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Greenhouse Grower Magazine November 1996 A Growing Presence On The Net By Linda Hoy Socha, Managing Editor The InterNet offers high visibility and profit opportunities for retail growers to reach thousands of potential customers on line. A retail grower tends to plants, while a thousand miles away a customer interacts one on one with that grower's offerings on the InterNet. The customer places an order and the grower profits without ever leaving the greenhouse. This once futuristic scenario is no longer fantasy as growers reap the benefits of the Information Superhighway. Highway To Help. The rapid way the InterNet overcomes distance and time can be lifesaving when it comes to diagnosing an ailing plant. A grower can photograph the plant, download it, and email it to a diagnostician for help, all within minutes. Email also allows product updates to be sent to customers for free. Of course, being on the Net takes effort, and whoever puts the information on your site will need skills to do it and will have to make sure the information gets updated and remains targeted to users. And somebody will have to respond to email. A Site To Behold. At John Shelley's Garden Center & Nursery, that person is none other than John Shelley, whose site at http://www.gdnctr.com/ accurately advertises itself as "well worth the ride from anywhere". Shelley, a retail grower, based in Felton, PA, who has been in business for 6 years, went on line in January and has already sold several landscape jobs and fields 70-85 questions a day. He created the site himself. "I was trapped here for 3 days during the blizzard in January with my one-eyed cat," he explains. Visitors to his site can read more about his adventures in John's Journal and take a look at Pickles, the one-eyed cat. Shelley also has a list of his most interesting email and answer to FAQs (frequently Asked Questions), as well as information on his trough and water gardens, workshops, awards, what's new, and much more. He receives frequent email about plant problems and spends 20-25 hours each week working on his site. "You make changes all the time," Shelley says. Virtual Retail. Shelley advises carving out a vertical niche as an expert in one area. His high quality niche is serving him well, he says, and it's fun meeting people and helping them solve problems. Customer from a 300 mile radius can order his troughs and water gardens. Drawing from 11 different states, he even captured the fancy of a Texas businessman who saw his web site and decided to visit his operation while in town on a business trip. It's still too early totell if profits will increase, but Shelley is enjoying the notoriety. "You become very much in the public eye," he explains. Maintaining a quality web site should be fun, he says. "If it's a labor, if it's a chore to do it, then get off the Net," he says. He advises hiring someone to create the initial site and estimates that costs will range from $50 to set up a static site with just a home page and email to $500 for a dynamic site with a home page, 3-4 additional pages and graphics. "Third generation" websites with animation can cost several thousand dollars, says Shelley, who recently updated his site to this level. Back to The Reviews Page ©1996 - 2001. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. John Shelley's Garden Center & Nursery, Inc. 13579 Winterstown Road, Felton, PA. 17322-8522 vox: (717) 246-1414 1-800-828-3405 (Pa-Md) fax: (717) 246-2170 Last updated 5/8/99. 22,783,959 visitors since 1/26/96.