BUSINESS OF THE WEEK: THE RED GIRAFFE, BABY BOOM

La Crosse Tribune, Nov 18, 2002 by Cahalan, Steve

ONALASKA, Wis. - Four years after Jill Swanson opened The Red Giraffe, women about to have their second or third child are returning as repeat customers. And they're finding the business has grown.

"The first thing we hear is 'You have so much more stuff,' " Swanson said. The store at 990 12th Ave. S. in Onalaska has a much larger inventory today - not that the inventory was small when it opened.

When The Red Giraffe opened, it carried baby and toddler items such as cribs, strollers, car seats, breast-feeding equipment, bedding and educational toys.

It still carries those and other items for young children. And last year, it expanded into items for teens - such as bunk beds, lamps, banks and pictures. "I felt it was a need that wasn't being met in this area," Swanson said of her decision to add items for teens.

Today, the store has eight employees including Swanson, compared with four when it opened. That's because annual sales increased 40 percent from 1999 to 2001.

Sales have increased partly because of the store's Internet site - www.theredgiraffe.com - which made its debut in fall 2000. Some people who buy items online live in the area.

"They know us and trust us and our judgment, and can't just come up here the day after they come home from the hospital," Swanson said.

Swanson said her business is making online sales to customers throughout the United States.

"We are a bricks-and-mortar store," unlike some online retailers that don't have a storefront, she said. "There are people who search for that - they have increased comfort with that," Swanson said. "If something's wrong, they have a place to call."

Today, online sales account for about 5 percent of The Red Giraffe's business, she estimated. That has increased from less than 1 percent the first year.

Most of The Red Giraffe's customers live within 50 miles of the store.

Swanson said her employees are knowledgeable and pay attention to customers. "Customer service is our forte," she said. "My goal is to have people leaving here say 'Wow, I haven't been treated like that in 10 years.' "

Swanson said she also works to change the common perception that specialty stores have higher prices than other stores. "That is not how things are," she said. "We try to have the lowest price every day."

Swanson recently started a related business, White Ibis LLC, which in September introduced its first product totshots. That is a package of 8- by 10-inch paper cards, each featuring attractive graphics and listing a different age, ranging from 1 week to 1 year old. Parents take a photo of their infant next to the appropriate card, to illustrate how old the child was when the photo was taken.

"It's been very well-received," Swanson said of the photo growth tracking cards. She sells them at The Red Giraffe, and also has started supplying them to other specialty baby stores in the United States and Canada. White This also will develop other products.

Swanson said the sales volume at her store peaks in May and June, and business is slowest in November and December. "People are out buying (Christmas) gifts for people at this time of year," she said. "So they'll hold off buying (baby) necessities like cribs and strollers."

Because of that, Swanson has learned to change the store's product mix from October through December. "We carry more gift items like rocking chairs, rocking horses, and more toys and toy boxes" at this time of year, Swanson said. Parents, grandparents and friends will buy those as Christmas gifts.

Another business, Expecting More Maternity, is in the same building as The Red Giraffe and sells maternity apparel and accessories. The two businesses complement each other, Swanson said. Peggy Westerveld and Joan Hauser opened Expecting More Maternity in October 1998.

Swanson's husband, Derek, helps at The Red Giraffe but is busy operating his own company, Swanson Realty. It provides commercial and residential property management services. The Swansons have two children - their son, Dallin, is 21 months old, and daughter, Joely, is 7 months old.

Jill Swanson, 32, grew up on the North Side of La Crosse and graduated from Luther High School in Onalaska. She received a bachelor's degree in accounting from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.

She worked for The Trane Co. in La Crosse for two years before she left to start The Red Giraffe. "I always wanted to own my own business," she said.

While flying into San Antonio, Texas, on a Trane business trip, Swanson spotted a baby superstore from the air. "I said we don't have anything like that around here," she recalled. She began researching whether the La Crosse area could support a baby specialty store and decided it could. THE RED GIRAFFE

* WHAT: A store that sells products for children, from babies to teens.

* WHERE: At 990 12th Ave. S. in the Oak Forest Plaza retail development in Onalaska, Wis.

* WHO: Jill Swanson owns the store.

* HOURS: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.