EBizInsider

Archives for the ‘Client Spotlights’ Category

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.”