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Metro Awards
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View an article about iFurn® Stores (formerly Norris Enterprises) from the Wichita Metro Awards for any of these years:
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2002 |
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2006 |
Wichita-based Norris Enterprises:
a rapidly growing retailer on the Web
By JANEEN BENBENEK
October 26th, 2001 - Wichita Business Journal
IN 1986, Tracy Norris opened his Wichita chiropractic practice at 7300 E. Kellogg and began specializing in relieving pain in arms, legs, feet and shoulders. He found that he was often recommending pain-relief products ---- pillows, massagers, and ice packs ---- that were not readily available to the public. Then Norris got a computer. He learned how to use search engines. And in 1997 he launched his own Web site, www.PainReliever.com®.
From Pain to Gain
It was six months before Norris received his first order. But as his Internet savvy grew, so did his online orders. Then he added computer furniture sales. After taking a liking to a computer desk he’d purchased, he called the manufacturers of the desk and asked if he could start selling their products online. “I knew everyone buying a computer would need a desk to put it on,” says Norris. He was right. After only one year. His ComputerFurnitureSales.com customers are municipal governments, school districts, and large corporations, as well as individuals. “There is a lot of repeat business in furniture sales,” explains Norris. “Customers will buy 100-200 items to open one location. Then they’ll buy again when they open another location.”
Low Cost Is Key
The key to the success of ComputerFurnitureSales.com has been low overhead and low profit margin, which allows Norris to sell almost at dealer cost. When Norris says low overhead, he means low. He has one person dedicated to customer service and a computer programmer. That’s it. “In most cases, we can sell, ship, and deliver the product less expensively than a customer can buy it locally,” says Norris. “You can sell anything on line for no cost with no inventory and be successful, if you know how to market it.” Norris says he is O’Sullivan office furniture’s largest online seller. His O’Sullivan contacts regularly ask him what he’s doing right, he says, because they see many on-line resellers of their product go out of business. He attributes the failures to ineffective marketing to search engines, a skill he’s worked hart to develop. In February 2002 Norris Enterprises is scheduled move to a 5,300-square-foot space in Legacy Park at Wilson Estates near 21st and Webb Road. More than half of the space will be devoted to Norris’ two on-line enterprises with six employees. The remaining space will house his chiropractic business, which also continues to grow at a steady rate.
Getting Relief
Norris is preparing to expand the office furniture web site to include more upscale items and other brands such as Bush and Saunders. He also has plans to join with United Stationers, a large office supplier, to sell its office products on h is Web site. “Eventually we’d like to spread into the entire office environment,” says Norris. He is also expanding the PainReliever.com® site, whose business has doubled every year, to become information oriented, he says. On the site, a consumer can read about the type of pain he or she is experiencing and order the products to help reliever the pain. Success in business comes with listening to your customers and your employees, says Norris. “When I’m working with a patient, I put everything aside to listen,” says Norris. “It’s the same way with a customer. I try to reach out the best way I can to them.”
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