About the Customer

Barnes Supply Company has been a farm and pet supply fixture in the Durham, North Carolina business community for 75 years. The store has remained at the same Ninth Street location as when “Shorty” Barnes first opened its doors in 1946. Barnes Supply operated mainly as a feed store in those early years. In 1991, Shorty Barnes retired and sold the business to Gary George, whose family is originally from Durham. Today Gary runs the business with his son Jason, and it serves as a one-stop shopping destination for pet products, agricultural supplies, and bird products.

Business Challenges

The business had been run in much the same way since its inception and Jason recognized the need to modernize operations to not lose critical market share. Today’s retail experience is dominated by millennials who greatly prefer to integrate digital technology into their shopping experience. This means having a strong digital presence and offering options for online shopping offshoots such as online ordering and curbside pick-up.

A few months into the pandemic, the need for an online presence became even more apparent. The early concerns over the pandemic hit retail outlets particularly hard. Jason sought to safely increase in-store traffic and bring convenience to his customers in the face of COVID-19.

“We felt bolstering our online presence and offering a safe shopping alternative was a good way to give customers the ability to see what products we have in store,” Jason said. “Even if they were shopping online, they would still have access to our full line of products and hopefully, when they felt comfortable to shop in-store, they would go with us.”

What they needed was an online platform that was scalable and flexible that afforded the capability to easily add new products in a user-friendly platform that’s easy for the staff to learn.

Jason and Gary knew what they needed to alleviate these pain points but didn’t have the expertise to create the solution themselves.

Solution

To build the precise solution to meet their needs, Gary and Jason turned to New Media Retailer (NMR) who presented an online platform that offered the capability to do social media, mass emailing, and combine all of this with a website offering blog posts and customer interaction.

NMR constructed the site by leveraging a one-hundred thousand SKU product database, integrated it with the e-commerce platforms, Shopify and Mortar, and better enabled one-to-one customer service.

The platform was designed to strengthen Barnes Supply Company by providing:

• A convenient platform for online orders and browsing of products.
• A safe space for customers to pick up orders in or outside the store.
• Monthly how-to articles for their customer base.
• Better tools to connect with customers and provide customer service.
• A platform for customers to stay up to date on offers and events.
• High visibility in Google.

Outcome

After launching the site in September 2020, Barnes Supply Company saw a sharp increase in online sales. The website also saw a dramatic increase in its rank in Google search results, topping competitors in the Durham area.

This no doubt contributed to the fact that by the end of the year, Barnes Supply Company saw thousands of dollars in online sales, an increase in foot traffic, and a higher volume of calls to the store. Within the first six months, the business had already acquired 419 new customers.

Perhaps most significantly, this sharp uptick in business came at a time when retail as a whole was being devastated as a result of pandemic-related lockdowns. Jason George directly attributes their success in the latter half of 2020 to their new online platform.

“No question having the curbside program where our customers have a designated area outside the store where they can pick up their online orders was a huge step for us,” Jason said. “I honestly don’t know where we would be right now without it.”

Aside from keeping the business COVID safe, Jason also notices how much easier it is to run the day-to-day operations. “Just having something that takes care of billing, payments, and substituting products that are fast to use and easy to use has made a world of difference. The old way seems like the dark ages now,” he said.

“I have to say New Media Retailer delivered on all their promises and more,” Jason said. “Their knowledge of the product and the functionality of their platform is top-notch – it’s pretty much ready to go and easy to use.”

Conclusion

Barnes Supply Company was a business at a crossroads. As a longstanding member of the Durham business community, a sense of tradition in the way they did business was part of the appeal. However, the rapidly changing retail landscape required owners Gary and Jason George to adapt to the times. Looking for a way to bolster their online presence and streamline business operations, Barnes Supply Company turned to New Media Retailer to implement a comprehensive solution. NMR constructed the website by leveraging a one-hundred thousand SKU product database, integrated it with the e-commerce platforms, Shopify and Mortar, and better enabled one-to-one customer service. The result was an increase in sales, foot traffic, and calls at a time when most other retail outlets were reeling from the effects of COVID-19.