eBiz Profile: GPSDude Maps Out Success By Robert Slydell
January 10, 2007
With apologies to "The Big Lebowski": If you're in the market for a GPS unit, the Dude will do plenty more for you than just abide.
Jay Moore, a.k.a. the "GPS Dude" of GPSDude.com, has been at it for over four years now, with steady revenue and site visit increases every month. It's about three and a half years longer than he ever thought he'd be advising on and selling satellite-based navigation devices to consumers.
"I initially thought, if I make a little money, great, but I'm only going to have it for a little bit of time," admits the 40-year-old Moore, who holds an MBA and has also been doing business consulting since 1990.
It was a drive to help his consulting clients enter the online marketplace that got Moore interested in starting GPSDude.com, which he still calls an "experiment" — an internet laboratory to test e-commerce methods, using his own money, from which he could report back successes and failures.
"It was an incubator, and it still is," says Moore, who lives near Cincinnati. "I'm constantly looking at things." Choosing to sell GPS devices came easily; Moore spends a lot of time outdoors, and has used a GPS device wherever he goes for years.
Opportunity Knocks But it was also financially appealing. The GPS market, led primarily by Garmin and Magellan, was exploding five years ago, yet big-name retailers were slow in catching on. Moore also figured out he could drop-ship the units online (relying on third-party distributors to fulfill orders; he now has five), and keep prices high enough to offset shipping.
Navigating Success: GPSDude relies on a personal touch to steer in nearly $1 million in annual revenue.
Moore now sells 300-400 units per month, enough to push him towards $1 million in annual sales. But the secret to his success isn't technological at all — rather, it's old-school customer service.
The most popular feature on GPSDude.com is "Ask The Dude," where visitors can fill out a query form and receive advice from Moore or his one employee on which GPS unit to buy, depending on the customer's needs and budget. And, it works, pure and simple: 75 percent of these customers are converted to sales.
"All that most of those folks want is a little personal contact," says Moore. "When we send an e-mail out, my name's on it."
He doesn't stop there, though. Aside from military personnel and traveling salesmen, many of his prospective buyers are retirees — Moore admits pleasant surprise at the 70-something set's Web proficiency — who want GPS units for road trips.
Selling to the Senior Set More often than not, retirees fill out the online form but request a call back instead of an e-mail. "There's not a high level of trust with Internet retailing," says Moore. "If I talk to them on the phone, it's a guaranteed sale. Unfortunately, there's just not enough time to talk to everyone on the phone!"
All purchases are made by credit card online, never by phone, with PayPal Merchant Solutions processing charges. Last July, Moore switched his hosting solution from Monster Commerce to ProStores, another eBay-owned company.
"I liked the fact they were integrated with PayPal, and they're affordable," says Moore of ProStores. "I figured we wouldn't have any problems long-term with them being in business. Hosting companies are like a lot of Internet stores, you don't know who owns them, or how long they're going to be there."
As for his storefront, Moore likes to keep his site navigation as simple as possible, separating out his left-side menu by brand (he sells seven at present) and model. Yet he still wants to improve its functionality, and better connect customers to their ideal GPS units. "I haven't found a great way to do that yet," he admits.
Viral Marketing is Catchy Marketing his site, which costs him about $2,000 per month, has also been a mixed bag thus far. Moore uses Google and Yahoo search-term services, although he says they result in few sales. He also places ads in print publications, including RV magazines, military publications and newspapers, and spends many hours posting responses with his name in popular GPS online forums and bulletin boards — a viral marketing technique he feels is most effective.
Regardless, Moore continues to focus most on providing superior customer service, advice he also continues to give his consulting clients, as old-fashioned as it sounds.
"Like any business, I have to get my name out there," Moore says. "I'm going to be a failure if I try to compete on price; at the end of the day, Wal-Mart is going to sell it cheaper than me.
"I'm attempting to build a brand, in this case, The Dude, that some small segment of people will recognize and buy from."
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