Many reality TV stars fade into oblivion, or worse, they don't.
These C-list celebrities struggle to upgrade their status or wind up having mug shots or court papers posted at The Smoking Gun, the infamous docu-dirty-laundry site. As it is with most things he's done throughout his life, Chip Arndt, half of the winning team of the Amazing Race 4, stands out as the exception. Currently, he's got top billing as a partner of Merchant Advantage, a company that helps small businesses manage their feeds to shopping comparison sites, measuring click performance and return on investment (ROI).
Merchant Advantage works with eBay, Shopzilla, PriceGrabber, Gifts.com, Shopper.com and others, all of which have their own protocols for submitting product information. Arndt's company pre-configures the upload process so small online merchants can easily specify the desired channels and transmit their catalog information using a dashboard interface that sits on their desktop.
Expose Your Business, Evaluate Sales The company also just released Chanalytics, a free, integrated upgrade to its channel management tool, to help online merchants monitor the cost-effectiveness of their marketing campaigns on shopping destination feeds. The new feature gives business owners immediate statistical feedback on how their products are performing on shopping comparison sites so they can react to it in real time.
"We give you the tool to feed your information to dozens of shopping destination sites seamlessly. If you decide you no longer want to sell a product, you don't have to go through and rework everything for each one," says Arndt, who traveled the world long before the Amazing Race.
Chip Shot: Arndt still competes even after winning Amazing Race.
Arndt, a 39-year-old Yale graduate with a history degree and captain of the undefeated golf team as a senior, continued to loll around the links after school for two years, but a true entrepreneur at heart, he decided "staring at a golf ball all day every day is just nuts."
He wound up earning an M.B.A. from Harvard and followed that up with four years as a successful investment banker for Morgan Stanley. During this time he worked in Hong Kong, China, France, Argentina and Chile. After leaving Wall Street, he worked in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles helping to raise money for indie films and other projects. While in California, he got involved in the Internet industry as entertainment companies started to view it as a way to deliver content.
"I'm an entrepreneur's entrepreneur," says Arndt. "I help move that idea from the back of the napkin to the next level, run the numbers, write the business plan. I find these types of people exciting, and it's what stimulates me. I don't want to just be a corporate cog."
That was pretty clear as he and his partner at the time, Reichen Lemkuhl, placed first on the Amazing Race 4, which won an Emmy that season. (The couple and CBS were also recognized for billing the dynamic duo as married though their ceremony was a civil service.) Arndt now runs his own consulting and venture fund firm in addition to working for Merchant Advantage, founded by Michael Lambert, CEO.
Clearly Arndt's story will grab your attention, but the company's services, which cost $245 a month, are what will keep owners of small Web stores hooked.
Customization is Key For instance, one client, the owner of CarolsCandyStore.com, was able to eliminate low-end product items that ate up funds and generated very little in the way of sales. She was also able to target certain products to the different audiences that shop on each channel, quickly begin selling on new channels without a lot of start up work and determine whether a channel is generating the anticipated sales.
"These shopping comparison sites are like online malls," says Arndt. "We've got 105 of them on a whiteboard, and they're all set up. And if you can identify a shopping destination we don't have, you'll have a feed in less than 48 hours, and we won't charge anything more for that."
He says shopping sites are an untapped resource for merchants like Carol's Candy Store. "No one knew of her except through word of mouth and now suddenly she's out nationwide. And these sites do a lot of marketing. Even Victoria's Secret sales went up 30 percent when they started listing at the shopping sites."
The channel management tools are especially helpful for vendors who need to be selective with their feeds, who sell seasonal products or who may get lost under broad category searches such as jewelry. For example, you can easily list a man's watch under unlimited categories so it shows up under "accessories," "gifts for dad" and so on. And instead of sending a whole catalog, a merchant can pick certain items, with pricing and colors, and set it to update whenever he or she wants.
As for Arndt, he says Merchant Advantage surely won't be his last venture. "I'm just hard wired to be an entrepreneur. Some people don't understand that. They think why would you spend all your money and brass doing this? But whether you're a teacher, doctor or an athlete, everyone wants to find a purpose in life. For me, what's exciting is new ideas and making them happen."
Michelle Megna is managing editor of ECommerce-Guide.com.
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