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a web lass client success story

Web Lass is always thrilled when a client of ours is really successful. This page is frequently updated with a story about a client whose web site we have developed.

Survival Kits Online

www.survivalkitsonline.com

In November 2005, Web Lass was approached by 2 guys who had an idea: they wanted to sell survival kits on the web.

The idea had come out of a lifelong passion for gadgets and survival gear (which may have something to do with living in earthquake-prone Los Angeles!). They had done their research and found suppliers and researched their competition. Although not entirely sure what they did want, they knew what they didn't want, and that was a site like the other survival kits sites out there, which were hard to navigate and difficult to buy from.

In addition to selling survival gear, they wanted a large section in which to educate people about disasters of all types: earthquakes, fires, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, bird flu, terrorist attacks etc.

We listened to what they told us and began jotting down the way the site would map out. Even though their actual retail competition would be easy to challenge, there was a lot of information out there and an awful lot of marketing that needed to be done once the site was up and running. We wanted to make the site as simple to navigate as possible, and to separate out the products from the disaster information.

The outline of the site came together and we built it to be easily expanded. The Survival Kits Online owners were both computer savvy, and knew that once the site was built, they would be able to add to it easily. As with all of our clients, the ideas began to flow out quickly once we got started, and we helped them decide which options were important for starting their business off within their budget. The idea with their site, as with all sites, is that we can always add more features later.

The site came together and was an immediate success. They marketed coupons to friends and family, as well as pay per click campaigns on Google and Yahoo, and also offered free shipping with a minimum $75 purchase. The products and discount combinations were irresistable to their customers, who flocked in. Disasters abounded with Hurricane Katrina, wildfires in California and Arizona, and survival kits were often mentioned in the news. A small tremor in San Francisco would net an influx of Bay Area orders.

The next logical step for Survival Kits Online was having a stand at the local county fairs to gauge interest. Again, they did well and the orders carried on flooding in. Around the same time, they were showing up on the first page of results on google for various search terms, all of which they had done themselves through lots of research and online link exchanges.

Survival Kits Online opened their first retail store in West Hills, California in January 2008, around the same time that the search term "Survival kits" started to swing between #1 and #2 on google. This has not been an accident: it has taken a lot of hard work and research to get there, but they have made it and Web Lass is proud of the small part we played in helping them fulfill their goals.