E-tail therapy: if you're getting sick of the same old business ideas, then it's time to go online. The robust e-commerce market is hotter than ever, and it just may be the cure for what ails you

Entrepreneur, Jan, 2005 by Heather Clancy

Cushcity.com, named for the biblical figure Cush, offers what Richardson claims is the internet's widest selection of African-American-centric products, from books to calendars to toys. She started the venture with her husband, Willie, 56, when she found it difficult to find books for their daughter.

The last three years have been rough, and the Richardsons' business--expected to generate $1.5 million in 2005--hasn't grown as fast as Gwen would have liked. She says most of the mistakes made in the business resulted from her lack of previous retail experience. For one thing, Gwen initially invested in too much inventory; she has since learned to stock only the most popular items. Many of Cushcity.com's 34,000 customers actually pick up the phone when they order, and the staff takes that opportunity to find out what's hot. "They like to talk, and we listen," Gwen says. "The fact that we take calls and talk to our customers has really saved us money."

Cushcity.com's biggest puzzle right now is a technical one. When the Richardsons created the site in 1998 with about 700 items, they opted to use an application called Bookware, designed for bookstores. Now Cushcity.com's inventory has ballooned to more than 20,000 products. Although the Richardsons want to add what are now considered to be standard e-commerce features, such as letting a customer log in to his or her account to make a quick purchase or check order status, they are faced with doing this through custom programming. Gwen says that's because many off-the-shelf e-commerce software packages can't support the number of products Cushcity.com carries.

Another issue for the Richardsons: The way most other software programs create product pages could entail a complete overhaul of the way their site is designed and, as a result, could hurt their search page rankings. Cushcity.com doesn't plan to move its site to different software for the time being, although Willie is evaluating its options, which include looking to outside experts who can build new functionality into the existing technology.

MAKING YOUR MARKET

Gwen isn't sure she wants to risk hurting the company's profile on search engines. That's because online marketing experts believe that, hands down, that's the most important place for an e-commerce entrepreneur to build visibility.

"It's probably the best and easiest way to start," says Jason Cohen, founder and CEO of MediaWhiz, an online performance marketing company in New York City. "Most of the search engines are offering tools you can use to track the results; you can start to measure the effectiveness."

Cohen suggests you start by submitting site information via paid search services, which allow companies to "bid" on terms they want to associate with their websites. The more money you're willing to pay for a certain word, the higher the visibility your site will receive on the list of options presented after someone enters a search query. Upward of 90 percent of paid search traffic is related to Overture, a service provided by Yahoo!, and the Google search site, Cohen says. "The more targeted words are better," he advises. "And you want to be straightforward in your descriptions about what you're promoting."