Bellevue Business: Adventures in E-Commerce

With online shopping becoming a normal part of many people’s everyday lives, from books, to furniture, to groceries, Bellevue businesses continue to grapple with how an online store fits with their own business models.

Interviews with a few Eastside businesses show both the rewards and pitfalls handling the balance between their physical companies and their virtual storefronts.

The local, virtual touch

Bel Fiore, for example, is a year-old fashion accessory business venture by Bellevue-native Jaclyn Schwartz O’Connor, who has recently added an online store to augment her wholesale business.

Bel Fiore products are sold in businesses throughout the Eastside, including several salons in Bellevue.

Bel Fiore launched as a wholesaler after Schwartz O’Connor started making handmade headbands and hair ties for her two small daughters.

Schwartz O'Connor, who now lives in Snoqualmie, says she launched the online store in response to customer demand by people who wanted to be able to buy directly from her rather than having to find a physical location to pick up their favorite headbands or hair ties.

“So far we’ve had really good response,” she said of the six-week-old online store, which is bringing in between five and 30 orders a day.

Schwartz O'Connor says she feels lucky that her husband, who works in marketing, had the computer skills to completely set up her online store.

“It’s been an easy transition for me because I didn’t have to do anything,” Schwartz O’Connor said.

However, success online means having to be prepared with her products -- all made by hand.

What she has done to prepare for a possible large increase in orders, however, is make her products like there’s no tomorrow, she says.

“I have a stockpile of about 15,000,” Schwartz O’Connor says, adding that she sews all day every day.

Becuase her products are made by hand, Schwartz O’Connor said that growth is her business' main challenge, and she said it’s her goal to keep production of the handmade accessories local, hiring individuals to help her if necessary rather than shifting production to a manufacturer.

Brick-to-pixel learning experience

Boutique chocolatier launched its online store to complement its Bellevue shop a couple of years ago, says Brenda Archuletta, who owns the business with her husband.

Archuletta, who opened the business with her husband about eight years ago, says she’s had mixed results and that operating an online store has been a learning experience.

She says that online has been helpful in driving people to walk into her physical business at 10149 1/2 Main Street, but that sales from their own website traffic have been mixed.

“Online reviews really get us more business,” than the online store itself, she says, especially with the growing popularity of review websites like Yelp and Urbanspoon.

But growing online has come with growing pains, she said.

Archuletta says that as a small business owner-operator, it’s sometimes difficult to manage all the social media and Internet because she keeps very busy with making chocolate and managing the day-to-day-operations of the business.

Another challenge of the online side of the business is the difficulty of shipping chocolates out of the area in the summer, unless customers are willing to pay for overnight shipping. (Shipping is less of an issue when the weather is milder than in the hot summer.)

But despite the challenges, Amoré haven't given up on online sales. Archuletta says Amoré is in the process of having its website redesigned -- for the third time -- to make it more functional for customers and to promote more of its specialty products, such as dairy-free and vegan items.

“We offer more than 100 items, including 50 – 80 truffles, and currently only about 20 of them are on the website,” she said.

Brick-and-mortar as an add-on

, on the other hand, is in exactly the opposite position, says co-owner Michael Magnotti. Originally launched in 2006 as an all-online jewelry store, Weston is preparing to open a small showroom in Bellevue, because many of its local online customers have asked if they could come and see the vintage pieces the business sells before buying.

“We’ve been hesitant,” to open a retail location, Magnotti says, “but people have been beating down the door wanting to see the items.”

Particularly, he says, local buyers would like to view the vintage engagement rings Weston sells before making a decision. The retail location in Bellevue will open around October, but will be by appointment only, he says.

“If you’re in there, you’ll come in to see the ring you want, kind of like an in-person shopping cart,” he says.

However, pressure can go in the other direction as well. Magnotti said the online store has been so successful that if the retail location were to take away from managing the website rather than serving as a logical extension of it, the company would consider closing the its storefront, he said.