Operating Multiple Online Stores

September 09, 2009 · by Dale Traxler

This seems like a timely posting with Hayneedle.com, formerly Netshops, Inc. relaunching their 200+ separate web stores on top of a shared shopping cart, centralized brand, and and shared eCommerce platform. I was always amazed they did not do that earlier. For many years they operated 200+ separate stores with little or no cross selling. That seemed like a lot of money left on the table to me.

We ran 3 stores sharing a shopping cart successfully for several years starting in 2004 when almost no one else was doing it. In fact, most peers I talked to at the time thought we were nuts because we were diluting our branding, hurting our SEO, duplicating site maintenance and so forth. They were missing the many benefits!

Admit You Have At Least Considered It!

If you operate an eCommerce business, at some point you’ve probably wondered if you should add another store to reach new markets or expand your product base into something slightly “out of your normal box”. But, most businesses decide the risks and costs outweigh the benefits. Our company, Beaded Impressions, is in the crazy minority that run more than a single store. We believe the benefits are huge, especially over the long run. The caveat is you must have the infrastructure to manage it effectively.

In fact, we currently operate 4 separate stores selling many of the same jewelry making components to slightly different segments of the market. As mentioned earlier, we ran our stores on top of a single shopping cart for several years, but when we migrated to a upgraded our eCommerce platform and implemented an ERP solution 2 years ago, we could not find a single solution that would have allowed us to share a cart between our existing domains. So, now we have 4 separate domains and shopping carts. Product, content, order and customer data is all shared. My preference would still be to share a cart and someday we hope to be able to return to that model. More on that later.

Why Have Separate Stores Selling the Same or Similar Products?

We find that multiple stores offer better opportunities to segment and reach slightly different target markets. You can cross sell different products to the same customers. And, you can gain great leverage in your SEO efforts if you build your sites properly using separate domains and content.

For example, many jewelry makers specialize in making pearl jewelry and frequently only shop for pearls and pearl jewelry making supplies. We have captured a large share of that market in a single store that sells only pearls. We are also able to “cross sell” other jewelry supplies to them by linking to our other stores.

From an SEO perspective, for the past several years if you search on “pearl beads” or “freshwater pearl beads” in Google, you will find one, two or three of our websites listed on the first page of rankings. This is true for dozens of our targeted keywords. Each site contains it own unique page and category content, so we are able to earn solid search rankings from each domain on its own merit. As a result, the odds increase that most buyers will find and visit at least one of our sites as they shop around.

Our Current Stores

We operate one large store selling a large selection of beads and beading supplies targeting a broad retail market, which is abeadstore.com. In fact, almost all of our SKUs are sold there. This site also includes rich content including tutorials, FAQs, jewelry making tips, design galleries, detailed descriptions and much more.

We also operate 2 wholesale stores selling pearls and gemstone jewelry components, PearlBeadSale.com and JewelryPlus.net respectively. The wholesale stores appeal to larger jewelry designers and businesses who buy in larger quantities and tend to know what they are looking for. We offer a true “wholesale” discount structure on those sites and offer a shopping environment that is more suited to the “power shopper”.

Finally, we operate a second “retail” store that specializes in metal jewelry components at ChoiceJewelrySupplies.com. We found that many of our buyers were only interested in purchasing metal beads and findings online because they purchase their gemstones at shows and glass from many local sources. We decided to build a best of breed store that is set up for selling a huge selection of only metal jewelry components to build brand loyalty and stand out from the crowd. We launched in February of 2009 and have already seen a dramatic increase in incremental business and new repeat customers from the store.

Infrastructure By Netsuite

You MUST have an infrastructure that is able to support centralized content management, inventory control, order management, and accounting to pull this off effectively.

When we originally had 3 stores sharing a shopping cart, we were bursting at the seems trying to update 3 different websites with product information and availability. We also had huge inventory control issues. In the summer of 2007, we migrated to Netsuite, which is an integrated SAAS solution for eCommerce, ERP, CRM, and Financials. They were able to deliver a scalable infrastructure for us to run mutiple independent stores.

Our Wish List

Unfortunately, Netsuite is not able to support a shared shopping cart between different domains. We believe our average order size would be positively impacted if we were able to share a cart between our stores. We know from past history that is true. Netsuite, if you are listening, please consider adding this to your future plans. I believe that Hayneedle.com will validate the concept of a very large eCommerce site consisting of diverse stores targeting different markets with different products that share a shopping cart........oops, maybe Amazon.com already did that!

I look forward to watching Hayneedle.com. They will derive the benefits of independent sites and gain new revenue from cross selling opportunities both upfront and over time.

Category: Evolving eBiz | Tags: multiple online stores, Shopping Carts and Platforms, Finance, Search Engine Optimization, SAAS