Gan you sell moulding online

ClEr-r-rNc sMALL. Llcutwttcst items screwdrivers online is one thing. But lumber dealers and millwork shops are discovering that moving moulding via the Internet is no easy task-despite the lure of the products somehow magically selling themselves, to every corner of the globe.

Most millwork dealers are running into four major obstacles online: l. Selling online isn"i necessarily less expensive"

For buyers, says Marshall Montgomery, The Affordable Cos., Costa Mesa, Ca., it's all about price. "Buying online saves you time and money," he promises. "You do not have to leave your home or deal with salespeople. lt is alw ay s cheaper."

The perception that it always must be cheaper online places a burden on shops that must go to extra expenses to sell online. Blumer & Stanton, West Palm Beach. Fl., has been dabbling in online millwork sales since 2005, with a major update expected next month.

"We're still looking for ways to beat the overhead and make it profitable," says president Roger Stanton. "The cost of maintaining an online store, processing online PaYments, addressing the fickle nature of clients unfamiliar with the product (and their perception that anything ordered online should be returnable), and the cost associated with marketing the website (organic search engine optimization, AdWords, PayPerClick, etc.) are all expenses that don't correlate with selling mouldings from a physical location."

2. Just because your products are exposed to China, doesn"t mean it makes sense for anlone there to actually buy it.

"The biggest advantage of selling and buying online is the access to market," explains Dan Ritosa, Rino's Woodworking Shop, Willoughby, Oh. "The Internet has provided a forum where we can trade with people who are not in our normal geograPhic area."

Tyler Turner, Hartland Planing Mill, Clarksburg, W.V., agrees: "Hands down, the greatest advantage

(of online sales) is being able to distribute our product to a larger number of customers. Our website allows us to sell to the whole country and not just our local area."

Yet, admits Turner, "the biggest challenge we have encountered by far is length restrictions for shipping. UPS and FedEx cutoff for length is 9 feet. This means if you need one piece of moulding 12 feet long, it will have to ship via freight truck. This makes the cost of freight more than the total cost of the moulding itself. A normal freight truck shipment is usually three to four times more than a UPS Package)'

Online orders also contain, on average, smaller quantities. "Most consumers are interested in fewer than 12 pieces of moulding," says Blumer & Stanton's Roger Stanton. "Shipping costs for mouldings in excess of 8 feet is absolutely prohibitive unless you're shipping moulding for an entire project. This particular restriction on length is very limiting. Even standard shipping is expensive, and consumers are understandablY reluctant to spend $225 on shipping for $200 worth of product."

Rino's Woodworking Shop often finds a way to make the numbers work. Lengths 8 feet and under are shipped by UPS if in small quantities or from long distances. The shop pays for shipping on UPS orders over $300 to most areas of the continental U.S. Larger orders and longer lengths are shipped common carrier. Rino's pays for shipping if common carrier orders exceed $3,000 (and, if the destination is in-state, they'll truck it themselves).

Yet, all UPS and common carrier shipments must be crated to minimize damage and ease handling-further increasing the supplier's cost.

3. Online catalogues and product listings allow buyers to view hundreds of options-but they can't touch them.

"When we purchase a Sony Blu-ray player online we pretty much know what to expect," says Rino's Ritosa. "When people purchase hardwood mouldings online, the product is a little more subjective. At times we deal with people who are in the industry and know a premium grade piece of material. Then other times, we might deal with people who ask for maple or red oak but do not have the slightest idea which is which.

"There is always a certain degree of trust that is exchanged in any purchase. Yes, the client cannot touch our product until it is received, but even if it is a local project the client cannot see our product until we deliver. The overall effect is the same. But in the end, what matters is our reputation of keeping a high quality level on all our products. In doing so, clients know that they will consistently receive a quality product."

For many consumers unfamiliar with moulding, they will be too intimidated to order online. "Occasionally we will get the wary customer, and they want to know about the quality of the product," says Hartland's Turner. "This is very understandable, because you really can't see the material. I regularly send samples of our mouldings to customers, and I think that this makes a big difference. Also in our case, we have been a family-owned business since 1912-I am fifth generation-and locally we are known for quality of material, so I think this helps quell some of the fears associated with Internet ordering."

Far more frustrating can be the une- ducated who probably shouldn't be ordering online...

4. Online sales leave the specifying of materials, sizes and quantities up to the (often non-professional) customer.

Problems of customers ordering too much or too little are particularly difficult for custom millwork businesses. Affordable's Montgomery says, fortunately, incidents have been few.

"Measuring should never be a problem for the average person who can work a tape measure," he says. "If they cannot do that, we do not want them ordering. If they are not sure, they shouldn't be installing it either and should let their installer give them a material list to buy the right quantity;'

Ritosa says, "The client is mainly responsible for the take off. We have had it happen before that a client does not order enough or his margin of error is too small. Should this occur, the client would need to reorder additional material at his own cost. If the client should order too much, the material cannot be returned since all orders are custom run for each client."

In the age of Amazon.com, however, consumers think everything bought online should be returnable.

No return and minimum reorder policies can help, but customers must be trained to get it right from the start.

"With every one of our customers, I stress the importance of getting your quantities right with your order," says Hartland's Turner. "Most of the time, I have customers figure an additional 5Vo to '7Vo waste and there isn't a problem. However, there have been a handful of customers that have come up a couple feet short and we try to help them out the best that we can. The downside of this comes back to shipping. Most of the time the material shipped back is limited to 8 feet due to the higher cost of freight."

Until more millwork dealers conquer these obstacles, expect most of their online sales to be along the lines of Made Right Moulding, Dayton, Oh., which began selling electronically 1l months ago. The shop has had several inquiries from out of state, but so far all sales have been local, close enough for the customer to visit to examine samples and near enough for Made Right to deliver the products on its own truck.