During the Christmas season of 1997,
Ross-Simons’ six-month-old web site
generated an average of about $30,000
in sales per week. This season, sales
generated through the same site climbed
nearly six-fold.
In fact, during the first week of December, www.ross-simons.com
generated close to $200,000 in sales.
“It’s been significant,” said Peter Howard, vice president of marketing
at Ross-Simons. “This Christmas season, consumers really adopted it in a
big way. What we have found out is that a lot of people like to shop and
order over the Internet.”
E-commerce.
Not only has it arrived – it’s getting to be downright commonplace.
Whether it’s the latest CD from Celine Dion or a John Grisham novel
from the wildly popular amazon.com, a John Deere tractor from Sears, or
a piece of fine jewelry from Ross-Simons, shopping on-line is now a way
of life.
Bryan Holmberg, a spokesman for the Arkansas-based Wal-Mart, said
that the retail giant’s venture into on-line shopping, www.wal-mart.com,
established in June of 1996, has been an unqualified success.
“From day one our goal has been to transfer what Wal-Mart customers
expect from a physical store to the Internet,” Holmberg said. “And our
customers have responded.”
Visitors to the Wal-Mart web site, like those who enter any one of
the company’s 2,399 stores around the world, are greeted by a customer
service representative and provided a “shopping cart,” in which they can
hold their purchases.
That customer service, said Holmberg, has been a hit. In fact, Wal-
Mart’s entrance into the world of on-line shopping made such a splash,
said Holmberg, that the company quickly added components as a direct
result of customers’ suggestions. For example, he said, Wal-Mart rolled
out “build-to-order” computers that have been proven to be strong
sellers.
And what would the company’s legendary founder, Sam Walton, think if
he were alive to experience electronic retailing? Holmberg said he would
have been all for it.
“Mr. Walton was all about bringing convenience and value to the
customer,” Holmberg said.
The Game Keeper, founded in 1975 in Santa Barbara, California by a pair
of businesswomen has grown dramatically over the years, most recently as
a direct result of Internet commerce. The single store – featuring games
and game accessories – has grown to become the largest chain of adult
game stores in the United States – with all of the stores located in
major regional malls stretching from the West to the East Coast,
including sites in Boston.
Now, The Game Keeper’s web site, gamekeeper.com, is the largest game
store on the web, offering more than 1,000 games 24 hours a day.
Stores like Wal-Mart and The Game Keeper are not alone. Ross-Simons, one
of the Ocean State’s most successful companies, has found stunning
success via the Internet.
Ross-Simons’ website (www.ross-simons.com) certainly delivered during
the 1998 holiday shopping season.
“Our company reached a significant milestone in its history on
December 1, 1998,” said Ross-Simons President Darrell Ross. “On that
day, Internet sales exceeded through-the-mail sales for the first time
since www.ross-simons.com was launched.”
The website – which features Ross-Simons’ signature fine jewelry,
tableware, home furnishings and decorative accessories – was launched 18
months ago. According to Ross, it has been an enormous success. In fact,
sales generated through the website during the first week of December
reached $186,000.
Those Internet sales included a pair of earrings priced at $3,695, two
sapphire and diamond bracelets priced $2,790 each, and several other
items priced more than $1,000.
The rise of Internet retailing represents just how far – and
technologically advanced — Ross-Simons has come since being founded in
1952 by Sidney Ross as a single jewelry store in downtown Providence.
Ross-Simons has retail stores in Atlanta, Boston, Short Hills (New
Jersey), Raleigh and in Barrington, Providence, and Warwick, Rhode
Island. Ross-Simons outlet stores are open year-round in Kittery, Maine
and in Warwick.
After expanding its retail presence in Rhode Island, Ross-Simons
embarked upon direct mail as a means of expanding market share by
selling pewter salt and pepper shakers using a small space ad and a
toll-free telephone number. Thirty-six years later, the company’s
catalog division distributes 12 different catalog titles and over 60
million catalogs all over the world.
And now, comes the Internet.
“It’s growing faster than expected,” Howard said.
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