WHAT'S NEW?

SITE OF THE WEEK

What do hockey equipment and gourmet food have in common? Both are selling online like – um – like hockey pucks and hotcakes.

1-800-FACEOFF &
STONEWALL KITCHEN

VISIT 1-800 FACE OFF web site
VISIT Stonewall Kitchen web site

While local malls were all but abandoned during last weekend’s Nor’easter, cash registers were chiming merrily along at Internet stores across the nation. Online shopping is here to stay. An unsupported statistic floating around the Web this week suggests that 63% of all Internet users will buy something online this holiday season. I already did, and so had the half dozen people I queried today. With no waiting lines, 24-hour access, discount prices, secure servers and, sometimes, free shipping -- the Web has come of age. But remember, last minute shopping online peaks early due to the delivery time.

Retailers too are getting smarter. Site crashes are rare. Customer support has improved. Web sites are better. Return rates are down. And that’s not just for the online kings like Target, Wal-Mart and Best Buy that are always playing catch-up with cyber giants eBay and Amazon. In a telling moment during the snowstorm last weekend, LL Bean reported that its web site was outselling its telephone operators for the first time in history.

Smaller stores are profiting too. A couple of years back many local retailers were complaining that they spent more designing their shopping web sites than they earned back. Now, apparently heartened by success shopping the big stores, consumers are trusting their credit cards to local companies online. And there are tons of them. I could list dozens of sophisticated shopping web sites in the eCoast area alone. Everyone I called was gleeful about sales this year. I picked 1800FaceOff.com and StonewallKitchen.com – two unlikely companions with similar trajectories.

THE WEB SITE MAKERS

Stonewall Kitchen is a classic Seacoast success story. With six stores, including the manufacturing site in York, Maine, the gourmet food company has built an appetizing brand name known for flavor, variety and quality with a touch of folksy New England thrown in. Stores offer visitors the chance to taste-test products like the new raspberry-peach-champagne jam. The Portsmouth store has a test kitchen that offers after-hours cooking classes with local chefs. Sixty thousand opt-in web users get Stonewall’s weekly email update and color direct-mail catalogs are shipped monthly. Department and specialty stores across the country offer Stonewall Kitchen store displays that spread the name further. The grassroots branding campaign uses no major media advertising, but grows organically.

And then there is StonewallKitchen.com. Online sales are increasing according to Laura Duncan, director of marketing.

"The web is definitely an extension of the brand," Laura says.
"When you experience the brand online, it’s similar to the store – clean, friendly. Navigation has been really important to us, but our product is so well positioned for sampling, and that’s pretty hard to do online."

Recently relaunched, StonewallKitchen.com allows customers far from a retail outlet to buy products online. But Laura emphasizes that the web site is as much about communication as sales. Users can download data from a growing list of recipes. An interactive section allows them to keep track of which relatives and family members like which Stonewall products. Local classes, news and cookbook signings are posted online.

"We’ve seen a steady increase in sales," Laura says of the web site that was created by a Burlington, Vermont developer and is maintained in Maine by two dedicated webmasters. "But we are a retailer, We are about coming in and tasting. That definitely remains the foundation of our brand."

Across the Seacoast in the sleepy rural town of Rollinsford, a portion of the old Damart building is now home to 20,000 square feet of hockey equipment. From here the small staff of 1800FaceOff has been shipping an average of 250 orders per day in December. With no local retail outlet currently, the hockey superstore draws customers entirely from the Internet and from its toll free phone hotline. Holiday sales, according to webmaster Greg Sheive, are twice those estimated. Sheive designed the ihtml site from the ground up and manages it full time.

"People want it (products) delivered to the door. I’m going to do my Christmas shopping online, because I don’t have time. That’s where the Internet is really changing things. You can shop at the Gap at 2am."

1800FaceOff.com has been Sheive’s baby since it opened in 2000. He proudly notes that the site now offers real-time inventory. If an item is not in stock, it does not appear online. The site offers 50 brands of skates alone, plus sticks, protective gear, rollers, clothing and hockey fan stuff.

The idea, according to company manager and organizer Bryan Rief, was born about the time another group launched 1800Flowers. Rief and his brother purchased an existing mail order business then called the Boston Hockey Company. They changed the name to something more memorable, then built a web site based on the toll free phone number. Today, Bryan says, fully half of the company revenues come via the Internet, while the other half is phoned in. Although the company grew a little too fast, faltered, and recovered, it has been a steady rise toward the top.

"We are now, hands down, the largest hockey retailer in North America," he says from his Rollinsford office.

THE UP SHOT

The lesson again, for those who missed the last 200 columns here, is that specialized high-quality products sell well online if – and it’s a BIG IF – the shopping site is easy to use, the product is well-branded and the service is
top-notch. Price, it seems, is much less a factor than many critics of online shopping imply. Convenience, quality, speed and even a sense of camaraderie apply. People are social animals. They like to communicate with like-minded individuals, even if it just to swap recipes or discuss hockey skates.

Anybody who shops entirely on price is at the bottom of the totem pole," Bryan Rief says. "You don’t even want them in your database."

Building his database of 70,000 names, he says, is largely a function of customer satisfaction. 1800FaceOff was recently purchased by a hockey sporting goods company in Michigan. With the exception of a monthly print ad in one magazine, the company advertises wholly via its catalogs, its web site and word-of-mouth. Customers call, he says, to have lengthy discussions about hockey skates and equipment with the phone operators in Rollinsford. All staff undergo continual training. In a highly competitive field with many manufacturers, Rief credits his customer service team as the key to their success. He says his team members know more about what they are selling than other salespeople in the field, and are willing to take time to talk. Satisfied customers then tell their friends, so the word has spread rapidly among hockey enthusiasts.

"Hockey parents are very devoted to the game," says webmaster Greg. "I take orders from people who live in Deluth who drive two hours for a game. They take their kids to practice at 5 am. Plus they’re spending $500 to $600 a year easy. It’s an expensive sport."

"We get people calling us on cell phones from the stands at the ice rink,"

Bryan Rief says. "We recognize that we have to give customers as much information as we possibly can, online or over the phone. We tell people all the time, give us a call, even if you’re not buying a product from us."

Yet Bryan sees a clear connection between his store, where nothing is manufactured, and Stonewall Kitchen. Both, he says, offer highly specialized products to loyal and enthusiastic buyers.

"My relatives are from Michigan," he says, "but when they come out here, they have to go to Stonewall Kitchen."

But they don’t have to sample everything. Once a customer experiences a product and comes to trust the seller, he says, they will come back again and again, even to a virtual store online in the middle of the night.

For potential or struggling "etailers" the lesson is – start with the best product, then brand to beat the band. Small groups of smart, friendly employees sell better than a horde of sharks. You need an efficient, but not a fancy web site. Develop your target market slowly by using the web site to foster community and using the phone to foster trust. Keep inventory up. Deliver the right product on time, but don’t panic over price. This recipe works as well for skates and pucks as it does for syrups and preserves.