Building A Niche E-Commerce Powerhouse: Coastal Contacts CEO Roger Hardy (Part 9)

Sramana: How well are you prepared to enter and compete in the eyeglasses market? Roger Hardy: We have started sourcing the planet for eyeglass components, such as stainless steel and titanium frames. We have also started sourcing all of the products that go into them, such as German quality lenses and Korean quality lenses.

Building A Niche E-Commerce Powerhouse: Coastal Contacts CEO Roger Hardy (Part 8)

Sramana: Essentially you are supporting your Japanese operations with your Vancouver fulfillment center and your Holland operations with your Stockholm fulfillment center. Is that correct? Roger Hardy: Yes. The nice thing about contacts is that they are lightweight and high value. There is a flight that leaves every day and arrives in Japan that night.

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Building A Niche E-Commerce Powerhouse: Coastal Contacts CEO Roger Hardy (Part 7)

Sramana: What were the circumstances of the post-$50 million era? How did you find those two companies? Roger Hardy: We looked at staying within the core competency of taking good care of customers. We found a company in Japan that we thought was growing and doing a good job serving their customers.

Building A Niche E-Commerce Powerhouse: Coastal Contacts CEO Roger Hardy (Part 6)

Sramana: What specifically did you do to encourage your customers to make referrals? Roger Hardy: I would love to tell you that we split the atom, but it was just a 10% coupon that they could share with their friends.

Building A Niche E-Commerce Powerhouse: Coastal Contacts CEO Roger Hardy (Part 5)

Sramana: Did you build your entire company through debt financing, or did you eventually take equity? Roger Hardy: We did eventually take equity. In 2004, we did a small IPO on the Canadian Venture Exchange. We raised $6 million at that time based on a $30 million valuation. Our revenue at the time was $24

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Building A Niche E-Commerce Powerhouse: Coastal Contacts CEO Roger Hardy (Part 4)

Sramana: Let’s talk some about your supplier terms. As a fresh company just getting started in 1999, were suppliers willing to give you inventory on credit? Roger Hardy: Initially we were pretty constrained. Often we would get half-way through the month, and we would have to take the revenue from the previous couple of days

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Building A Niche E-Commerce Powerhouse: Coastal Contacts CEO Roger Hardy (Part 2)

Sramana: How big did your t-shirt venture become? Roger Hardy: The biggest weekend I had was about $30,000. I had secured the rights to a music festival, and we did well there. I actually took on some shareholders and paid them a return on their money for funding that business.

Building A Niche E-Commerce Powerhouse: Coastal Contacts CEO Roger Hardy (Part 1)

Roger Hardy is the founder and CEO of Coastal Contacts Inc, the world’s largest online retailer of contact lenses and eyeglasses. While working for a contact lens manufacturer, he became aware of the optical store mark-ups on contact lenses and eyeglasses and recognized an opportunity to serve customers better. As a result he founded Coastal

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