This is a story about how One Click Ventures became one of the fastest growing companies in Indiana.
One Click Ventures (OCV) started out as a man and wife team (Randy and Angie Stocklin) in their Greenwood, Indiana home with $20,000 in 2005. They now own a portfolio of niche retail websites, including SunglassWarehouse.com, HandbagHeaven.com and Scarves.net, which brought $5.3 million in revenue 2011 alone.
In 2006, the couple acquired SunglassWarehouse.com. In 2007, One Click moved to a 1,000-square-foot facility in Greenwood, Indiana. That same year, Randy and Angie hired their first full-time worker. By 2008, the Hoosier company expanded into a 4,000-square-foot facility (still in Greenwood), and two more affordable fashion brands were acquired: HandbagHeaven.com and Readers.com.
OCV grew quickly, eventually touting nine online brands in the affordable fashion and travel product industries. By 2012, the One Click team moved into a 68,000-square-foot facility in Greenwood. All of One Click’s team operates in-house, with people in marketing, technology, merchandising, customer happiness, business intelligence, order fulfillment and human relations. (Wikipedia)
According to the OCV About page, Randy and Angie Stocklin are, “Looking ahead, One Click has the team and infrastructure in place to significantly scale-up its audience, customers, and revenues. One Click will continue to aggressively grow the company by acquiring, developing and managing Internet properties.” They do this by leveraging their team and their group of brands.
You can get a sense for what systems and technology they are using by reviewing their job ads. For example, they use X-cart for their shopping cart. They have a “Content Team, Tech Team, Customer Experience, and other OCV departments.” They use Google Analytics and focus on customer retention and lifetime value. They use “ESP automation and database tools” (ESP stands for “email service provider”). They compute GMROII (Gross Margin Return on Inventory Investment).
You can also get a sense for their marketing strategy by looking at what each brand is doing online. For example, they use email marketing (and have a full-time Email Marketing Specialist), design custom landing pages. They put links to their social media, shipping times, email specials, and help/chat/contact in the very top of every page. They have a “Free Shipping [when/if]” on every page along with their phone number. They use credit card logos, BBB logo, a Bizrate log, and a Paypal logo at the bottom of every page.
You can get some real insight from previewing OCV’s Team page and Brand page to get a feel for what type of team you’d like your e-commerce company to have and how to manage multiple brands through one organization. I’ve attempted to build multiple brands under one organization so I know this is not an easy feat to undertake and manage, but OCV seems to do it with ease. Randy and Angie Stocklin are two of my e-Commerce Heroes that I look up to a lot. Thank you for being such great examples for our community.