E-Business Profiles: Profiles 1-10
A representative sample of the many profiles I've written of small and mid-size online businesses.
~ James Maguire
Beauty E-Tailer Uses Blogs, Samples to Stand Out
[Natural cosmetics e-tailer uses the Netsuite e-commerce platform.]
When Jeff Binder chose his e-commerce platform, his chief concern was finding an integrated application with all the bells and whistles in one piece. In his view, this was important for one key reason: to enable better data tracking...
Growing an Online Business Beyond eBay
[A mother and daughter with limited business experience launch their own e-commerce site.]
Retired educator Bette Esposito had a dream: She had always wanted to open a store. After getting experience selling fashionable young girls clothing on eBay, she and her daughter were ready to launch their own site, to be called Denim and Daisies...
Ink Supplier in the Black With Big Blue
[Online retailer uses IBM's Websphere platform to grow his business.]
In 1998, John Howard tried to buy discount printer cartridges online, without much luck. After plenty of searching, "I finally found a wholesaler, and thought, 'I can sell these things on the Web to the people who had the same experience that I did.."...
Bookstore Finds Inspiration With Muze
[A bookstore launches an online store using Muze, an outsourced fulfillment system for music retailers.]
East West Bookstore is a successful brick-and-mortar retail operation. The Mountain View, Calif.-based store which sells New Age books, music and videos operates a 6,000 square-foot retail space and reports annual revenues in excess of $2 million...
Getting Started with Multiple Sales Channels
[A young guy in desperate straits hustles to launch an online business.]
Earlier this year, downsized from his job and with a new baby on the way, the pressure was on Shawn Ellis to find new income -- starting a business made sense, but he wanted to begin immediately, without waiting for luxuries like staff and extensive financing...
Building Customer Relationships with OWC
[An Internet retailer leverages customer relationships to compete in a tight market.]
The first question I asked after visiting the Web site for Other World Computing (OWC) was: how can it compete with the big boys? After all, this Internet retailer of Apple computer gear competes with the likes of MacConnection and MacMall, online monsters that dwarf OWC...
Online Order Fulfillment, Hot Off the Grill
[An e-tailer uses Kurant Storesense e-commerce platform to run his business.]
No one can say that Mike Kastens is a typical online merchant. As the owner of Texas Irons , Kastens sells one the Internet's quirkiest products: personalized branding irons for backyard barbecuing...
High Fashion Meets High Tech at Yoox.com
[An Italian fashion site sells last season's high-end fashion at a discount.]
Not many CEOs speak four languages, but for Federico Marchetti, it's a must. As the head of Yoox.com , a high-end clothing site, Marchetti's goal has been to create an e-commerce business that crosses national borders...
Pro-Level Storefront, Hosting Pays Off
[An online store uses ShopSite e-commerce software along with Urchin's Web analytics tool to boost sales.]
Every e-tailer relies on a handful of tools, software and hardware, to make their work more efficient -- and ideally, profitable. For Andy Erickson, it's a group of three: his shopping cart and site-building software, ShopSite; his Web analytics tool, Urchin; and a hosting service that he feels secure about...
Smart Marketing Helps Plus Size Retailer Grow
[An e-tailer focused on the women's plus-sized market uses a number of online advertising techniques.]
In the mid '90s, entrepreneur Anne Kelly saw that larger women were having a hard time finding attractive and well-made sports clothing. To meet their needs, Kelly founded Junonia , a company that describes its apparel line as "exclusively devoted to the 40% of American women who wear a size 14 and up."
