eHobbies.com expects sales to double this year

An innovative site-search box that toy and game retailer eHobbies.com places on affiliate partners’ sites and that sends shoppers directly to eHobbies.com is contributing to an expected doubling of sales this year, president Seth Greenberg tells Internet Retailer.

The search box on affiliate sites allows visitors to the affiliate site to search eHobbies’ database for products--straight from the affiliate page. A customer who is at an affiliate such as a radio-controlled car enthusiasts’ site and gets the urge to buy an RC car product can either navigate the search function through a series of drop-down menus or input a search term. When the customer clicks Go, the browser either launches a new window displaying eHobbies.com or sends the user directly to eHobbies.com.

Those searches are now responsible for as much as 10% of eHobbies’ sales, Greenberg says, and he expects that portion to continue to grow. "We’re just scratching the surface," he says. "I still have some key strategic sites I want to get to."

EHobbies.com is the surviving entity from a company that started with $30 million in venture funding in 1999. When the Internet investment bubble burst, Greenberg and other employees were able to buy the company from the VC investors. It now operates with a staff of 20. Because it is a private company, Greenberg would not reveal dollar sales.

Other growth comes from offline event sponsorships, Greenberg says, including sponsoring half-time slot car races at sporting events, appearing at NASCAR events, being the sole sponsor of the World of Flight pavilion at the L.A. County Fair and distributing $5 gift certificates in bags at golf tournaments. "We’re usually not hitting 10,000 people at a time, but we’re getting out there in front of people," Greenberg says. "A lot of the sales that we do online come from what we do offline."

In spite of the rapid growth. Greenberg has realistic expectations about the future of eHobbies.com. "We don’t want to compete with Wal-Mart on pricing," he says. For instance, Wal-Mart can beat eHobbies.com on the price of a train set, but eHobbies will stock an extensive array of accessories to that train set. "We will sell every piece of accessories that Wal-Mart doesn’t want to sell," he says.