Hershey Direct Tastes Sweet Success of Hersheygifts.com

Software Magazine, Dec, 2000 by Julie Lavallee

HERSHEY GIFTS EXPECTS the holidays to be pretty sweet this year. Thanks to a revamped Web site and outsourced management, and a partnership with Usinternetworking, Hershey Gifts expects hersheygifts.com to represent 25% of all Hershey Gifts catalog sales, says Carey Eisenhauer, Internet marketing manager for Hershey Direct. Hershey Gifts is the direct-to-customer specialty unit within Hershey Direct, a business unit of Hershey Foods Corp., Hershey, Pa.

Hershey's Gift Shop is managed by USinternetworking (USi), the application service provider (ASP) based in Annapolis, Md. Hersheygifts.com is hosted on a Compaq Proliant server running Windows NT. The site is powered by Microsoft's Site Server Commerce Edition 2000 and SQL Server 2000.

Hershey Direct chose USi as its ASP two years ago, based on USi's experience in building online catalogs, as well as its ability to offer an end-to-end solution. At the time, Hershey Direct needed to revamp its Web site from just an order-taking site to a marketing tool as well.

"It lacked personal features that we knew would be important to fit the growing demands of our customers," says Eisenhauer.

Hershey Direct conducted a search that included Web design houses as well as ASPs. "We looked at four other companies [in addition to Usi] and found that their portfolios were lacking; they didn't have the expertise and infrastructure that USi had," says Eisenhauer. "It was important for us to design and create a variety of services. We designed VIP sections, corporate customer gift lists, and holiday reminders. We knew USi would provide us with the management and minimal up-front cost investment."

Most recently, USi has assisted Hershey Gifts in the creation of Hershey's Office Candy, a hersheygifts.com product targeted at corporate customers.

Hersheygifts.com predicts its e-commerce success will remain "Good & Plenty" well after the New Year. "We also expect an advantage for the smaller holidays, such as Mother's and Father's Day," says Eisenhauer.