eART-Originals – Andrew Bridgeman – Store Review

by Bill H.

In the final part of our “E-Commerce 101” series, Andrew Bridgeman explains how he built his first Web store, eART-originals, and shares some great tips and hints to help you build your own successful e-business.

March 28th, 2001

eART-originals sells original Canadian art. The concept was to design and develop an Internet site where artists could display their artworks, piece specifications, and biographies in order to gain more exposure and reach a larger market for sales. The site would also afford art buyers a greater exposure to art in one place. The idea was that art is not easily accessible to average people or companies. Exposure for both artists and buyers was, and still is, the main focus of this endeavor. We charge a commission based on a percentage of the price of each piece purchased.

We opened the original store in August of 2000 taking cash and cheque telephone orders. In November of 2000, we launched our full web-store complete with catalogue system and on-line payment option. Unfortunately, from concept-to-opening took just over a year, which is a lifetime on the Internet. When we did our initial research, there were very few on-line art galleries like ours on the web, but by the time we launched in November, we were hitting elbows with a number of US galleries, and a few Canadian ones as well.

The research for opening a web store proved much more time-consuming than originally anticipated. We had web design backgrounds, but limited eCommerce experience. We therefore had to deal with a learning curve to decide on the best approach and tools necessary to open the store. Our goal was to make the experience as easy as possible for both artists and art buyers. We believe we have sufficiently achieved this goal through the various strategies and tools we have employed.

There are four considerations when opening a web-store, and there are many options for each area. They are catalog systems, on-line payment systems, merchant accounts, and the credit card companies. We first looked at catalog systems and on-line payment options. While the two are very different, they are often tied together. There are three basic options when you begin your store:

  • Build it yourself: You can build the catalog system yourself in JavaScript and hire a firm to deal with the payment processing. This is a great and inexpensive option if you are handy with JavaScript and it also gives you tremendous flexibility. Unfortunately, most of us are not that handy with JavaScript. It is one thing to design a “roll-over”, where something happens when your mouse moves over a part of a web page, and quite another to design a catalog system which links to someone else’s payment process. This was not an option for us.
  • Templates: You can also use a template offered by on-line services like Yahoo and Netscape. This is very cost-effective and relatively simple to use. The downside is that it is very inflexible, and you are limited on things like “look & feel” and merchandising capabilities. Your store generally looks like everybody else’s who used the template. It is ideal for small stores who do not have extensive products for sale, and want to be launched quickly. We decided we needed control over many aspects of our store, and theoretically, we would be adding new products monthly. The other issue we had to consider was that these products were one of a kind. We do not sell a large quantity of one product. This was not a viable option either.
  • Bundled Packages: The third option is to buy a bundled package, which includes all necessary tools and services. The downside is it is relatively expensive and not that easy to use. The upside is they are flexible and you control the layout and look & feel. We knew this was what we needed despite the price tag.

The other issue is merchant accounts. The banks regard on-line payments with skepticism. They treat them the same as Mail Order accounts because there are no signatures. Even if you already have a merchant account through your bricks and mortar store, you may have to open an additional merchant account.

You also have to approach each credit card separately and apply to use their cards on your site. Most of the card companies required a deposit, some up to $10,000. This was definitely a showstopper for us.

Luckily we stumbled upon a company called Merchant Card Interactive. They recognized the problem with merchant accounts, catalog systems, credit card companies and on-line payment, and decided to combine all the necessary services to operate a store. They took care of all our credit card applications, set-up our merchant account through a deal with CIBC (Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce), and offered us a catalog system (Shop Factory) which tied in nicely to their on-line payment process supplied by a third-party company called Nobil.

The entire process was confusing at the time, but time was moving ahead far too quickly. We decided this was our best option and we retained Merchant Card Interactive and began the process of setting up shop. The total set up cost was about $2000 CDN. The monthly merchant account charges are $38. All in all, the costs were nominal when you weigh out the issue of time versus money.

Shop Factory’s Shopping Cart/Catalog system is good, but still has limitations. It operates as a separate platform from the rest of our web site, and therefore, has only one point on entry – “the lobby” – so to speak. You cannot add a link to a page in the Catalog. If you do, you will end up in the lobby, and not on the desired page. This poses a problem that we are presently trying to solve. We want to include biographies of the artists, but cannot have them listed as a product, nor can we have them in our platform on the web – the user would end up back in the lobby and not at the artists’ page when trying to return, which is unacceptable. Another limitation is their search capabilities are somewhat confusing and difficult to use.

The software did allow us to maintain our look & feel which was very important to us. We wanted minimal graphics and animation to enable focus on the artworks. The software was fairly easy to learn and the support, which is offered through Merchant Card Interactive, has been exceptional.

Once we were set-up, we moved our energy to marketing. We presently focus our efforts on two periods: spring and fall. These are proven to be the seasons for art buying. We began with a Postcard mail-out campaign to 5000 Canadian Interior Designer Firms last fall. Our hits in December were 300, and rose dramatically to 30,000 by February. We were pleased with the campaign.

We bought mailing lists including corporate art buyers and law firms and plan on marketing to them from April – June. Of course, it is imperative to list with the search engines. We update our listings every three months. We have launched minimal banner ads because we have not felt that they are very effective. We are currently searching and reviewing ways to list our site on the web, including city portals such as www.toronto.com.

The Internet is always changing. You must keep up with this pace or be left behind. Marketing seems to be the toughest function of an on-line store. It is not only difficult to attract potential clients, but it is difficult to even make your presence felt. Having people find you is a real challenge. The Web is vast with many choices. We are always looking at new ways to promote ourselves, and new ideas for the site itself.

There are excellent resources both in print and on the web. For those who are interested in html and web design, I recommend www.webmonkey.com. They also demystify many web functions and can help dramatically in improving your performance in search engine listings. For excellent eCommerce content, Canadians Jim Carroll and Rick Broadhead have published a book called “Selling Online”, available at www.rickbroadhead.com.

See Also:

Be Sociable, Share!

Related Posts:

Tagged as: shopping cart, store review, web store

Previous post:

Next post: