Bootstrapping to $13 Million in 4 Years in Niche E-commerce: Pavel Sokolovsky, CEO of eComfort.com (Part 2)

Sramana: What specific steps did you take to get the business launched? How did you acquire your customer base? Pavel Sokolovsky: We put up a website using open source software. I had a bit of a technical and development background. Victor took on the challenge of accurately describing the products on our site. He did

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Bootstrapping to $13 Million in 4 Years in Niche E-commerce: Pavel Sokolovsky, CEO of eComfort.com (Part 1)

We continue to be bullish about niche e-commerce as a category to build sustainable businesses in. This story is a further illustration of the trend. Sramana: Pavel, let’s start at the beginning of your story. Where are you from? What is the genesis of your entrepreneurial aspirations? Pavel Sokolovsky: I was born in Minsk, Belarus.

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Bootstrapping a Category Leading E-commerce Company: Tony Ellison, CEO of Shoplet (Part 7)

Sramana: I would imagine you are using the private label strategy to drive margins up, correct? That is one of the levers that you can push. Tony Ellison: Yes, that is correct. Sramana: What categories offer you the best levers for your private label strategy?

Bootstrapping a Category Leading E-commerce Company: Tony Ellison, CEO of Shoplet (Part 6)

Sramana: You have crossed a lot of categories that are not traditional for your market area. What was the strategy behind that decision? Tony Ellison: We are the first in our industry to cross the traditional lines of office supplies and offer many unconventional products that businesses need. This is important because we cater to

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Bootstrapping a Category Leading E-commerce Company: Tony Ellison, CEO of Shoplet (Part 5)

Sramana: Tell me a bit more about merchandising. Outside of the core office supplies, what else belonged in your product portfolio? Tony Ellison: Today, we have close to 600,000 items with a mantra of social responsibility. There is no reason why businesses should not purchase eco-friendly products, especially since the prices have dropped and the

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Bootstrapping a Category Leading E-commerce Company: Tony Ellison, CEO of Shoplet (Part 4)

Sramana: In 1996, you added more people and secured an office. Was there any difference in your distribution or customer acquisition strategies? Tony Ellison: There was a lot of change in 1996. The biggest expansion was in terms of people and our margins started to erode because of that added expense. We also started adding

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Bootstrapping a Category Leading E-commerce Company: Tony Ellison, CEO of Shoplet (Part 3)

Sramana: Does your business model still rely on third party logistics? Tony Ellison: Yes, by and large. We have a lot of 3PL relationships as well as a lot of private brands. Today, we offer over 600,000 items. We are in close to 16 different major categories. We started in CD-ROMs and then moved into

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Bootstrapping a Category Leading E-commerce Company: Tony Ellison, CEO of Shoplet (Part 2)

Sramana: You decided to go to market with 1,000 of the most popular products in your market segment. Did you buy that inventory? Tony Ellison: No, everything we did was drop shipped. We bootstrapped the business, so our only way of making things work was to partner with a distributor out of Chicago. For example,

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