Ruth Krawczyk has been a 'real world' businesswoman for over 5 years, providing  Fine European Collectibles from her German Christmas Market and European Gift Shop in Marietta, Ohio since 1993.

Christkindlmarkt-inc.com went online last April, and converted to WebCommerce several months ago. Since then, her online sales volume has made a solid showing, and in this interview, Ruth graciously shares her experience and insight into doing real e-commerce.

Q. What first attracted you to the idea of selling your goods online?

Ruth: I'd been contemplating the idea of doing a catalog of some sort for some time, but never seeing how, moneywise, it was going to make sense. Plus, how to buy in quantity for that, when you're going to be spending that kind of money to market it, I didn't know how to begin, to be quite honest. The idea of selling on the web appealed to me because I thought, once I learn how to change things myself, it would be very easy to make immediate changes, and I wouldn't have to worry about having one thing left in stock out of all the things in my catalog that went out to however many people. That was one thing that made it doable, plus, of course, the initial expenses - much MUCH less!  (laugh)

I live in a small town, only about 15 thousand people, and what I sell is really specialized,  so even though I've had a pretty good response from the local community, it hasn't really been enough to justify trying to work exclusively from a "real" storefront alone. I needed to expand my customer base in an economic manner.

Q. What were your goals when you started out?

Ruth: Well, what happened was that last July, the associate I shared a storefront with had to move, we were at the end of our lease anyway, and I wasn't able to find anyone who was willing to share it with me, and I knew I couldn't do it by myself. So I wound up switching completely to the Internet, not knowing what was going to happen (laugh). Eventually I did find another merchant to who was willing to display and sell my stuff in his store, and that has worked out pretty well, it allows me to continue to cater to my local customers, who do really like my stuff.

Anyway, I knew I had to get a shopping cart system, once I found out about them. The only orders I had been getting from my website were special orders, it was never the stuff I had shown on my site. I was being forced to place special orders from my suppliers in Germany, which is okay to a certain extent, but it wasn't helping me move the stuff I've already invested in. So by September, I was desperately looking for something to convert my site into a much easier way for people to be able to order what is actually there.

Q. How easy was it to set up and integrate e-commerce into your existing website?

Ruth: I'm computer-literate, but I'm not web development literate by any stretch of the imagination, so I initially had someone else put together my site for me. It was for my store, and I was trying to sell stuff, but it was not a shopping cart system - it was purely pictures, descriptions, prices, and e-mail me.

I had found some places on the web that did e-commerce, but they were a little more money than I wanted to try right then, and I didn't know how it would work, or even if I could do it, to be honest. They didn't offer a month free to try it or anything like that. I basically tore apart my original webpages to put the description and pictures on the shopping cart pages. I wanted one or two webpages with general information with links to my store. As I get more adept at HTML, I want to build more on my regular site, to get more informational and give more to my customers, to keep visitors coming back to my site.
 
Q. How does selling online differ from selling in the 'real' world?

Ruth: It is very rewarding. The way I do business on the Internet,  I've had people come back to me after something has arrived and say, "I've never ordered anything over the Internet before, and I never expected such wonderful, personal  service - thank you for this great first experience!"  Then, of course, I have their e-mail address, so these are customers that I can now target with very personalized emails saying,  'I hope you enjoyed (whatever it is they've bought)', and telling them about upcoming things. I've done that, sent out these personalized emails, and I've had people come back to me saying "Thanks for reminding me! I really appreciate you getting back to your old customers!" People are much more inclined to respond to a personalized email than to a postcard.

Q. What specific marketing efforts/techniques do you employ to increase your online sales?

Ruth: I have ads in magazines, I regularly take out classifieds in German-interest publications with my URL in them. I use proper meta tags and submit regularly to the search engines, and I use a service called Website Garage to check my search engine rankings. I also put my domain name on all my emails and brochures.

I'm making my site more interactive, more interesting, giving people other reasons to come to my site. I am collecting some of the legends and stories that go with my products, like nutcrackers for instance, there's a story behind them, where they came from. To give some of the historical legend, the stuff behind the stuff. So someone who is searching for the historical information would find it and then "Hmmm! That's a neat nutcracker! Let me go look at that!" That kind of idea. These are all projects for this year. Another thing is an exchange of links with other sites.

Q. What effect does having the ability to shop via your website have on your walk-in customers?

Ruth: A lot of tourists come to Marietta, so part of my customer base are tourists, and when they go home again, I sometimes get a phone call asking for something, but then I try to describe it to them over the phone (laugh)... now I can tell them, "I have something similar to what you're talking about on my website", and they can not only look at the item, but they can order it right there and I will ship it to them. It helps me extend my relationship with my walk-in customer.

They initially see me in my business in Marietta, and then they go home, and they may not be very far away, maybe just to Zanesville, that's 60 miles away - but even so, 60 miles is 60 miles, and coming down just to get some candles from me, you know, that's a walk. So my website has helped me in that respect.

Q. What are some of the advantages to you, as a merchant, in making your goods available online? Any disadvantages or pitfalls?

Ruth: The much broader customer base. Increased sales, being able to move my existing inventory, extending my relationship with my walk-in customers. But for me, the biggest thing, being in a town of 15, 16 thousand people, is the broader customer base.

Q. What, if anything, surprised you about selling online?

Ruth: To my utter amazement, it was the fact that people suddenly started sending orders! (laugh) Even I have felt funny about ordering stuff online, putting in my credit card number to a company I had never heard of before. I've only done it myself with companies that I've already done business with before, and they tended to be software companies where you know you're going to get the stuff right away. It was slow getting started, but I started getting orders and I was like "Wow! This is amazing! I can't believe it!"

Another thing that surprised me was, you hear about more men being on the web than women, but at the end of Christmas, the orders were exactly 50/50. I found that surprising.

Q. How easily did WebCommerce fit in with your existing business practices?

Ruth: It has expanded them in many ways. One of the things that I think is important, besides the summation that is automatically sent of an order, is that once I get the order, I can email the customer letting them know how I shipped it, and the tracking number, things like that. And I've gotten a lot of great immediate responses! The difference is that I'm at my computer or my telephone, instead of at my storefront - and that means I'm at home, in my fluffy sweater or my nightgown. I get to work when *I* want to work! (laugh)

Q. What advice would you offer to someone who wants to open a WebCommerce store?

Ruth: Buy a scanner! If you're not going to buy a digital camera, you have to have decent pictures of your products scanned in. A scanner is much cheaper than a digital camera (laugh).

Q. What marketing advice would you offer to a new web merchant?

Ruth: Personalize your site. I always have my email as ruth@christkindlmarkt-inc.com, people send me email as 'Dear Ruth', they have a person to talk to, it's more personable. Having a picture of yourself on your site, or where you are, people know you're a real place, not just a garage.

It does take time - don't expect results immedieatly. Having said that, however, it isn't like it's going to take six months, necessarily. You have to give it a little time, and you have to keep working it. Find your niche, and then let other people in that niche area know, and then go for it!

You can visit Ruth's online store at Christkindlmarkt-inc.com.

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