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Recession? Local Entrepreneur Gambles People Still Shop Online
Nov 06, 2009 (Grunion Gazette - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
Although retail has suffered along with other industries during the economic downturn, one Long Beach entrepreneur predicted that people wouldn't stop shopping.
Sukant Jain, founder and CEO of Venture Commerce, a full-service E-commerce business based in Signal Hill, said that during the past five years, instead of traveling to stores, more people are turning on their computers to shop online.
Venture Commerce assists established brands with their online presence through search engine optimization (SEO) and creates a Web site for each client that connects the brand with social media networks such as MySpace and Facebook.
Venture Commerce's services also include providing customer service for the brand's online store, supplying product photography, taking care of shipping and launching online promotions. Jain said Venture Commerce's business model allows the company to build a Web site for a client with no money upfront. The client only needs to provide inventory.
"Before we take on a brand, we do analysis to see what the brand's capability is with online sales," Jain said. "If we go on board, we have confidence the brand will have success."
A resident of Long Beach for 10 years, Jain said he was working for a telecommunications company in Irvine when the "dot com" bust happened after 2000.
Jain then started a consulting company called Visionaire that developed software, including an E-commerce product. In 2005, Venture Com-merce spun out of Visionaire as a separate company.
One of Jain's first clients was William Rast, the denim brand started in 2005 by pop singer Justin Timberlake and his business partner Trace Ayala. Darryn Barber, president and CFO of William Rast, said the brand has a strong presence on the Web, thanks in part to the site's store and social media links.
"MySpace has been a good way to reach our customer base too," Barber said. "Most customers are men and women between the ages of 20 and 40. We started out as jeans and added shirts, sweaters and jackets."
Jain said his company does not set a standard fee for its services, but it profits from a percentage of the clients' online sales. Currently, Venture Commerce's portfolio of 14 clients includes luxury fashion, accessory and beauty manufacturers, but Jain said he is considering expanding into the luxury home product market.
"We don't service retailers, but we have created an online product for them," Jain said. "We have started taking on some smaller brands and we're refining our business model."
Jain said E-commerce sales reached $25 billion this year nationwide and have been growing between 10% and 15% in recent years despite the economic climate.
"Many consumers are going online because it is an easier medium," Jain said. "They don't have to worry about the expense of gas and the time it takes to travel. Sales and promotions are easier to find online. And in stores, a brand can only showcase a portion of its line. Online, you can see all of the products."
Jain said Long Beach has served as an ideal location for the business because the warehouse is close to the Long Beach Airport for shipping products and the city is in between Los Angeles and Orange County.
For more information, visit www.venturecommerce.com.
To see more of the Grunion Gazette or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
http://www.gazettes.com/. Copyright (c) 2009, Grunion Gazette, Long Beach,
Calif. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints,
email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send
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