Bootstrapping A 100M+ E-Commerce Company: OpticsPlanet CEO Mark Levitin (Part 6)

Sramana: How many members do you have registered with DVOR.com?

Mark Levitin: We do not disclose the exact number, but it is a six digit number.

Sramana: Can you give some insight into the growth pattern of your business? It sounds like you started off being an e-commerce company, but over time you have evolved that into four major categories.

Mark Levitin: This year we hit $100 million in revenue. We have 300 employees and we are growing at a rate of 30% per year. We watch our growth carefully to ensure we are diversifying our growth. The latest economic conditions have shown that if you do not diversify then you are in danger from a wide range of threats. That can be things such as consumer confidence to the wide range of government funding issues. Of course there is also competition from Amazon and brick and mortars.

I gave a very simplified model, but in reality it is multi-dimensional. There are not silos or buckets. Our most robust growth is in the outdoor hobbyist and professional categories. Eyewear has also seen dramatic growth for us. In the next couple of years that will probably have the most dramatic growth.

Sramana: How long have you had the flash sale business?

Mark Levitin: It was started in November of 2010. It has had enormous success.

Sramana: That category, in general, is doing very well. That is a good strategy for most e-commerce companies that have diverse products and a solid customer base. It is a tried and true strategy.

Mark Levitin: Absolutely. That was a big motivator for us.

Sramana: How do you acquire customers?

Mark Levitin: Our roots are in search engine marketing. We focus on organic and paid marketing. We are very self-sufficient and self-reliant. We have core expertise built in-house. Social media has started to play a very significant role in what we do. We generate a lot of content. There is a major trade show for our industry called SHOT Show. We brought in a crew of four people from our multimedia department and went there for four days.

We went booth to booth and filmed interviews. We created a ton of content. If you go to our YouTube channel you will see our content. They are product descriptions and how-to-buy guides. We are not just one website; we own 300 web properties. The only thing we do with traditional media is television and radio advertising. We don’t do anything with print media.

Sramana: You mentioned that you have a YouTube channel. What are you doing with YouTube?

Mark Levitin: We create a lot of original content. Without content we are worthless. If you do not have engaging video it is useless. Our content is specialized so you must have a particular interest and subject. We appeal to lifestyle and product based communities. We often partner with manufacturers to develop these videos. We are at the forefront of marketing and e-commerce and we help manufactures sell their products. We shoot original footage or we edit professional production from our manufacturers. The important thing is that we get a lot of quality content online.

This segment is part 6 in the series : Bootstrapping A 100M+ E-Commerce Company: OpticsPlanet CEO Mark Levitin
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