MindFoodMedia.com – Store Review

by Bill H.

By Paul Lang, Editor, Sell It!
July 11th, 1998

Imagine this scenario. You’re a Web commerce consultant and you are approached by a group of people with no experience of the Internet and a highly restricted budget. And these people want to set up a Web store to sell books, music, videos and software, competing head-to-head with the likes of Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com.

What are you going to tell them? To go away and think again? That they’re crazy?

Fortunately, such advice never reached the ears of Brenda Do, President of MindFoodMedia.com. For with no Internet experience and a budget of just $10,000 she has pulled together a Web store with over 2 million items and a fast growing revenue line.

How did she do it? Read on and find out.

Lang: What inspired you to open a Web store?

Do: The Web efficiently reaches potential customers world-wide. Start-up costs are lower than opening a physical storefront, and the market potential is higher. As a friend once teased me, we were living the ’90s trend of being the corporate “wing walker” where we all worked two jobs at once, trying desperately not to get caught while sacrificing sleep to get all our work done. We don’t regret ever having to fill our veins with caffeine to get through it all though and enjoyed the challenge.

Lang: What level of Internet experience did you have at the outset?

Do: Goose egg. Nil. Nada. Since we all came from non-technical backgrounds, we had to learn a totally new language in a relatively short amount of time. We didn’t let this intimidate us though – we just bought the basic books on HTML, Java, SQL and such and started reading.

Our “language barrier” prevented us from understanding all of the basic support functions we needed when building the site so we used up a great deal of valuable time and money learning things from trial and error.

Lang: Let’s talk about the back-end of the business. What ISP and shopping cart software did you choose, and why?

Do: We use MerchandiZer, from HipHip Software. It’s a complete shopping cart with a back office manager program. The program manages a multitude of administrative functions from customer orders, marketing promotions, to site management. They also set up the server account so it’s quite convenient.

The site is on an NT platform, SQL Server and uses Active Server Pages. We use a national ISP so that we can dial into the site to remotely manage it, no matter where we are travelling.

Lang: Did you have a large budget available to pull it all together?

Do: The store cost about $10,000 to build and set up. We have over 2 million items to account for which added to the cost. Conversions from the vendors were the most trying and expensive since everyone seems to use a different technology. To save costs, we did as much in-house as possible but sacrificed time as a result.

Lang: What aspect of your store are you particularly proud of?

Do: Our primary focus, aside from providing a comprehensive database, is making sure our shoppers feel comfortable about purchasing from us. We offer more then a Web interface at MindFoodMedia.com. We offer outstanding personalised service. That’s hard to find among Web retailers, but we like to get to know our shoppers.

Lang: Anything you feel could you have done better?

Do: The only thing we could have done better would have been to get started earlier! If we had opened the store over a year ago when we first came up with the idea, we would have been the only ones to offer more than just books all in one store. We are now one of two that offers all four media forms (books, music, software and videos) and one of several that offers music and books. The time lost cost us but we all had other careers at the time so we had to do whatever we could after hours and on the weekends.

Lang: What are your plans to develop the store?

Do: In the short term we are going to add services such as gift certificates, additional payment options as an alternative to credit cards or checks, a newsletter and a chat area. In two years… who knows? The Web is so dynamic one can only guess what technology will be available in the future.

Lang: You’re up against some well-funded competition – can you handle it?

Do:The market potential for e-commerce sites is incredible. The number $80 billion by the year 2001 comes to mind. Despite this, it was difficult gaining credibility in our market which is dominated by established names with astronomical budgets. However, we persisted and through targeted advertising and our affiliate program, we were able increase our business. In any business, one has to be able to take a fair amount of rejection. The best thing to do is regroup, retain one’s principles, learn from the experience and move on.

The statistics continue to change, as shopping on the Web becomes more popular. Earlier statistics showed that Web shoppers were primarily price conscious. Our own surveys agreed which was disappointing for that goes against our philosophy of offering quality products with exceptional service.

We believe that one needs to be priced competitively but to base purchasing decisions solely on price causes problems in the long run. For if a customer isn’t satisfied, they won’t come back, no matter how discounted the product.

In designing the site, we seldom mention price and concentrate on convenience, content and selection. We have not had any complaints so our customers and ourselves benefited from our desire to maintain that principle.

Lang: What tips do you have for people considering opening their own store?

Do:

  • Research, research, research. Conduct your own market surveys, ask lots of questions, and solicit opinions.
  • For every idea, ask at least 6 people what they think.
  • Be bold with suppliers. Ask for and expect value. Offer and give value.
  • Have a passion for what you do. Web users are demanding shoppers. It is crucial to offer quality content and products, which requires more work.
  • Respond to customers promptly and thoroughly.
  • Keep the site easily navigable and quickly downloadable.
  • Offer several choices to promote convenience for the shopper. Such as offering online payments, fax, phone or mail orders.
  • And finally, promote, promote, promote, promote!

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