At retail’s frontier

Brandon Wolf is the e-commerce point man for Do it Best Corp. His dual-role position includes leading the co-op’s consumer-facing Web properties (about half his time), and consulting with members on ways to boost their online expertise (the other half).



The Fort Wayne, Indiana-based co-op’s major new platform supporting doitbest.com rolled out Nov. 17, but in many ways, the co-op’s e-commerce manager said the work is just beginning.



What follows is Wolf’s edited conversation with HBSDealer.



HBSDealer: How important is the Web to retail?



Wolf: Really, what’s happening is mobile — not necessarily the Internet. Every single one of us is walking around with a small computer in his pocket, and it has more computational power than NASA had when they landed a man on the moon.



HBSDealer: What’s the big deal with the new doitbest.com?



Wolf: On Nov. 17, we launched our new platform. That is the basis from which we will be relaunching the service offering for our membership. The most important aspect of this is that it was built mobile first. It responds to the screen size on which it’s displayed.



HBSDealer: How did it go?



Wolf: The initial launch went great. We’ve seen a 28% growth in our organic search results. We’ve seen better time on site metrics. We’re seeing lower bounce rates, so things are moving the right way.



What you’ve seen so far is the relaunch of doitbest.com. In the coming months we’ll be growing our sales through independently branded websites that we’ll be building off of this platform for our members.



HBSDealer: What are the next steps for members?



Wolf: We’re building customized member templates. In the spring will come the ability for our members to customize their front page off of the base platform that we built — and not only customize it, but land it on their own URL. If their website today is MainStreetHardware.com, they can put this platform on MainStreetHardware.com.



And a big part of it, too, is that we maintain it. And we’re not mandating participation. It’s totally about how our members want to come to market and use e-commerce as part of an integrated marketing strategy.



HBSDealer: What are the really high-performing members doing differently?



Wolf: The members who are successful see this as an extension of their brand. They are spending time in social, they’re spending time doing Google ad words, they are engaging in email marketing.



HBSDealer: What has surprised you about the rollout?



Wolf: Consumers and members have responded positively. As far as surprises, we were surprised how quickly we performed and grew within Google’s rankings. We obviously saw a lift from our new platform.



HBSDealer: What under-the-radar websites do you admire?



Wolf: I like a lot of the newer smaller marketplaces. I like Etsy.com, and I spend a lot of time on 4wd.com, because I own a Jeep and I like to modify it. I’m probably on about 100 different websites in a day. And the thing is, a lot of them kind of look and feel and taste the same. It’s the ones that work to be different that stand out for me.