The DownRiver Group © 1998 – 2009
SEO, web design, applications, site execution and maintenance for business, arts, and commercial applications.
How WE Got Web Presence!
Maybe some have just “naturally” got Web Presence…
we got our web presence the old-fashioned way. We worked hard at it until we got “lucky” with web presence.
In 1997 DownRiver was a growing antiques business. We had moved from a street side garage shop into 1200 sq ft. of storefront in a revitalized New England town…well, it was being revitalized around us, with the main thoroughfare being ripped out and all the sewer, water & telecommunications infrastructure being replaced the 1st summer after we opened our doors!
None the less, a clientele avidly seeking and acquiring fine quality antiques and collectibles found their way into our new shop, “as if by magic”.
Before we moved in we had also heard that “no one goes to that small town” and “they residents are too low class for your wares” and other such stories…
Some months later we were opening a second store and watching the sales increased every month! We weren’t all that surprised, though. if you have a clientele, know what product they like, know more than the average bear about the product they like and give that clientele a proper venue, they’ll be more than happy to buy from you.
Of course, they have to know that you exist and how to find you, easily.
Then, in 1998, the world started an abrupt transformation and the term “Ebay” was popping from everyones’ mouth. The race was on and the online marketplace blossumed along with the general expansion of the tech bubble.
One result was that many of the ‘group shops”(like ours) saw a migration of space-renting dealers away from corporeal venues and to eBay…for we shop owners that counted on rental revenue it was “game over”.
Except for those of us that had the product knowledge, inventory and a handle on the technology. We went with the crowd and were suddenly selling items, that had been gathering dust for months, in the matter of days and at multiples of the previously tagged price!
Of course, there was the joy of packing & shipping and the newest class of scammer to contend with but every business model has it’s challenges.
In order to get a leg up on the competition we began delving into the coding, the backbone of this new medium known as the internet and began applying that knowledge to our auction in order to lower the bidding bar for prospects and make our wares more attractive.
That some of us had actual formal training in computer programming(specifically for business applications, to boot) made matters that much easier.
From there, the magic of creating venues with a series of “0s” and “1s” and the collapse of the antiques and collectibles market led us to using that magic to create other revenue streams, for ourselves and for others(we’ve even found another “eBay model” that actually works rather well.
Contact us to find out more about how we can help you pull money from your internet, rather than just feeding money into it.
