Merchant Spotlight: Ultimate Keychains

Q: The story of how you acquired this site is an interesting one. Will you explain how you became involved in this site and selling keychains online?

James K. Dalton, Jr.: Selling keychains online was certainly not a business venture I imagined getting into at any point in my life. However, it was my daughter who originally owned the website for some time while she was in college. As she moved into a full-time job, from time to time she would ask me if I could assist her in running the online store. As time moved on, she was relying on me more and more and I actually enjoyed the change of pace (I am a Die Maker by day). After a few months, my daughter decided to turn the business over to me while she focused on the beginning of her career.

Q: What have been your biggest challenges running an online store?

James: Well as I said, I am a Tool & Die Maker by day, so in the very beginning my experience with the internet was limited to understanding how email works. I had and still continue to have a huge learning curve when it comes to how the internet works, let alone how to run a business online. I have been doing a lot of research on my own about PPC, SEO, and HTML and have begun to understand at least the basics of those concepts and putting them into practice. Luckily, the store has a pretty good foundation of traffic and rankings that I was not completely starting from scratch.

I still struggle with finding ways to consistently drive sales and ensuring that UltimateKeychains.com has good visibility in search. While the ecommerce software is relatively easy to use, I still have gaps in my own technical knowledge to understand how to accomplish some design and even content changes on my store. It is a challenge going into an online business without having the faintest idea what a payment gateway or SEO refers to, but I have enjoyed learning.

Q: What are some interesting facts about keychains that you learned while running this business?

James: Manufacturers make key chains of just about anything. I have been surprised and amused by the number of different things that are manufactured in keychain form. There are keychains for everything ranging from Snow White, Shrek, Napoleon Dynamite, and other figurines to classic board games and toys like Mr. Potato Head, Monopoly, Clue, Twister and Fisher Price toys. There are useful keychains as well like mini-tool keychains and mini tape measures. It is simply amazing the wide variety of key chains that are available which is why I see a lot of people buy them as gifts. It seems that I carry at least one keychain that is perfect for someone on your gift list.

Q: What is your best selling keychain or keychain category?

James: In general our board game keychains are consistently top sellers. I think there is some intrigue or amusement of the idea of having a miniature version of Battleship or Candy Land right there on your key ring. Plus, they are really fun to play with I know because I test all of my products before selling them. Some specific keychains do really well like our mini tool set and tape measure and other novelty key chains like the Etch a Sketch and Rubber Chicken.

Q: Has the market for keychains changed at all in the last few years? Do you foresee any other shifts in the market in the next few years?

James: The product mix has definitely evolved and continually changes with what is popular at the time. While there are some staple products like the board games, many of the other novelty keychains shift with what is going on in pop culture at the time. As a result, you have a revolving inventory of products that you have to monitor what is hot at the time and ensure you are stocking the right products to meet demand, a demand that shifts with any new movie, game, or TV show. So, in terms of the product mix and the nature of my product line, it will continually shift and coincide with what is currently hot in pop culture. My job is to make sure that I am buying enough of what is selling and not too much of what isnt.

Another thing that has shifted along with the product mix is the availability of suppliers and manufacturers. In just the few short years I have been running this store, I have seen a number of manufacturers shut down and a few new ones pop up. It is a bit different than what I expected because for the most part, manufacturers of core products in other industries tend to stay somewhat stable with a few big players in the market. This has made it difficult for me in the past to acquire some of the top selling products but it has also opened up entirely new product lines.

Q: Who are your typical customers?

James: The majority of our sales come from two distinct customer types, the gift buyer and the bulk buyer. More frequently we get smaller orders from people looking to purchase gifts for loved ones for birthdays and other special occasions. It just so happens that the gift buyers also tend to be mostly mothers and grandmothers purchasing for their family members.

The other large demographic that we serve are the buyers who are looking for keychains in bulk either for a company fundraiser, special event, or any other occasion you could imagine. Weve sold mini-tape measures to groups of carpenters, Etch a Sketch keychains to kindergarten classes, and graduation caps for a high school class.