Using the web to move niche products in local markets

Fine china with images of buffaloes or black bears may not always sell well in Charlottesville, VA., the home town of Sara Blakewood Norment’s gift shop and web site, GiftCollector.com. But they’re usually popular somewhere, and Norment will find out the hot spots by analyzing her web traffic.

“I’ve found out that different things sell well in different areas, because we can see trends in different parts of the country,” she says, adding that she looks for local and regional trends to support inventory buying.

By leveraging the web, Norment, president and founder of GiftCollector.com, a site that grew out of a tiny gift shop five years ago, is able to serve niches either avoided or overlooked by major retailers, she says. “Department stores pick certain patterns of china and tableware that sold best the year before,” she says. “They like to keep Lenox and other major brands, but our customers don’t always want that.” GiftCollector is No. 281 in Internet Retailer’sTop 300 Guide to online retailers.

Norment, who began her retail career in 1987 with a tiny Charlottesville gift shop doing less than $200,000 in annual sales, now does 2/3’s of her business on the web and expects to do about $10 million this year.