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Finding Success on the Web
11/18/2008 - By John Neporadny Jr.
Fishing Web sites make monet online
Walk-in consumers have always been the bread-and-butter business for small independent tackle stores, but with the expansion of the big boxes, independents are smartly relying more on Web surfers to survive.
Walk-in consumers have always been the bread-and-butter business for small independent tackle stores, but with the expansion of the big boxes, independents are smartly relying more on Web surfers to survive.
Two Midwest independent stores serve as classic examples of how small tackle shops can withstand the pressure of big box neighbors, namely by expanding their customer base via the Internet.
K&K Flyfishcrs in Overland Park, Kan., is located about four miles from a Bass Pro Shops and 11 miles away from a Cabela's, yet the fly tackle store has been in business for 20 years and continues to hold its own against the big shots.
Despite being only about one mile down the same road as the original Bass Pro Shops store in Spring-field, Mo., Fin & Feather tackle shop has contended with the fishing retail giant since 1984 and has developed a solid, loyal customer base.
What's the secret for both stores?
Both have established successful Web stores.
K&K Flvfishers (wwsv.kkflvfishcr.com) set up its site in 1993, says owner Kevin Kurtz. as a means of adding advertising muscle when the big stores moved into the area. What he found was the Web could he a very effective tool for competing against the newcomers.
"It is definitely better than not having one," he says. "It pays for itself. If I didn't have a Web site. I probably would have closed up a couple of years ago. I wouldn't be able to survive with just walk-in business."
Kurtz is unsure of how much the web site attracts walk-in traffic for the store, but he has noticed his online store attracts more value-minded customers.
"We do quite a bit of selling from the site. but it seems like most people are looking online for bargains and sales stuff." he says. "The amount we sell at regular retail prices is small compared to the sales pages and markdowns."
Rick Smith and John Mooney, co-owners of Fin & Feather, started their site (www.ztackle.com) five years ago, seeing in it an opportunity to expand into an up-and-coming market.
"When we first started it we actually did a little bit more in volume and dollarwisc than what we are doing now," says Mooncy. who believes market saturation of online stores has caused a decline in sales lately. "It probably accounts for 5 percent to 10 percent of our total sales now."
More out-of-town customers use ztackle.com than visit Fin & Feather's store, according to Mooney.
"Once I get that customer, he does repeat quite frequently [on the Web]." says Mooney. "With the fishing tackle industry being a reusable industry, if customers find something someplace, they usually go back to it. They develop brand loyalty, store loyalty and they just like the convenience of being able to shop with the same people all the time."
According to Kurtz, his online store saves him money because he no longer has to advertise his sales in newspapers or direct mail campaigns.
"Sales go on the Web site," he says. "It's the easiest way to put things up and take them down quickly, as opposed to the old way of printing flyers and mailing them."
Fin & Feather often offers different sales on ztackle.com than it has in the physical store, but Mooney still advertises sales in newspapers and buys ads in magazines so he can use all available avenues to increase name recognition.
I think it is two different things." suggests Mooney. "The people who come in to the brick-and-mortar store are different than the people who shop on the Web site."
John Mooney’s 6 Tips for Web Success
1. Avoid clutter and pop-up ads.
"If a pop-up appears every time customers click on something, visitors are less likely to return."
2. Ensure the site is user-friendly and easy to navigate.
If customers have to click three or four times to find what they are looking for and then have to click three or four times more to get it in their shopping cart, they are going to go somewhere else."
3. Update the site frequently.
Your site has to stay with current merchandise and current trends.' Mooney has the front page of www.ztackle.com changed every quarter and suggests other sites should make revisions at least once a year.
4. Offer free shipping.
"There are a lot of companies that don't offer any free shipping," says Mooney. His Web site provides free shipping for orders more than $79.99.
5. Ensure site security.
"I think everybody is a little leery about buying stuff online with a credit card, so you have to have that secure site certificate, and it has to be updated.
6. Make product searches simple.
Customers shouldn't have to do more than type in a product name to find the item they're looking for. "We give way too much credit for the few people who are really computer literate and not enough attention to help the people who aren't."
Having sales in both venues allows Mooney to reach both Internet consumers and his walk-in customers.
For Kurtz, another advantage of having a Web site is it allows him to offer more products online.
The Web site shows more tackle, rods, reels and stuff like that than I can possibly carry in the store," he adds. "It is more of a listing of everything that is available. And if it's not in the store, we can always get it. Most companies are pretty friendly with drop ship programs. So that way we can list it on the Web, but we don't have to carry it in the store. Then we just get it sent from the factory right to the customer."
No Magic Bullet
Selling products on the Internet can certainly help independents, but it isn’t the cure-all to beat the box stores because the retail giants also sell online. You’ll need to follow a few simple guidelines.
The first step in successfully competing against the box stores is to find a good Webmaster.
“If you are going to do it right, you need to dedicate somebody to it,” advises Mooney. “You need to be able to expand it and change it in a marketplace that is always changing in colors, styles, sizes and prices.
If you can do that in-house, you are better off because you [and your staff] likely know your product better than anyone else. If you hire an outside Webmaster, he may be doing your fishing tackle site [along with] a golf Web site or something else, and he may not be familiar with the products or the nomenclature that goes along with tackle products.”
The next step is ensuring the Web site caters to the Internet surfers, in addition to avoiding the trap of trying to match the big boxes on price and selection.
“We have more than 500 pages on our Web site, but that’s nothing compared to Bass Pro Shops and Cabela’s,” says Kurtz. “We have a few items that they don’t carry – mostly high-end equipment, such as Billy Pate fly reels. Therefore, when a customer is looking for those items, we come up first with most search engines.”
Maybe the most important attribute your site needs is providing top-notch customer service.
“We are always emphasizing that we offer better customer service because you are dealing with a family-owned or small business and everyone here is a fly fishing nut,” says Kurtz. “So you are going to get your questions answered and get, overall, better service.”
Fin & Feather’s online customers seem to appreciate the one-on-one attention given to them by the knowledgeable staff.
“Customers come back to us because they know we’ll have someone there to help them,” says Mooney. “We are not able to service everybody and every market with every product like a big box store can, but the big boxes lose the personal service; they lose the ability to change when something gets hot.”
