A case study of Todd county E-mall
By Seahee Lee
John and Ellen Peters, the founders and owners of Todd county e-mall, got an idea of E-business when they traveled through central Minnesota. They found out that people in Todd County had very good products and they liked the people there. John knew that he would like to work with nice people and he could provide a wide outlet for artisans in Todd County to sell their products and for more consumers to have better items. He spent almost all his adult life in the city but he moved to the central Minnesota in the fall of 2002 from Minneapolis. Todd County e-mall started up in the fall of 2002. The e-mall is run by him and his wife, Ellen Peters. The e-mall is not his primary job. He is working as a consultant supporting computer users. Before he moved to Todd County, he also worked in the computer industry. Therefore, he has been an expert on using computers.
The Internet is the primary place for Todd County e-mall. It is not a supporting means of brick and mortar store. It only has a web store. Todd County e-mall is similar to the virtual community model (e-mall). According to Tetteh and Burn, there are three different online business models; virtual face, virtual alliance, and virtual community. Virtual community is a large collection of firms in the online market, including other stakeholders such as customers and government agencies. Participant enterprises can concentrate on selling their products. On the other hand, clients are offered a one-stop access to a wide range of goods and services at reduced prices due to the relatively low cost associated with marketing and distribution channel management for the vendors. John also mentioned,
“The mall was created in the fall of 2002. It offers virtual "floor space" to creative people in Todd County and the surrounding area. We are allowing these people web access and advertising, so they can join together to create an affordable outlet for their products. By doing this, we can reduce the costs for the customer while giving them access to unique items.”
He finds artisans in central Minnesota. He said generally he can cover five counties to put in the mall. In order to find artisans, he visits trade fairs, handing out flyers and newspapers in the local area. He uses the advertisements for artisans but it only spreads out five counties to put in the mall. In many cases, word of mouth has also worked. Along with e-mall, local artisans also sell their products in stores. But they are not identical because the products on Todd County e-mall are creative handcraft products. For many local artisans but not all, they use Todd County e-mall as the primary selling place. The local artisans do not own brick and mortar stores, some sell from their houses. Once he contracts with artisans, he provides virtual selling spaces for them. John gets a commission of 6 percent to 25 percent depending on the product prices. Most of the time he designs websites for them. In some cases suppliers provide pictures. Some of the suppliers don’t provide pictures because they don’t know how to do it. As Kim and Eom found customer satisfaction is in the quality of pictures. Because web customers cannot touch or try the products out, they have to rely on pictures and product description.
John and Ellen are responsible for shipping, handling of returned merchandise, and customer services. The buyer pays shipping costs. To ship the merchandise, John goes to the artisans, picks up the merchandise and has UPS pick it up at his home. Sometimes the suppliers ships the merchandise, but what obtains the UPS packing slip from John and puts it in the envelope and send it off. When the customers want to return merchandise, they send it to Todd County e-mall, not the supplier. If they return within 30days, he gives a full refund, but the buyer pays for the shipping. On the website, store policy and information can be found. Customer complaints are also taken by John and Ellen.
On the Todd County e-mall, there are currently 11 stores and with the number of stores growing constantly. When entering the website, there are illustrations of buildings that represent each of the 11 stores. Examples of the stores are the Amish shop, Photos by Barb, Swan River, Coffee quilt, and etc. Once you click on one of the shops, you will see the products. Categories of products are listed on the left side of the homepage. John used categories of the products instead of the name of the store. Customers can move from one store to another easily using the category list. There are pages of ‘About the e-mall’, ‘About the Todd County’, ‘Stories and Values’, and ‘History and Points of Interest’. On the mall information pages, there are pictures of central Minnesota and a business information paragraph.
“No this picture is not our Mall. This is a virtual Mall. But the picture does represent some of the unique sites of our area. We strive to give you access to the products of some of the most creative people in Central Minnesota.”
“I hope that whether you produce wonderful products or wish to view and buy these products, that you will have an enriching experience by coming here. If you live in a city, I hope we can portray what it is like in rural Central Minnesota.”
In addition, he shows his relationship with the community explaining that he provides virtual floor for non profit organization. There is also a section about Todd County. Kim and Eom suggested the factors that would affect online customer satisfaction in the article “Designing effective cyber store user interface”. One of the four factors is “additional information availability”. Additional information includes information regarding the online store itself and product promotions which they hope will help improve trust between shoppers and retailers. According to Kim and Eom, providing store information (company history, mission statement, location, etc.) is important because customers want to know with whom they are dealing and to whom they are sending credit card information.
He spends five to six hours a day on the Internet. Although he is an expert on the computer, sales and managing the company on the web are completely different compared to his previous career. He wouldn’t have a business without the Internet so the Internet contributes 100 percent to his success. He uses email a lot to communicate with vendors and suppliers as well as customers. Other than communication with customers and suppliers using email, he updates data and pictures for the mall. Included in the updating of the web page are pricing, upcoming sales, and group discounts. . He also keeps a customer database. Currently 20% of his customers are purchasers. He advertises the Todd County e-mall using several search engines. He tries to link the e-mall to the right place. Website design is the least problem for him but he said finding proper linking in the search engines is a challenge.
“Getting the proper linking in the search engines would be most effective and time consuming and you don’t necessarily want to link people to your websites if they are not going to buy because it costs money. Figuring out the proper keywords and hitting the proper search characters to verify your customers are important. That is more than technique aspects.”
John recommends that small business owners who are considering using the Internet in their business do not underestimate the amount of time it takes to promote the message in order to get the target customers. He also would recommend the similar business, virtual community, in different small cities. He thinks it would work in another area and it would be better if it is a type of cooperative. However, he emphasized the importance of personal contact with artisans. In his case, the most he can reach out personally is about five counties, about 3 to 4 hours drive.
As John mentioned on the website, he can sit back and reflect on what life should be in the rural area. He tries to share the values and life in rural area and to provide the products from people who have these values and life. He provides beautiful and innovative products for people that can use and appreciate well crafted items made with heart and conscientious effort with lower cost. The customers can get these benefits from Todd County e-mall.