StoresOnline Enables a Mother/Son Team to Sell Organic Supplies for Babies and Gardens

Aug. 24, 2010 - PRLog -- Melissa Johnston was looking for something new to do. Her son, Dorje Johnston, had been working at a garden supply store for 12 years when the management changed and decided to replace the entire store staff, as well. Dorje got caught on the bad side of that change-over and was looking for a job.

They got the mailer from StoresOnline at just the right time. Though their expectations of the Internet preview conference were low, they decided to go and explore the possibilities.
The presenter at the conference made a lot more sense than either of them expected and it got them thinking about what they might sell on the Internet.

Dorje’s initial idea was to sell paint-ball supplies online because he’s an avid paint-baller. But as he began to look around for suppliers, he realized it would be a lot harder than he thought to find one who would sell to him.

That’s when he had the idea to sell a product line he already knew well: garden supplies. That proved to be a much more productive idea.

Melissa had made numerous baby blankets during her life and her idea was to sell organic baby supplies, including blankets.

It took them quite a while to decide what to sell and between that and the time it took them to build their sites, they admit they nearly bogged down.

Melissa says she never would have been able to build their first website without customer service. “The customer service is great, definitely,” said Melissa.

Neither Melissa nor Dorje had much experience on computers when they attended the conference. They knew how to use the Internet and email and that was about it.

“I’m still learning,” admits Dorje.

“I never touched a computer until I was 52,” said Melissa. While she realizes having more computer knowledge would have made the job easier, she points out “I’m living proof that you can teach an old dog new tricks.”  

Melissa built her website first. She spent long periods on the phone with customer support learning how to get things working right on her website. One difficulty she had was that she thought she needed to have all the products she wanted on her website before she published it. So by the time someone at StoresOnline asked her why she hadn’t published yet, her site was huge. Once she realized she could change and add to her website whenever she needed to, she went ahead and published.

“I didn’t realize at the time that you don’t have to have all the products you eventually want on the site posted before you publish,” said Melissa. “So by the time I published, my website was huge. I had a mentor call every week to get me through those last stages.”

Dorje’s glad his mother learned that. “I launched my site with only 10 or 20 products,” he said. “And I just built it up from there.” Dorje built his site after Melissa was done. He had a much easier time of it because of Melissa. He was able to go to his mother whenever he had a question and draw on her experience, so he didn’t have to use customer support nearly as much as she had.

When asked what marketing strategies worked best, Melissa answered, “I didn’t have any sort of budget to use for pay-per-click, so I had to find everything I could use that wouldn’t cost money. The first thing I realized is that there are a lot of other people selling the same products on their sites that I sell on mine. So I started by writing my own product descriptions. The tempting thing to do, that most everyone does, is to copy and paste the text right from the manufacturer’s website. But search engines rank original copy higher. So that’s what I used.”

Once she started to  generate sales, Melissa used paid ads in specialized market niches where there were people looking to buy baby products.

Melissa admits it was overwhelming at times—it took her nine months all told—but she eventually managed to work her way through it and get her site built and running. Because of the experience she’d gained, she was able to help Dorje build his website much faster that she’d built her own.

Both websites are constantly growing as Melissa and Dorje add new products to sell on their websites.

After Melissa launched her site, she didn’t get an order for the first month, except a mercy order from her daughter. It took her about four months to get on page one in the search engines. Then the Christmas season came and they were shocked at the number of orders they got.

Melissa’s website is www.NaturesBabyBlankets.com. Dorje’s  is www.AwesomeGrow.com.

“We’re growing constantly,” said Melissa. “Sales are always better than they were before. We’re into our third year now and it only gets stronger. The greatest benefit is that we can support ourselves, but I also really love what I do, especially the customer support I give.”
Melissa also enjoys the social aspect of her business. She’s made friends with some of her suppliers and has customers who’ve ordered from her five and six times.

# # #

StoresOnline is an e-commerce services company providing tools for research, site build, and Web marketing to entrepreneurs and small business. We also provide training on SEO and other Web marketing techniques.