Yoke Har Lee: Website with designs on world sales

Elliot (left) and Grant Alexander. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Five years ago Elliot Alexander was a newcomer on the internet scene, fiddling around with selling T-shirts online. Then, in 2007, he started endemicworld.com as an online store for New Zealand-designed products.

Now, with two full years of operation behind it, global sales already account for about 20 per cent of endemicworld's business.

Last Christmas sales rose 40 per cent year-on-year, a strong sign that there is room in the marketplace for Kiwi-designed products.

Alexander says the store is already achieving financial forecasts, and would be making a profit but for the investment needed to revamp the website and move management of the site in-house.

The website is not your average online store for touristy products - no possum underwear or sheepskin slippers for sale. What's on offer is an eclectic blend of about 1000 Kiwi-designed products with a slight twist.

If there is one strategy that has served endemicworld well, it is keeping the supplier-distributor relationship healthy. To experience what suppliers are going through, endemicworld started its own company, Kinoo, which designs and produces a line of products, including organic tote bags.

Getting close to the suppliers, talking their language, knowing what they are experiencing, developing contacts in areas such as packaging, learning about shared production - these are all critical to helping endemicworld understand the product cycle.

A strong filtering process has helped to ensure that the online store offers only products with appeal and a chance of succeeding, says Alexander.

Ten people are on the filter panel, assessing the merits and demerits of each product.

"I have seen some amazing ideas - but badly executed," says Alexander. "We are not so cut-throat as to say 'your product is not cool' ... What we say to the designer is, 'this is what we think you should do, once you have done that, come back to us'."

Since launching in 2007 the number of New Zealand products being offered has steadily risen, which has allowed the company to add new items to keep customers coming back.

Alexander is learning that the speed at which the cybermarket moves can be the cause of success or failure. About the middle of last year, for example, there was rapid growth in the baby and children's products category among online shops.

Very soon, thousands of such products were being offered online, and niche stores offering baby products were mushrooming.

"You don't have loyal customers, unlike [physical] retailers. You know you only have one chance to interact with someone who has been given a million options all the time. There is no room for failure. The tiniest fault can send people away," he says.

What Alexander aims to do is to build a company benchmarked to the best websites in the world. In 2008 endemicworld.com was selected as one of New Zealand's top 10 start-ups by Start-UP magazine.

In February the company took out a small loan to rebuild its website, based on an open source platform. It used to lease an e-commerce system but felt that moving technology development and management in-house gave it more autonomy to evolve its website.

"The advantage is you have control over the small changes," says Alexander. The company is lucky to be able to share a technology expert with sister company Studio Alexander.

Alexander's advice for start-up businesses is not to hold back on getting the best technology guy.

"A lot of people try to find what is most affordable, rather than the best. We have a very experienced person, trained in New Zealand but whose entire working career has been spent in the US. It is better to pay a premium to get a system that doesn't break than to hire a junior."

The company has also used the power of social media to generate sales and web visitors. Alexander says in one case, a piece of jewellery featured on an influential US blog has driven sales and been a huge generator of web traffic.

Google analytics has also allowed the company to build a direct relationship between content and sales. "It is fascinating to be able to map cause and effect so closely. We can progressively refine the way we promote our products, in order to achieve the most cost-effective spend."

Alexander is mindful that the principles that keep a bricks-and-mortar business healthy also apply to an internet-based business. "Good customer service and your product mix are more important online than traditional stores. But all the business basics are just as important."

He also tries to stay focused on keeping endemicworld.com as a store offering quality products, rather than trying to populate it with a large quantity of goods.

Alexander spent five years completing university and pursuing his passion for travelling. After school he started fiddling around with selling things online, eventually building endemicworld.com with the help of his sister Kate; she and their father Grant are directors of the company.

The tyranny of distance continues to be a barrier to growth. Alexander says the cost of shipping to Britain or the US, for example, continues to challenge the firm.