’d call devotees. We went live with a website designed by a guy from India for five hundred bucks. By 2006 we knew we needed more flexibility, more scalability and a site that was easier for us to manage and easier for shoppers to navigate. We called Solid Cactus.”

Airgundepot.com incorporated lots of bells and whistles into their new redesign. Multiple Add to Cart was added to promote cross selling and increase ticket size. Dynamic Navigation made it easier for Scott to add sections and products. The new menus enabled shoppers to more quickly and easily navigate the site. Rotating best sellers kept the top selling airgundepot.com products in front of customers. They upgraded to a new cart integration to improve the checkout process and cut down on cart abandonment. Rotating testimonials were added to increase customer trust.

Airgundepot.com made a significant investment in upgrading their site. The results? “The first thing was, the site became much easier to manage,” says Scott. “That was huge for us. It was easier for us to add new products and other content to the site, like customer reviews. Our ticket size increased by 20%, our order value is up and our search rankings are way up. We went from nowhere to the top of the Google ratings and I believe it’s because our site is more readable by search engines. The bottom line is we’ve gone from 2 people to 10 and we’ve just moved into a new 10,000 square foot space.”

Airgundepot.com and Solid Cactus are teaming up for their next step in e-commerce marketing, interactive video. “Our new video platform has increased conversion rates between 50% and 100% when employed,” says Scott. “Next we’ll be doing interactive video. We believe this is the next step in marketing and it is particularly effective with our products. People who think that bb guns are like they used to be only have to see our products in action right on the home page. It is very compelling and really helps to promote the authenticity of our products. We think this will make a huge impact on our sales.”

The changes airgundepot.com has implemented have changed the look, sophistication and nature of the business. But beyond that, Scott Thomas says he’s happy to finally have a partner. “Before, we were on our own,” he says. “Now, when we have a problem, we have someone we can trust. The people at Solid Cactus have a genuine interest in airgundepot.com and our success.”

We’d been several years between redesigns. When we finally took the step, we not only got a new look, we ended up with a completely new store.
- John Di Siena, CountryToys.com

CountryToys.com specializes in wooden toys and games for children. They have more than 300 products including arts and crafts, baby gifts, plush animals, rocking horses and ride-ons. Their toys are old-fashioned, meaning they require children to use their imaginations instead of batteries. John and Melissa Di Siena started the company in 2003 and right away they knew they needed help. “Our store design was a mess,” John recalls. “We found Solid Cactus in 2004 and had them redesign our site. We made a hundred grand the first year and we thought that was great for us. It also began our on-going relationship with Solid Cactus.”

Fast forward three years and while CountryToys.com had grown, the site was undeniably stale. “The problem is, e-commerce changes so fast,” John says. “Two months in this business is like a year in brick-and-mortar. We knew we needed to change and improve to keep up with the times. So we called Solid Cactus for a major overhaul. There were several suggestions they made that we weren’t sure we were ready to incorporate, but we trusted them not to sell us on ideas that wouldn’t help our business. We were right to trust them.”

Solid Cactus gave CountryToys.com a fresh site with better looking graphics, but they also increased the concentration on e-commerce basics like search engine optimization. The redesign also included adding such features as Recently Viewed Items, Cross-Selling, Shipping Calculator, Customer Reviews and a blog. “Most of the new additions were Solid Cactus ideas, of course,” says John. “It’s hard to know which single one made the greatest impact, but they each added to our bottom line and they all made our business better.”

On the front end, CountryToys.com customers appreciated Recently Viewed Items. “It shows where they were,” says John. “It’s easier for them to retrace their steps and not get lost as they shop.”

In checkout, Shipping Calculator became a valuable tool for encouraging customers to spend. “They could see how much they’d spent,” says John. “They could see that if they’d spent $39 and we give free shipping over $50 that they were pretty close. We noticed an increase in orders above the threshold level.”

The blog was a Solid Cactus idea, but John Di Siena says it fit perfectly with the CountryToys.com mission statement. “At a strictly business level we’re able to add inbound and outbound links, which are important in SEO, especially with Google,” says John. “But more than that, the blog gives my wife Melissa a forum where she can talk with others about what’s new in the industry and new in the field of educational toys. This is an issue that is very important to us and the blog is a fantastic way to help get the word out.”

Since the redesign was completed in mid-2007 the differences have been apparent. “We’ve had more optimization and much better search results,” says John. “But the one place where people count progress in business is the bottom line and our bottom line has been healthy. Our sales are up 50% to 70% since the redesign.”

Another thing which has changed is the Di Siena’s view of their business future. “Every single addition we made has helped our business, either directly or, like the blog, in a very important overall sense,” says John. “Without giving too much away, we’re considering some serious expansions, both with CountryToys.com and with several new sites we have in planning. We’re getting close to opening a warehouse for our current business. We feel as if the sky is the limit for CountryToys.com and for our future endeavors. We don’t see a boundary.”

The ClothingWarehouse.com was one of the first couple of hundred “Y Stores” built with the Yahoo! platform. These days the site has grown to thousands of products and a staggering 95,000 items. They sell clothing to men, women and children.

The men’s clothing runs from tees and tank tops to polo shirts to dress shirts, shorts and sweats. Women’s clothing includes tees, tank tops, polo shirts, dress shirts and more. There are also lots of accessories including bags, totes, duffels, headwear, caps, visors, towels, aprons, robes, bathrobes and blankets. The ClothingWarehouse.com does special orders for corporations with specific designs; it’s a diverse product offering. Currently, the ClothingWarehouse.com employs 12 people on a full-time basis.

Owner Dan Clark knew there was something to this Internet sales idea, but he was having trouble putting the pieces together. “I worked with several of the other store designers,” says Dan, “but the other developers couldn’t deliver what we needed.” What the ClothingWarehouse.com needed was more automation and a more professional look. “We were good at getting indexed on the major search engines, but basically we were selling from an empty, bad-looking store.”

That changed with the Solid Cactus redesign. The new store came online in June of ’06 and the impact was immediate. “Solid Cactus gave us a new logo,” says Dan. “Then they redesigned our store and gave us a new look.” Sales increased by 300% that first year and have kept expanding at that rate ever since. “They gave us the automation we needed and it showed up right away. People stopped abandoning their shopping carts and that added a huge spike to our sales.”

Since then the ClothingWarehouse.com has utilized more and more Solid Cactus features in its e-commerce design. “They handle a wider and wider range of our business,” says Dan. Currently Solid Cactus manages Search Engine Marketing for the ClothingWarehouse.com. In addition, the company hired Solid Cactus to manage its Affiliate Program; they’ve implemented the Solid Cactus Wholesale Log-in and have used the Call Center services as well. “It’s all in pursuit of one thing: keeping our store current.”

It’s a constant question for e-commerce owners who undertake design changes and other improvements to their sites: is it an expense or an investment? It’s not a question to Dan Clark or the ClothingWarehouse.com. He says the changes have been money well-spent on the future of his company. “The key in any business is to continually change, update and improve the shopping experience for your customers,” says Dan. “This is the best return you could get. I know this sounds like I’m a Solid Cactus insider, but I really can’t spend enough money with you folks. Every change you have made to the ClothingWarehouse.com has made an immediate and measurable change to our bottom line. Frankly, I’m just waiting to see what other new applications Solid Cactus develops to help my business. So far, every single thing has worked.”

Going forward, Dan Clark is continuing to manage the astonishing growth of the ClothingWarehouse.com. The company has increased its sales by an average of 300-400% per year since 2005. This may look like another “Internet success story,” but don’t be fooled. The ClothingWarehouse.com struggled for 5 years to stay alive. It makes Dan Clark laugh looking back on those uncertain days. “If we had a motto,” says Dan, “it should read never give up. I’m serious! We probably should have given up a dozen times along the way. But we didn’t. What we did was stay alive long enough to find Solid Cactus. That was the difference for us.”