ProStores Helps Medical Equipment Store Achieve Success in a Heartbeat
On ProStores, our sales have gone up every year.
Samaly Cruz,
Pelegrina Medical, Inc.
Quadruple Your Success
Pelegrina Medical is a medical equipment company based in Puerto Rico that does $9 million in annual revenue.
After 15 years in the business, it started four online stores with ProStores in 2005, each covering a different market segment. PMedicalONLINE.com is its English web storefront, while PMedicalONLINE.net caters to Spanish-speaking customers. Two other web stores pelegrinaequipment.com and pelegrinamedical.com sell to doctors, hospitals, and resellers. All told, Pelegrina has sold to both individuals and companies, and even the army.
Today those storefronts account for $1.2 million in yearly sales.
The Sky is the Limit
Owner Jorge Pelegrina and his staff first dived into eCommerce by selling pulse oximeters on eBay. At first, they only made one or two sales a month. That soon grew to five, 10 and then 20 oximeters a month.
"We had an eBay store which we wanted to expand, and ProStores was the most affordable way to go," says sales and marketing representative Samaly Cruz, who runs the company's web storefronts. "We started out with just a few products online, but the sky is the limit—we now have over a thousand products online, and it has been a success."
The staff also chose ProStores because of its seamless integration with eBay and easy shopping cart. "Neither Jorge nor I knew anything about eCommerce when we started," recalls Samaly. "Now the web stores are running on their own.
"I learned everything as I went. If I needed any help, I called ProStores or went to the ProStores eCommerce Blog. I've gone to a lot of discussion boards for products that I use, but the ProStores Discussion Board is especially helpful. I didn't know anything about coding, for instance, but when I asked people how to do it, the answer was there. And it's free."
That expertise has allowed Samaly to take advantage of ProStores' scalability as Pelegrina’s storefronts grow. "I like that we can keep adding features that work for our business."
Reaching Doctors and Their Patients
Pelegrina has used a comprehensive mix of ProStores features, add-on tools and certified designers to successfully reach its customers online.
PSHelper created an eCommerce design for Pelegrina's four web storefronts. "We are in a business in which we have to look professional, and I was feeling that our web stores did not. PSHelper was reasonably priced, easy to work with, and helpful. I didn't feel like I was dealing with a big company where I couldn't get support. When we received the design, it was exactly what we were looking for."
To drive traffic, ProStores' built-in search engine optimization tools have proven indispensable. Add-on tool Constant Contact has also helped Samaly energize repeat traffic through email marketing. "It's very easy to use, and not expensive at all," she says.
When it comes to monitoring the business, Samaly relies on ProStores Analytics. "I compare the numbers with our accounting reports. If I see visitors are decreasing for some reason, I go to the web storefront to see if there’s an error in the coding, and then I correct it."
Healthy Growth
In the five years Pelegrina has used ProStores, its online stores have accounted for an increasingly larger share of the company's business, prompting Samaly to hire more staff and increase inventory. She is also upping Pelegrina’s eCommerce marketing budget and implementing a blog to communicate directly with clients.
"On ProStores, our sales have gone up every year," Samaly explains. "During the first year, we made $40,000, then $90,000, then $145,000, and then $500,000. Last year, we had $1.2 million in sales. This year, we'll also have a big increase. While our local business is decreasing, our ProStores revenue has always increased. We believe that it will continue to do so."
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