A WHOLESALE APPROACH TO THE WEB
LOTS OF WEB SITES want to sell office products to individuals, whether in companies or the oft-hyped small office/home office. Now, one entrepreneur wants to make a wholesale mark on the world.
About two months ago, Manasquan, NJ-based Action Office Supplies launched a site (www.actoff. com) to target bulk quantities of very deeply discounted office and computer supplies to a broad market of smaller sized businesses, local governments and the military.
“We don’t want to sell just a bottle of [copier] toner but boxes of at least 100,” says vice president Scott Neuman.
Action wants to bring the company from $1 million to $5 million this year and has a $1 million marketing budget to work with, says Neuman. As part of Action’s campaign to get a foothold among businesses, the company has been using outbound telemarketing and mailings to names from both compiled and response lists, hitting businesses with $1 million a year volume or more in bulk orders.
To get into government agencies, including the military, Action telemarketers call the press offices of the various branches, which then hook them up with purchasing agents. From there, the telemarketers try to build supplier relationships. Neuman concedes this is possible because many agencies use the IMPAC (International Merchant Purchase Authorization Card), a credit card for smaller-size purchases not requiring the competitive bid process. Action affords these agencies an extra 3% discount.
And there’s Web marketing, of course. Earlier this year, the company was getting only 1,000 hits per month because it was not on any Internet search engines, says Neuman. Now, the site is carried on several, including high-profile locales such as Yahoo, Alta Vista, Lycos and some Microsoft sites. Since being listed, www. actoff.com has been pulling in about 20,000 hits per month.
Action markets more than 30,000 products from 250 different manufacturers, including computer accessories and peripherals, discs, laser and inkjet supplies, printer ribbons, fax supplies, thermal transfer supplies, toner and the like.
Neuman cut his Web marketing teeth on Autoboard at www.autoboard.com, a commercial automotive site for consumers with less-than-perfect credit.
