EHorseEquipment.com, the online retail arm of World Champion Horse Equipment, recently reported an increase of 82% in online sales in 2001 over 2000. Despite the economic recession, ehorseequipment.com followed suit with other national online shopping sites in reporting increases in online spending. For all of 2001, online spending by America Online’s U.S. members increased 67% to $33 billion, according to a survey done for America Online.
EHorseEquipment general manager, Jennifer Connelly stated “The increase in sales on our Web site exceeded our expectations and continued to beat projections even after the attacks of September 11. The re-design of our site in the fourth quarter of 2000 has played a significant role in our growth as has our increased marketing efforts designed specifically for our Web site.” Despite widespread concern after the September 11 attacks that online sales would be weak because of the tepid economy, e-commerce continues to surge and at a far more rapid pace than sales through department stores and other traditional venues.
The ease of shopping online has played a significant role in the growth of many online retailers including Amazon.com. “We really are at that point where this is a reliable mainstream way to shop,” Amazon spokesman Bill Curry said of online shopping. The ability for online retailers to store shipping and billing information has allowed checkout times on Web retailers to be significantly reduced. This ease of shopping with continued improvements in customer confidence has allowed growth in Web spending to far outgain the growth of conventional retail outlets.
EHorseEquipment.com has also been able to target its audience better with its capability to store customer information. “The ability to reach all of our customers with push email campaigns has allowed us to better market our unique product offerings,” stated Connelly. She continued, “We have been able to differentiate ourselves online in ways that are impossible in our brick and mortar retail store. We can offer unique online sales, feature new products, release product information and offer complementary products all within a matter of minutes.”
With its continued growth in online sales, EHorseEquipment.com has now staffed a full-time programmer to enhance the features of its site. “We want to continue to enhance our site to stay ahead of our competition and the addition of Travis Griffis makes this possible,” continued Connelly. “He allows us the added flexibility and time to better complement our retail sales with unique online offerings.”
World Champion Horse Equipment, along with its online retail outlet EHorseEquipment.com offers a complete line of tack and horse equipment. World Champion has a 10,000 square foot retail store in Shelbyville, Tenn. along with a complete manufacturing department in-house. The ability to offer its products through a retail facility, mail order and online has made World Champion an increasingly popular choice for equine enthusiasts. World Champion also takes its products to its customers with two tack trailers on the road at more than 100 horse events a year. During off-peak times of the year these trailers visit barns throughout the Southeastern United States to offer trainers the items they need at the barn.