The Cliptomania Web Store Case Analysis

Running head: Case Analysis 2

The Cliptomania Web Store Case Analysis

Carrie Pressett

Regis University

Abstract

Cliptomania is a small, family owned business.  Cliptomania was able to be on the forefront of Internet marketing.  The Santos used a personal concept of clip on earrings to establish their own internet business.  They were able to establish their business using a small investment and Yahoo! Store.  The Santos family was able to establish a successful business through trial and error, while keeping the business small with a specific product.  The success of the business hedged on personal service and low to no overhead through e-commerce.  

The Cliptomania Web Store

Introduction/Summary

Cliptomia is a small internet startup company.  The Santos were able to invest $10,000 from their savings to begin their venture in internet sales.  Jim Santos began to research sales of jewelry and realized that there was no local market for clip-on earring.  Jim recognized that this might be a global issue and wanted to reach as many customers as possible.  Jim’s realization led to starting up the business through the internet with his wife Candy.

Candy and Jim had no previous experience with Web development or design.  Jim spent a lot of time and effort to setting up their website.  He determined that it was too expensive to build his own without paying money to an expert or through software packages.  The other alternative was using Yahoo! For a small fee as a host. Yahoo! provided templates and home pages that were easily accessible and used a shopping cart for their customers.

Billing was another issue that Jim was concerned with, he wanted to provide security for his customers as well as comfortable state of mind that their security was protected.  Luckily, Yahoo provided a service provided that could validate credit cards for his safety and protect the security of the customers.  Paymentech processed transactions, verified customer information, and payed Cliptomania’s bank account with all the transactions.  

Originally, Jim and Candy wanted to continue working while managing small sales in their spare time. The business continued to grow and more and more time was needed to be dedicated to Cliptomania.  Cliptomania become the 5th largest jewelry with a 5 star rating from Yahoo!.  The Santos began networking with other jewelry stores and was able to start and exclusive product line.   In order to facilitate the growth, Jim and Candy decided to move the business to their hometown of Indian.  Candy dedicated 100% of her time to the management and marketing of the business.

Problems began to arise as the internet came into development with sales and marketing.  Paymentech was charging additional fees per transaction.  Jim and Candy were able to set up a cheaper option through their personal bank.  Foreign sales were an option but there was too many issues with currency transition, language barriers, and shipping.  The Santos continued to keep the business small to be able to offer a more personal experience.     Ad campains began to gain popularity on websites as a way to advertise and make money.  Cliptomania  needed to make sure they had attractive ad campaigns to entice customers and monitor the “per click” ratios so that money was not lost.  Cliptomania needed to find a way to keep overhead to a minimum.  They tried to change their search engine to a cheaper option but lost popularity due to the dot com vs dot net.  The web business is dynamic and ever changing, Cliptomania needs to stay on top of popular trends and marketing to survive in the growing e-commerce business.