The shopBigfork website is attractive and user friendly. With secure credit card transactions, visitors can purchase unique items from Bigfork merchants.
|
Now You Can shopBigfork... Anytime
from Anywhere |
|
When I started my first business in Bigfork, Computer Innovations, in 1984, the retail community in Bigfork was quite small and I marveled that it was even possible to operate such a business with the short season that we have here in Montana. Over the next 20 years I watched as the retail community grew. Each year new businesses would open and flourish during the busy days of the summer, but then the fall, winter and spring would take its toll and some would not reopen. When I was on the Chamber of Commerce board of directors in the 80's, we talked about building the shoulder seasons with special events like hot air balloon festivals and ski/sailing races. I joined the board of the Associated Chambers of the Flathead Valley and we brain-stormed about ways to draw in more tourists and extend the summer season. The problem was fundamental, the summer season was too short to sustain the retail environment and the population of the valley was too small to support a tourist based consumer economy. |
We tried everything we could think of to bring more tourists to the area and some ideas worked pretty well while others did not, but the plain fact was, the Flathead Valley is just a little too remote and difficult to get to from the major metropolitan areas of the two coasts or the big cities of the Midwest. Although I think this is one of the most beautiful places in the world and most of us who live here feel the same, there are in fact, many other places just as beautiful that are much more convenient to reach. So, back in 1994 when the Internet first started getting publicity, I thought it might hold the key to the future for retail businesses in Bigfork. The idea of being able to sell your products 24 hours a day, seven days a week to people who could be anywhere on the planet seemed like the perfect solution to the dilemma that had plagued us for so many years. |
|
The shopBigfork website is attractive and user friendly. With secure credit card transactions, visitors can purchase unique items from Bigfork merchants. |
|
|
Well, we all know what happened with the Internet and that initial bubble of optimism that ran rampant through our economy. Everyone thought that the Internet was the answer to all our problems and when we realized that although it seemed like it would happen overnight, like all things, it would take much longer to reach its potential for changing the way we do business. The bubble burst and set everything back a few more years. People are slow to change their habits, and advances in technology appear quickly, but take a long time to filter down into common usage. |
Move forward to today, the Bigfork of 2003. The Internet has changed dramatically since its early days. Computers are faster, cheaper and easier to use. The speed of communications has risen dramatically and continues to rise while the cost of connecting your computer to the Internet remains stable or goes down. The early issues with security have been addressed, and for the most part, online business transactions are as safe as any kind of credit card transaction can be. |
| Still, many businesses in Bigfork have yet to take advantage of the potential marketing bonanza that the Internet can offer today's retailers. There are several reasons why this is true. Primarily it is a question of cost. To build a custom Internet site that includes online ordering, is a costly process and the ongoing cost of maintaining and hosting the site put it out of the reach of most small businesses, especially those here in Bigfork. Since 1994 there have been several attempts to bring the businesses of Bigfork into the Information age. |
 |
Several stores have developed their own sites and some have been very successful. Others have tried but been unsuccessful. Into the business community come two entrepreneurs, Rob Hotchkin and Mike Callaghan. |
 |
Rob Hotchkin |
|
Rob moved to Bigfork about six years ago. He has a fifteen-year track record in the advertising and communications industry that includes successful work with a wide variety of major clients including Wrigley Gum, Turtle Wax, Perception Kayaks and many more. Since his arrival in Bigfork he founded Halo Advertising, a marketing communication and creative consulting business that has worked with the Bigfork Area Chamber of Commerce and the Retail Merchants to produce a tourism campaign for the Village of Bigfork. Rob is a talented guy who has won dozens of awards for his work. An avid outdoorsman, he loves the Bigfork area and the Flathead Valley. Rob is an active member of the community and serves on the board of The Glacier Institute and the Bigfork Development Company. Since relocating to Bigfork, Rob has made it his home and he intends to stay here for a long time. Rob's talents are widely recognized in the advertising industry and he has turned down lucrative job opportunities just so he could continue living here. |
Mike Callaghan has been developing web sites for businesses, athletes and public service organizations since the very beginning of the Internet. He started his own web design company in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, in 1994 and has been involved in several very successful Internet enterprises, including the creation of the Internet site for Teton Mountaineering, the oldest climbing retailer in the United States. Before moving to Bigfork three years ago, Mike was Director of Web site Development for Companyfinance.com, a Silicon Valley financial services provider. During his three years with the company, Mike gained valuable experience in the area of secure web applications. Mike owns and operates Bigfork Web Development. Mike also loves the outdoors and the Bigfork area and lives and works here year-round. Mike is an active member of the community, belonging to the Bigfork Rotary Club and the Bigfork Chamber of Commerce. |
| When these two successful entrepreneurs got together, it was no surprise that they would begin thinking about ways to improve the business climate in much the same way that I did twenty years ago. No one likes to see someone’s dreams of owning their own business go down the drain because the season is too short to make their business viable, and these guys were no exception. They started brainstorming and came up with the idea of creating a win-win web site solution. That's how shopBigfork.com was born. | I met with Mike and Rob on a couple of occasions
and their energy, enthusiasm and optimism is obvious and infectious. A couple
of weeks ago we sat down to talk about their new company and what they hope
to achieve. Mike shared the story of how shopBigfork got started. "I was talking with Rob about the retail environment here in Bigfork and about how special the stores were in this town. Every business puts so much effort into finding unique and high quality products to sell. |
In addition, there are the very special products that are created right here, like Eva Gates Homemade Preserves, the Bigfork Fudge Company, Sweetgrass Soaps, or Viki’s Montana Mountain Classics, just to name a few. Add to that, the many artists and sculptors who create stunning works of art and you have a unique shopping experience that stands up to any place on the planet. The problem is, there just aren’t enough people coming through the area on a year-round basis." (Sound familiar?) |
|
Rob explained the concept behind shopBigfork. "We
know that these small businesses can't all afford to develop their own
individual e-commerce sites, so we started thinking about ways to provide
a site that would create a win/win solution for everyone who could benefit
from what the Internet has to offer. We spent several months writing a
plan that we could use as our business model. During that time, we explored
a wide variety of options until we settled on the shopBigfork concept." Mike showed me the sales brochure they developed. "shopBigfork
is an online retail community that provides area merchants a complete
e-commerce and web-marketing solution. shopBigfork not only puts a business
online with cutting edge shopBigfork is the easiest and most affordable way to securely offer products over the Internet, adding a viable revenue stream and extending the prime selling season beyond the four month regional cycle to a year around potentially world-wide audience. The key is that this service can be provided for a minimal initial investment that is a fraction of the cost of setting up and promoting a secure e-commerce web site of your own." |
The idea behind shopBigfork is to create an online version
of our village's unique combination of small town appeal and high quality
shopping. Tourists, snowbirds and vacation residents love to wander through
the shops and galleries of Bigfork. Now, with the services offered by
shopBigfork.com, when they can't actually be here, they can still shop
here. Any time of year, from anywhere in the world. As the brochure states,
"When you become a member of shopBigfork's Online Retail Village,
you receive a complete package of web-programming, e-commerce and promotional
services that not only puts you on the 'net, but also works to drive customer
traffic to your online shop." The shopBigfork Storefront is designed for merchants
who currently have no existing web presence and also offers benefits to
those who do. The package includes the following features: listing in
the Shop Directory, a Merchant Page created for you complete with the
following components, store description, a shop's shipping and return
policies, the shop’s local contact information, product listings
with photos and specifics, online order processing, secure credit card
processing and authorization and web hosting on a server tied directly
to the backbone of the Internet. For those businesses who already have
a web site, joining the shopBigfork village provides the cutting edge
e-commerce and secure credit card processing while also being featured
in and linked with the shopBigfork Retail Village. In addition to the web site services, joining in the shopBigfork village includes several powerful promotional services such as direct mail promotional materials, point of sale promotional materials, search engine optimization and online retail advertising. |
|
So how does this all work? Mike explains, "As part of shopBigfork.com, when your online shop receives orders, we forward them to you at the end of the day so that you can ship them out at your earliest convenience. It's your shop, so your policies in regards to shipping, returns, customer service, etc. all apply. We'll merely confirm with you that your orders have been fulfilled in a timely manner. Then twice a month we pay you. On the 15th and also the last day of the month we send you a check for the orders you've received in that time. It's just that easy." And now we come to the bottom line. What does it cost to join the shopBigfork retail community? "The only up front out-of-pocket cost is a one-time set up fee of $500. After that, we start paying you for the business we bring to your online storefront, minus a 20% commission to help cover the transaction and processing fees of providing secure credit card processing, a merchant account provider, a secure gateway provider, SSL Certificate, and search engine registration," explained Rob."With shopBigfork all you pay is a one-time fee of $500 and a commission on sales that helps cover our ongoing costs. Compared to what you would have to pay in up-front costs and on-going fees to create and promote a secure e-commerce web presence of your own, shopBigfork not only offers your business a real opportunity, it also offers a real bargain." |
From the point of view of someone who has pondered the problems of retail business in the Bigfork area for many years, I believe that Mike and Rob have come up with a strong business model that offers a solution to the short summer season that has plagued the retail businesses of this area for so long. With shopBigfork, the possibility of a retail shop in Bigfork actually providing a decent living for its owner is now more real than ever. The combined talents of Mike Callaghan and Rob Hotchkin along with their can-do and win-win attitude bring to our village a new potential for prosperity. These two gentlemen have worked hard to create a company whose sole purpose is to improve the bottom line of the retail businesses in this area. They have the integrity, knowledge, skills and desire to make this concept work. In addition, they have employed the talents of Todd Yamashita as a designer and photographer for the shopBigfork Retail Village. "ToddÕs skills are a great addition to our business," explained Mike, "he has designed a site that is pleasing to visit and a treat for the eye. His photographic skills are awesome, yet affordable for the retail shop owner." |
|
After spending time with Rob and Mike, I am convinced that this is a very worthwhile project and I am happy to announce that the Lakeshore Country Journal has formed a strategic alliance with shopBigfork.com. Our Internet site at lakeshorecountryjournal.com will soon have a link to the shopBigfork site so that online Journal readers can access the shops that we feature in our printed version of the Journal. For more than ten years the Journal has been providing
positive news about this wonderful community and its people, and it is
with great pleasure that I write this story about two entrepreneurs who
have the same spirit and desire that drives the Journal. |
Congratulations to Rob Hotchkin and Mike Callaghan on their shopBigfork.com business. I believe that the answer to the age old problem of business in Bigfork may finally be at hand. The Journal wishes them the very best in their endeavor and encourages all the retail merchants of this area to investigate and learn more about the unique opportunity that Rob and Mike are offering. To all Journal readers both far and wide, I encourage you to visit the shopBigfork web site and enjoy the experience of being able to shop Bigfork from anywhere, anytime. |