By Paul Lang, Editor, Sell It!
March 8th, 2000

See Also   Terrence Sherry and 1 World Sarongs   Andrew Bridgeman and eART-originals   Mark Annett and Scruplestore.com   David Sabot and Cheaphumidors.com   William Waite and Nemmelgeb Murr   Mary Lu Wason and LampLink   Michael Campbell and Cellwest   Bob Rankin and Flowers Fast   Louis Jay and Health4Her.com   Jeff Swearingen and TheGift.com   Bill Broadbent the T-Shirt King   Jim Goodbody and PlanetLearn   Todd Mogren and coastaltool.com   John D. Einhorn and CapShack.com   Beverley Wood and the Gift Ship   Sgt. David Hack and US Wings   Brenda Do and MindFood Media.com   Rory O'Connor and Shopirish.com

If I were to be asked for my top two e-commerce tips for small businesses, they would be:

1. Choose a good niche to allow you to effectively compete against larger companies and

2. Regardless of your budget limitations, open a Web store as soon as possible and start learning how to sell on the Web.

The LampLink Web store is a great example of these practices in action. It focuses on a very narrow product range - lamp parts - and was opened way back in '96.

In this interview LampLink's creator, Mary Lu Wason, shares with us the valuable lessons she has learnt through selling on the Web for nearly four years.

Lang: How did you go about building LampLink?

Wason: My husband and I were looking for a product to sell on the web for a few years. In 1996 we thought we were too late, already! Can you believe that? That was the hype at the time, and yet, no one was really buying online yet. Yet there was a mentality that if you were the first one selling a product on the web, you were guaranteed sales.

By chance, while I was decorating my home, I discovered how difficult it is to buy lamp parts at retail. Yes, there are a few standard kits that you think you can find at any hardware store. It's one of those things, that when you actually need it, you can't find it anywhere.

I live in New Jersey, the most densely populated state in the US. I figured that if I had a hard time finding items, then someone in more rural areas would find it impossible. It seemed like a good thing to offer on the Net. Besides, I was very busy lamp crafting. I was excited about it. I was creative and I was very, very pregnant. There I was, a programmer, about to take 15 months maternity leave. Running a web site sounded like the perfect thing to do in my spare time. My sister partnered with me and together we thought we could handle it all.

Our first goal was to go online. We accepted checks or money orders only and offered a PO Box and no phone number! Can you believe it? We still got orders. I'm so grateful to those early customers. This was in 1996 when the media's only Net story was BUYER BEWARE. Our next goal was to accept credit cards. The next to list a phone. The next to hire an order taking service.

Lang: What were the major challenges you faced?

Wason: Finding suppliers that would take us seriously was a huge hurdle. I had to say we were a mail order company. (Actually, I've never understood why e-commerce wasn't recognized from the beginning as mail order with a virtual catalog.)

It was also impossible to predict (or prepare) for what would happen. We spent too much time preparing for things that didn't happen, too little for what did.

Another strange challenge is that it can sometimes just feel unreal. There is no brick and mortar, most of my work is online with bits and bytes. It was quite sobering for me, when we mailed out the first print catalog. Surrounded by stacks of large envelopes, suddenly, the numbers on the log report became flesh and blood, with real, physical addresses.

I find that it is a bit unreal to family and friends, too. There are lots of challenges to anyone working from home. There are lots of interruptions. Family and friends tend to forget about it in a way that wouldn't happen if there was a brick and mortar involved.

Lang: Looking at your store now, what aspect are you especially pleased with and what do you feel could have been done better?

Wason: I am so pleased and proud of certain email and phone calls that I get from customers that are so grateful that we are here for them. I've had people tell me they searched for years for these products. Those in rural areas often touch me the most. They say we save them many long, discouraging trips into town. When I get letters like that, I feel like I'm providing a service. That's the way I want to feel. I don't ever want to feel like I tricked or conned someone into believing they need our products. I just want them to find us, when they already know they need us.

What could have been done better? Just about everything! But I can't let myself get hung up about that. I am just happy that each step was taken, no matter how imperfect, each task accomplished, brought LampLink forward.

It's been said, there are no mistakes, there are lessons learned. I don't know what lessons I can share with your readers. I think the important thing is, to JUST DO IT! Even if you're not a programmer, you can go to something like www.freemerchant.com and create quite a decent site.