ProStores Merchant Builds a Million-Dollar Hardware Business
ProStores is the most profitable place for us to sell.
Ralph Smith, Owner of
Everyday Warehousers
A Successful Experiment
When Ralph Smith first started selling on eBay, he dabbled in everything from coffee to closeout goods. Eventually he settled on hardware and used ProStores to start his online store Everyday Warehousers in 2007.
Not ever having done eCommerce before, Ralph looked upon it as "an experiment," but ProStores was "flexible, reliable, and easy to manage," he says. "The small business eCommerce solution made it easy for us to get our web storefront up and running."
Four years later, he now sells nearly 100,000 pieces of inventory across 5,000 unique products. Eight employees work out of a 30,000-square-foot office and warehouse in Jackson, Mississippi and expect to do over a $1 million in sales this year alone.
The Best Sales Channel
"What I like most about ProStores is that everything is in place to get your store open, even if you don't have any technical experience," Ralph explains. "I wanted to focus on running my business, not teach myself how to be a web developer. ProStores did all the heavy lifting – sending product feeds to Google, handling PayPal payments. It took care of stuff that I didn't have the time to learn."
As his web storefront grew, ProStores also evolved, adding more robust features. "We use traffic and sales analytics to track and improve sales," says web developer Judson Cooper. "We create promotional codes and check the sales reports to see how those are performing. We also find abandoned carts and research how we can recover those."
In 2008, Ralph tried opening a small retail storefront in his warehouse, but quickly closed it when he realized eCommerce was the way to go. "The online business was infinitely more successful than the brick and mortar, which was more labor intensive but less profitable," he says.
From shopping to checkout, Ralph finds that his customers' overall shopping experience tops that on eBay, Amazon, or other online marketplaces, making it the best shopping cart. "A lot of our shoppers want to find coordinating hardware, doorknobs, and light fixtures. It's a lot easier for them to find companion products on our web storefront. ProStores is the most profitable place for us to sell. Our average sale there is more than double that on other channels."
Reinvent Yourself With ProStores
ProStores' features, coupled with Ralph’s own systems expertise, have helped Everyday Warehousers grow into a million dollar business.
His business expanded so much that the former chief technology officer created his own back office system that could track all his inventory and sales data across multiple platforms. Now he's hoping to license that system to other online merchants.
"ProStores definitely made us more profitable," he insists. After grossing $350,000 in 2006, Everyday Warehousers enjoyed $500,000 in sales in 2007, the year it opened its online store. By last year, that number had jumped to $750,000.
Even though he'll continue to sell on eBay, his current goal is to make ProStores his main sales channel. "I had no experience in eCommerce before I started Everyday Warehousers," he admits. "Now I look at this web store as the cornerstone of our business. ProStores is all about reinventing yourself."
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