August 11, 2011
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Ever wonder why some businesses choose to nix the brick and mortar? So do we.
To get to the bottom of it, Mashable spoke to 11 businesspeople—in every industry from jarred pickles to online clothing swaps—about their decision to exist entirely online. Below they explain why online storefronts were right for their products and services, and share invaluable advice for fellow business owners, including the tools made them successful.
1. thredUP
Founders: James Reinhart, Chris Homer & Oliver Lubin
Service: Online children's clothing, books and toys swap for parents
Based in: San Francisco, CA
How big of an area do you service?
Nationwide, as well as to U.S. military families stationed overseas.
Why online vs. a physical storefront?
ThredUP is essentially a national hand-me-down network. While consignment stores and swap parties are great local solutions, they often provide limited selection when it comes to the sizes and types of children's items you need. ThredUP brings the swap party to a national level, allowing families to hand-down outgrown items to one family, and in return receive the next size up from another family.
How do you promote your online storefront?
Word of mouth, blogger outreach, daily deals and public relations.
Any other advice for small businesses?
If possible, try to think through a re-engagement plan in advance. The mistake many small businesses make is driving "one-timer" customers, failing to follow-up and losing money in the long run. Track your new customers through your sales funnel and inject targeted e-mails when possible. When approaching a daily deal, many companies ask the question, "How do we get people to purchase this offer?" What you should ask is, "How do we get people in the door with this offer, then promptly turn them into repeat customers?"
2. Paper Feet
Founder: Jimmy Tomczak
Product: Paperfeet are minimalist sandals upcycled from durable and waterproof billboard vinyl that would otherwise end up in a landfill.
Based in: Ann Arbor, MI
Why online vs. a physical storefront?
Barefoot footwear is a growing niche; there's typically not enough people in one physical location—especially in Michigan—to sustain a storefront.
Why does your product work better online?
People who are into barefooting are actively involved in online groups like the Barefoot Runners Society, The Society for Barefoot Living and Living Barefoot. They then search the Web for the exact product solution they're looking for.
Any advice for small businesses that choose online storefronts?
An online business has to be compelling. If no one knows about you, no one cares. Share the story. Make the impact. Start now. When paperfeet.com launched, we had people share "their favorite adventures" and explain "why paperfeet?" when pre-ordering. This really helped us get to know our customers and turned out to be a lot of fun, too.
3. Bella Puzzles
Founder: Lara Braithwaite
Product: Personalized puzzle guest books and heirlooms
Based in: Portland, OR
Customer base:
Primarily U.S. clients, but an increasing number of international clients
Why online vs. a physical storefront?
An online shop allowed me to bootstrap the business with the profits of previous sales. As a result, I've been able to grow Bella Puzzles into a six-figure business without any loans...The custom nature of my product appeals to customers around the world. A physical storefront would greatly limit the number of potential clients.
How do you promote your online storefront?
I started with an Etsy shop. I promote that shop and my own website through Etsy, Twitter, Facebook and my blog.
4. Daily Gobble
Founder: Dazhi Chen
Service: Dining rewards program that offers members exclusive discounts (10-50 percent off) at partner restaurants.
Based in: Currently, we service the New York Metro and San Francisco Bay Area.
Why online vs. a physical storefront?
Our website serves as a digital storefront for over 500 partner restaurants. It's far more sustainable driving traffic to a website that is accessible to diners anywhere than a single physical storefront, or even a single restaurant's website for that matter.
Why does your industry/product work better online?
Our founder, Dazhi Chen, tried to launch a similar program before the onset of smartphones and widely-accessible Internet. Without the Internet, we would not be able to use the accelerated rebate model via PayPal that is fundamental to our program.
5. She Hit Pause Studios
Founder: Matt Schwartz
Product: Polaroid prints
Based in: Brooklyn, NY
Why online vs. a physical storefront?
I have no patience to sit in a store all week. For me I view it as waste of time and overhead, and it would kill my creativity and flexible lifestyle that I cherish as a reward of what I do.
Why does your specific product, or the art industry in general, do well online?
Buying work online is much more relaxed than going into a gallery. I converse back and forth with customers, letting them know anything they want to know about me or the work. I even tell people the temperature it was when I was shooting a particular photo or the cost to fill up a bath tub with gumballs (for "Girl with Gumballs on Feet"). When people buy artwork, they are buying a piece of me or a story I created.
What online tools do you use to sell/market your artwork?
Bi-monthly newsletter, Etsy shop, recently hired social media/SEO manager.
Any advice for small businesses that choose online storefronts?
Read as many books that you can about business. One of my favorites is The Purple Cow by Seth Godin. Outsource whatever you can afford to if there is someone who can do it better. It is important to be in competition with yourself, as opposed to people in your industry. Everything takes time.
6. U.S. Wellness Meats
Founder: John Wood
Product: 100 percent grass-fed meat, including beef, bison, lamb, poultry, rabbit, seafood and dairy
Based in: Monticello, MO
Why online vs. a physical storefront?
Monticello is the smallest county seat in the state, with 98 counted in the 2010 census. Our business in northeast Missouri is in a very rural and thinly populated locale in the U.S. The economic climate is tough, and grass-fed meats have a very limited market reach in a 75-mile radius of our business address. Consequently, online was the obvious route to take during our yellow sticky note brainstorming sessions in March and April 2000.
Why does your industry/product work better online?
The quick answer is convenience, and the ability to source smart protein sources not readily available at the neighborhood market. We have worked hard to procure products with a unique story, which is critical for building trust for our selection of online products. Being online, we are able to answer product questions immediately, via phone or e-mail response. This communication window is what builds trust, which is required before online buyers will spend money.
7. McClure's Pickles
Founder: Bob McClure
Product: Pickles
Based in: Brooklyn, NY
Why online vs. a physical storefront?
Costs of physical retail locations minimize margin, increase overhead and create a reliance on the "found you effect," meaning you are at the mercy of the customer coming to your location.
What online tools do you use to sell/market your product?
Social media marketing, our retail partners blogs/feeds, word of mouth, press with online presence.
Any advice for small businesses that choose online storefronts?
If you're trying to drive traffic to your site and you haven't had any major press, link up with other online retail venues (Foodzie and Food52 are food-specific, but they help take the burden off marketing it all on your own).
8. OfAKind
Founders: Erica Cerulo & Claire Mazur
Service: We promote emerging fashion designers. We commission designers to create limited-edition pieces that are only available for purchase on our site, and we tell their stories—where they came from, what inspires them, how they produce their work.
Based in: New York, NY
Why online vs. a physical storefront?
EC: We both grew up in small-ish cities—I’m from Peoria, Illinois and Claire is from Wilmington, Delaware—so we had very little access to interesting designers that we read about in magazines like Elle or Harper’s Bazaar. We wanted to give people outside of big cities access to designers who we think are going to be the next big things. At the same time, when you’re in places like New York or L.A., boutiques can be intimidating, and it’s really hard to find time to uncover new designers. We want to make the discovery process easier.
CM: It also just seemed so much easier than opening a brick-and-mortar store and dealing with all of the physical maintenance, the rent and utilities, having to pay people to man the store—all to only be able to reach a very limited audience.
What online tools do you use to sell/market your product?
EC: The biggest driver for us is that our site uses Tumblr as its CMS, meaning that all of our content and our product shows up in our followers’ dashboards with links to buy where applicable. That has been so huge for us—especially since the Tumblr fashion community is getting stronger and stronger by the day.
Any advice for small businesses that choose online storefronts?
CM: I think one of the smartest things we did early on was start a blog before we launched the business—we maintained it while we were busy sourcing products and building the site. It helped us to figure out our voice and determine what we wanted our brand to be (and not to be).
9. Sevenly
Founder: Dale Partridge
Product: Crowdfunded T-shirts for charity
Based in: Los Angeles, CA
Why online vs. a physical storefront?
With the power of social media and our extraordinary ability to leverage the "share" (online's version of word-of-mouth), we can build, tweak and provide an experience to our customers unlike any physical retailer. By activating emotions through video, online challenges, photographs and detailed information that you can not find on the rack, we are winning the race of customer satisfaction in almost all arenas.
How do you promote your online storefront?
We leverage online influencers, people you never heard of that have millions of followers, fans and subscribers.
Any advice for small businesses that choose online storefronts?
People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it. Focus your homepage on the deeper elements of why you're in business in the first place. This is what creates cult-like brands.
10. Kings County Jerky
Founder: Chris Woehrle
Product: Grass-fed beef jerky
Based in: Brooklyn, NY
Customer base:
On a macro level, I'd say it's comprised of two camps: avid fans of great-tasting beef jerky, and food-conscious types drawn to artisanal products with new and unique flavors made from quality ingredients, like grass-fed beef. We've also made one especially interesting and unexpected discovery: The majority of our customers are female.
Why online vs. a physical storefront?
Because we make our own product, our initial investment had to go entirely into building our (quite costly) manufacturing facility. Knowing we could sell our product through an online store allowed us to put all of our investment into building that infrastructure, and not have to worry about investing in a brick-and-mortar outlet.
When and why do you choose to take advantage of physical sales/promotions?
We take advantage of physical sales opportunities and promotions every time they present themselves. We are passionate ambassadors of our brand, and no Web platform can communicate our message and enthusiasm like we can in a face-to-face encounter.
Any advice for small businesses that choose online storefronts?
Choose your webstore platform wisely. A lot of third-party webstores have terrible user interfaces, poor or overly complex navigation and lousy customer service.
11. Weddington Way
Founder: Ilana Stern
Service: Online group shopping for bridal parties
Based in: San Francisco, CA
Why online vs. a physical storefront?
One of the biggest problems for brides when it comes to bridesmaid dresses is that their bridesmaids live all over the place, which means it is a lot of work for her to coordinate everyone because it's difficult (if not impossible) to get everyone in one physical place together to shop for and try on dresses...We streamline a complex purchasing experience for them, which means they can have fun checking out dresses, sharing opinions, etc., while the site and our team takes care of the logistics of placing orders, ensuring fit questions are answered and tracking each bridesmaid (removing this major "to do" from the bride's plate).
What online tools do your visitors use?
The ability to share and rank dresses as well as create and save different lineups is an important piece of the group shopping experience. Additionally, the ability for brides to track each bridesmaid's activity is something brides love because they can stay on top of the process without bugging their bridesmaids (which means that bridesmaids love it too!).
When and why do you choose to take advantage of physical sales/promotions?
Brides can order fabric swatches from Weddington Way, which is an important part of how we bring the offline/physical element to our customer—we send them large swatches so they can really get a good sense for what different fabric and color combos look like in person. This touch and feel helps brides to feel comfortable buying online without going to a brick and mortar store.
Check your balance, review recent transactions and pay your bill on the go.
TJ McCue 9 months ago
Wow, simply wow!! Stephanie, this is an awesome post. Full of ideas and enthusiasm and energy. President Obama should hire you and Mashable to help him do Fireside Chats like Roosevelt did during the Depression. Seriously, we need stories and ideas like this post provides. Thanks. This is a great way to start the day -- on OPEN, with your post.