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Becker Surf & Sport credits its Web site with carrying it through a tough year

Dave Hollander, president of surfwear retailer Becker Surf & Sport, says he never thought his online store would be the thing to get his business over a hump,until now.

“It has fully saved me this year,” Hollander said. “We’ve had quite a downturn the last couple of months in our particular retail (segment), and we have never been down. It has made up all the numbers we’ve lost.”

Hollander declined to give specific revenue figures. But he said the site he launched four years ago, www.Beckersurf.com, is now a “leveling tool” for his business, making it one of a few retail sites in the industry to hold its own.

One online hopeful, extreme sports retailer Hardcloud.com, closed down its operations in San Clemente and San Francisco in October. And struggling Redwood City-based online sports apparel seller Fogdog.com was bought last fall by Global Sports Inc. of King of Prussia, Penn.

Another player, San Juan Capistrano-based Swell.com, does e-commerce, but primarily serves as a surfing portal. Doug Palladini, executive vice president, says Swell.com averages about 600,000 unique visitors per month,mainly drawn to the site for surf updates, weather conditions, forecasts and live surf cams.

Hollander said one reason Becker has persevered in e-commerce is that it already has the inventory it sells online. The company operates stores in Corona del Mar, Mission Viejo, Hermosa Beach and Malibu as well as a Torrance warehouse. A fifth 3,600-square-foot store is set to open in Huntington Beach within the next few months.

“We didn’t have to guess how many Ezekial T-shirts we could sell, they’re already in our stores,” Hollander said.

Hollander’s Torrance-based Becker Surf is one of OC’s leading surfwear retailers, along with Anaheim-based Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. and Huntington Surf & Sport and Jack’s Surfboards, both in Huntington Beach.

Tony Cherbak, a retail analyst in the consumer products group at Deloitte & Touche LLP’s Costa Mesa office, said brick-and-mortar retailers with online plays such as Becker and Pacific Sunwear have a leg up on rivals.

“It has been proven that the Web sites that have been successful are the ones associated with brick-and mortar retailers, which have a presence and have built their own brands,” Cherbak said.

Becker said he’s investing more money into the dot-com side of his business. Beckersurf.com carries about 2,000 products from top industry players such as Huntington Beach-based Quiksilver Inc. and Costa Mesa-based Hurley International. It also averages about 1.2 million page views and 200,000 unique visitors per month, according to Hollander.

Increased online business led Becker to open a 6,300-square-foot warehouse in Torrance in January to store products,65% of online orders are filled at the warehouse and 35% come from stores. Becker also recently hired a San Diego Web design firm, Deltyme Corp., to redesign the site.

The project, expected to cost around $50,000, will equip Beckersurf.com with a customized shopping cart, which links with inventory in “real time” so the company can manage and track orders more efficiently, according to Hollander.

Each store will have a high-speed Internet terminal, where employees can read and fill orders for daily pickups, Hollander said.

“We’ve learned that there is no way at all you could ever predict what you’re going to sell over the Internet,” he said. “These orders come in from London to Torrance to Portland. That’s where other guys have had such a hard time. They’re guessing what they’re going to sell and they’re warehousing into that. And they’re getting caught.”

Hollander, a surfboard builder who wasn’t a “computer guy,” said he and his employees spent four years working their “butts off” to get the site to “purr and click.”

Beckersurf.com, which Hollander said is profitable, averages about 6.5 page views per visit, which is more than quadruple what the industry averages, he said.

“You either have to pay a whole lot of money or just pay your dues,” he said. “That’s what any successful business is about: paying your dues. We’ve done it by hard work and honesty instead of big checks and hoping.”

Becker hasn’t advertised the site until recently. Instead, Hollander said word was spread through networking, chat rooms and word of mouth. Now Becker is using revenue from ad banners to market the site, Hollander said.

“Now I’ve got this perpetual cash machine to run the promotion for my site, which drives more traffic and makes my banners even more attractive,” Hollander said.

Beckersurf.com is likely to continue drawing visitors because the company spent time in the early days building a strong brand and following, according to Cherbak.

“As long as their Web site has functionality and they’re able to deliver orders on a timely basis at a value price, they’ll have their following,” he said.

Hollander has tried to apply some of Becker’s in-store merchandising tactics to the site.

Apparel images on the site are so large, people can “taste it and feel it,” he said. And the site’s selection constantly changes, with 20 pieces posted and 20 others taken off each day.

“It makes it fun to watch and that’s why we get so much repeat business,” Hollander said.

The site also features sections for Quiksilver and other big names, as well as links for music, contests and company information.

Hollander said e-commerce is “a lot more fun than playing straight retail after 20 years,” but would flop if he cut corners. He called online discounting “the kiss of death” and said he refuses to delve into online trade wars, which has occurred in other industries.

“Everybody beats themselves down to zero profit,” Hollander said. “Believe me, there’s a cost of doing business here.” n

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