Dialed In (Tradecraft)

When I first started the store in 2004, I recall some odd conversations with friends. One friend, an executive at an Internet start up asked me:

"So you're going to sell video games?"

"No, it's hobby games."

"You're going to sell hobby games online?"

"No, just brick and mortar."

"And you've written some sort of system to optimize that?"

"No, customers come in, I tell them about a game, and they buy it."

(Blank stare)

Why anyone with an education and an IT background would want to engage in old fashioned brick and mortar was beyond his understanding. I get it. I was looking for a slower lifestyle. I expected to be like Mr. Olsen of Olsen's Mercantile on Little House on the Prairie. A slower life. I was so wrong about that, but that's another story. Bottom line though: The Internet and technology of the 21st Century would never allow a Mr. Olsen to exist without it.

The Internet and online sales existed before I had a store. I don't get to complain about the ecosystem that existed before me. I chose to exist in that reality. Still, there was constant tension and the worst was the inability to communicate with customers unless they were right in front of me.

My first couple of years, I created a mailing list and sent post cards of new releases to every customer. I spent about $500 a month on printing and postage. I had to pick which items would most likely appeal to my customers, even harder because there was one list and gamers are fragmented into at least four departments with limited and unpredictable cross over. I would create posters printed on an 11x17 color printer that would get updated weekly; high tech.

The Internet was essentially the enemy, with some unknown amount of sales eroding and seemingly growing over time. Discussions and activity happened amongst customers that I wasn't tuned into. They would go to conventions and I would pump them for their interests and inclinations. At one point, I was privy to some online sales data when I started advertising online and was told the hottest online seller in my zip code was GURPS. I couldn't sell a GURPS book to save my life, yet GURPS was the hot seller. The disconnect was astounding.

That was over a decade ago, and I'm happy to report the Internet and I are now getting along swimmingly. Social media, namely Facebook in Group format, has allowed a level of communications I could have only dreamed of before. I can not only mention every new release, but I can gauge demand, tweak policy on the fly, and create opportunities in real time, rather than waiting weeks for customers to arrive with wrinkled post cards.

The store is fine tuned with social media, the Internet finally assisting rather than impeding our progress. I'm not sure what I would do without it. Even the boogeyman of Kickstarter is becoming a bit more fine tuned, with retailer programs available to let us participate in cost effective ways. We generally pay at the time of shipment, stretch goals are included in projects, and we've got enough time to collect pre orders from customers. That's a win-win for everyone.

It's amazing we survived as long as we did, deaf, dumb and blind to the demands and needs of our customers. Even GURPS is selling well after some discussions about what customers were looking for.