Profile: Finest Service Stores Grows to Twenty-four Ecommerce Sites

Running one ecommerce website takes skill and hard work, but entrepreneur Brad Likens runs 24 ecommerce websites. Likens is co-owner of Best Service Stores, and the firm has grown to over $20 million in annual sales in just four decades. Best Service Stores does all of this from its home base in Lenexa, Kan., and Likens joined us recently to discuss it.

Practical eCommerce: Tell us about Best Service Stores and how you got into ecommerce.

Brad Likens:"I was in the real estate servicing business, servicing all sorts of different real estate and mortgage businesses. We wanted to market a little bit and get into a different markets and we discovered a little website that was available. We saw some success, and then we acquired several more sites, and also started a few of our own.

See our products:

"The first one we purchased was Thejunglestore.com in about 2006. And Arsa Toys and Hobbywarehouse.com. Since that time, we have opened up over 24 websites."

PeC: Can you sell retail products on all 24 sites?

Likens: "Yes. In addition, we have approximately six or seven websites which aren't ecommerce. A good deal of these are social marketing websites, or only information sites that manage advertising for ecommerce, and people will feed towards our ecommerce websites."

PeC: Why not run all your activities on a single site?

Likens:"We examine the product lines which we have, and we strive to do both market websites and what I call supermarket websites. Ten years later on, we'd love to have both be prosperous, but in today's market, it's hard to ascertain which will have more success. We are not sure what direction the industry will take, but we are ready for either way."

PeC: Can you meet all the orders yourselves?

Likens: "Yes. We have two warehouses which we fulfill orders from. We use a good deal of integrated shipping systems and we are trying to keep up with all the latest advancements and making the transport simple.

"We do drop ship on occasion, but we prefer to inventory the items ourselves. The majority of the times we drop ship, it is more trying out a new product line. When there's success, then we will attempt to bring it in-house.

"As far as keeping track of these stocks, it's tough running a great deal of different stores. We have nine ecommerce backend databases. Thus, we have nine different stocking systems. We attempt to use the same backend platform across all systems, so if we acquire new website that's in Volusion or NetSuite or Yahoo! or iCongo, we will attempt to work out an integration to our backend system. Right now we are using NetSuite."

PeC: Why did you select NetSuite?

Likens:"One of the first websites we bought was in NetSuite, and as we added more sites, we learned more about various systems. They all have pluses and minuses. NetSuite has a very powerful accounting and financial reporting backend, and because we are using a number of front-ends to sponsor the actual sites themselves, we wanted to be certain that our backend (our stock controls and our accounting systems and our financial reporting) was really robust."

PeC: Do all your websites and your databases automatically feed into one accounting system with NetSuite?

Likens: "Yes, they do. We've got a group of four or five in-house developers that build XML and real time interfaces that feed straight into our NetSuite system. After an order is placed, all that info is routed directly through to NetSuite and then all the customer service and stock levels, and accounting and finance reporting is done through NetSuite."

PeC: How can you advertise your sites?

Likens:"We strive to use many different kinds of marketing strategies. We do a lot of paid advertising through Google AdWords and Yahoo!. You can see the instant results. You may turn on that paid advertising and look a few hours later and see whether that has been successful or not. [Pay-per-click] is also the most expensive sort of marketing. So, as time passes, we might begin with a few paid advertising, build up our natural results, and build a enormous social network which feeds into our websites also.

"From there, we might go to some of the shopping comparison engines such as Google Base, NexTag, Shopzilla, PriceGrabber. We use an assortment of strategies once we visit the shopping comparison engines also. We have used third-party providers, kind of supply packs, such as SingleFeed and MerchantAdvantage into a number of the more elaborate packages like ChannelAdvisor and Mercent to handle those shopping comparison websites."

PeC: Can you handle the pay-per-click and SEO work in house?

Likens: "Yes. I know a whole lot of companies have a whole lot of success with outsourcing compensated advertising through AdWords, we just haven't gotten to this point. We haven't attempted that yet."

PeC: How many keywords are you running at any one time on a paid search program?

Likens:"I'd guess that the amount is too much 200,000 key words at any particular time."

PeC: What is your firm's total annual gross earnings, and the number of SKUs are on your websites?

Likens:"At any given stage, we may have 50,000 to 60,000 SKUs in stock. During the holiday seasons, that amount increases. This year, I'd estimate our gross earnings to be $20 to $25 million. Next year, that may be as much as $40 million."

PeC: What advice would you provide to small ecommerce merchants?

Likens:"I think sometimes people might get into ecommerce and believe it is going to be a slam dunk, but it's plenty of work. The online world is so big when it comes down to all of the different kinds of marketing and the kinds of products on the market. It's a really big world. So, you will need to learn what you've got that actually resonates with your clients and become experts at promoting that item. And, of course, putting the customers first, understanding what customers want and understanding how to give that to them as readily as possible, and providing the best service that you can for this client.

"It's easy to get lost in the online world as there are a lot of distinct ways to go. Starting small, finding something that works for you, actually honing your abilities to provide that one support, then growing from there, I believe is a fantastic way to begin."

See also:

https://www.connectpos.com/bigcommerce-vs-bigcommerce-enterprise/

https://www.connectpos.com/headless-commerce-is-changing-commerce/

https://www.connectpos.com/what-is-a-kiosk-pos-system/

https://www.connectpos.com/what-to-know-about-multi-source-inventory/

https://www.connectpos.com/top-headless-commerce-platforms/

https://www.connectpos.com/top-technology-awards-that-businesses-should-know/

https://www.connectpos.com/major-cloud-computing-advantages/

https://www.connectpos.com/why-you-need-a-business-partnership/

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