Best of Bootstrapping: Bootstrapped Category Leading E-commerce Company

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.  The Shoplet.com case study, as shared by Founder CEO Tony Ellison in 2014, is interesting because it illustrates how an entrepreneur bootstrapped a category leading e-commerce venture by trading off margins in favor of minimizing logistical challenges. Sramana: Tony, let’s start with the beginning of your

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Best of Bootstrapping: Founder Bootstrapped Category Leading E-commerce Company Shoplet

If you haven’t already, please study our Bootstrapping Course and Investor Introductions page.  The Shoplet case study, as shared by Founder CEO Tony Ellison in 2014, is interesting because it illustrates how an entrepreneur has bootstrapped a category leading e-commerce venture by trading off margins in favor of minimizing logistical challenges. Sramana: Tony, let’s start with the beginning of

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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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