Niche Market Entrepreneur Takes the Stage At Internet Retailer Conference

SARASOTA, Fla. - June 12, 2014 - PRLog -- Alongside speakers from eBay, Wikipedia, Amazon and more, ecommerce entrepeneur Jim Miller, of internet retailer JMX Brands/ DutchCrafters, spoke yesterday at the Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition (IRCE), the world’s largest e-commerce symposium.

Miller is founder and CEO of JMX Brands, a niche Internet retailer that has been included in Internet Retailer Magazine’s list of top 1,000 Internet retailers in the United States since 2012. JMX’s flagship brand, DutchCrafters, is the largest web-only retailer of Amish made furniture. DutchCrafters offers indoor furniture, outdoor furniture, crafts and other products from more than 120 Amish woodshops in Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania.  All products are made in American Amish Country, and most from woodshops that Miller and his team visit personally.

Miller observed the challenges that many small businesses face in keeping up with the constantly changing landscape in the world of E-commerce, especially with the sometimes daunting task of anticipating and responding to changes in Google’s search algorithms.  He spoke about the company’s successes and failures in growing website traffic from Google’s organic search, and the resulting impact that each had on revenues and company growth. Miller reflected,

"Growing our company through the last decade with a recession-sensitive product was difficult enough, but the biggest challenges came when we ignored the signals of pending changes in the way that Google calculated search results.”

He went on to say that Google’s Panda update was nearly catastrophic for the small company, but that JMX and the DutchCrafters brand survived and thrived for three reasons: They adapted quickly, doubled down on their unique strengths, and paid attention to putting their customers first.

As it turns out, that customer interaction and flexibility was exactly what Google was looking for. “Our eventual success came in our ability to learn quickly, respond to change, and really trust in our own instincts,” Miller said, “Ultimately, as an entrepreneur, your vision and business intuition should prevail over the latest trends.”

ABOUT JMX BRANDS

JMX Brands is an Internet retailer, selling over 10,000 different products on a variety of websites, including DutchCrafters.com – the largest web-only retailer of Amish furniture in the world. JMX Brands is a member of the Sarasota Chamber of Commerce, has been awarded the opportunity to work with University of Central Florida’s GrowFlorida small business council, has earned an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau, and is on pace to remain one of the fastest-growing private companies in the United States, according to Inc. Magazine’s prestigious Inc. 5,000 List.