Merchant Spotlight: Coastal Business Supplies

In 1990, Andy Pickering and Mona Roth decided to start a company that was dedicated to selling supplies to the Quick Print Marketplace. The original business plan called for reaching their customers by direct mail, trade shows, and telemarketing, but as the business grew and technology improved, the approach to reaching the marketplace changed. Customers were now searching the internet for suitable venders, so in 2003, Coastal Business Supplies, Inc. took the next step towards enhancing their business and created an e-commerce storefront. "MonsterConmmerce was originally chosen because they are a local company," says Coastal Business employee Keith Abert of the two company's proximity to St. Louis. "We started with MC when they had just a handful of employees and have enjoyed watching them emerge as one of the top e-commerce providers in the country."

Keith credits Network Solutions' search engine optimization (SEO) services with much of Coastal Business Supplies' e-commerce success. "We did an SEO campaign years ago that helped our website move up the rankings at the major search engines and showed us how to build a strong content page." Coastal Business Supplies also benefits from the forums that are open to all MonsterCommerce users. "Most SEO techniques that we use have come from the MonsterSmallBusiness Forums. From how to start a website to website design reviews to SEO techniques, just about anything that is related to running an online business can be found on the forums."

"As a result of our relationship with MC," says Keith, "our e-commerce site has allowed us to significantly expand our product offerings and become an industry leader in supplying products to the Imprinted Sportswear and Custom Gifts market. Our web site produces hundreds of orders per day and has converted our telemarketers to customer service representatives that handle the influx of phone calls generated by our site. With e-commerce, there is no limit to what we can sell."