NetShops Inc., an Omaha-based company that operates more than 200 retail Web sites, is connecting all its online retailers under a new company name, Hayneedle, as part of a major rebranding effort.
The changes include new technology to better guide customers, company executives said.
For example, shoppers previously had to go through a checkout process at each site. Now a new navigation system and global checkout cart work across all Hayneedle stores.
The company, with headquarters at 12720 I St., started in 2002 with three employees selling hammocks at hammocks.com. It now sells products nationally, with coastal cities such as New York and Los Angeles among its key markets, and also ships some products internationally.
It had about 330 employees in early February when it laid off 42 people, said CEO Carter Cast. It has hired 10 to 15 people since March to address a rebound in sales and needs related to the rebranding, company officials said.
“Hayneedle is an evolution of what NetShops was, based on what consumers told us,” Cast said. “NetShops was basically a holding company with a collection of stores. ... Hayneedle is a consumer brand that connects all of these stores.”
Company research showed that consumers like to buy more than one item at a time and that many consumers didn't realize that NetShops operated the different sites, said Ash ElDifrawi, chief marketing officer.
That revealed a missed opportunity, Cast said.
“So it's a good business move for us. We realized we could help them a lot more than we were.”
Cast, who previously was a marketing executive at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and helped launch Walmart.com, said he identified the opportunity shortly after arriving at NetShops as president and chief executive officer in October 2007. He began assembling a team of online experts, including Google executive ElDifrawi in April 2008.
The name Hayneedle, which plays off the term “finding a needle in a haystack,” also is the result of months-long consumer research with one of the best naming firms in the country, ElDifrawi said. It is meant to convey the Web site's helpfulness, he said.
“It's about trying to find that hard-to-find product that is perfect,” he said.
Cast and ElDifrawi said their timing, despite the recession, is “actually very good.” The company started its rebranding before the recession, and it remained a priority, they said.
Internet Retailer and Inc. magazine have recognized the company as one of online retail's fastest-growing companies.
Before the fourth quarter of 2008, sales had grown about 25 percent annually, Cast said. The crisis in the credit and financial markets that started last fall affected NetShops as it did other retailers, he said.
November and December sales were flat compared with the previous year.
Hayneedle is privately owned and does not disclose sales and profit figures.
Cast said the numbers of searches and of sales have increased in the last few months.
“We're seeing double-digit revenue growth over the previous year since February,” Cast said. “And it's accelerating.”
That has reinforced, rather than caused them to second-guess, their timing and decision to stay the course with the original plans, they said.
“It's never a bad time to launch a better customer experience,” ElDifrawi said.
Contact the writer:
444-1183, christine.laue@owh.com
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