Branded: Internet retailer delivers big-name products

BOULDER – In the field of Internet retailing, Joe Brands may be the new guy in town, but he’s a guy to be reckoned with.

The creation of Boulder entrepreneur John Rosen, Joe Brands offers brand-name merchandise to online shoppers, complete with the discount pricing consumers have come to expect from large-inventory retailers.

Rosen began his first business in 1998, selling gift items with licensed names such as John Deere and NASCAR to some of the biggest retailers in the country, including Target and Wal-Mart. Looking to get away from big retail distributors, he revamped by starting a business selling children’s furniture to smaller stores, as well as Internet retailers.

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“We became frustrated by smaller retailers unwilling or unable to pay, as well as the unproductive use of resources,” he said. “You spend money by speculating on inventory, and you end up filling a warehouse, which is counterproductive.”

Through his previous businesses, Rosen had forged ties with licensees, offering products that ranged from Spiderman Easter baskets to Lego and Crayola gift sets. These alliances, combined with his own marketing savvy, led Rosen into developing Joe Brands, an online store offering recognizable brand names to Internet shoppers. These branded products range from high-quality children’s items, such as wagons made by Radio Flyer, to licensed official logo sports products, home and garden accessories and gift items licensed by companies such as Coca-Cola.

“The name ‘Joe Brands’ comes from the brand names we sell – licensed classic branded products,” Rosen said. “We saw the volumes of these products that Wal-Mart was selling, but we didn’t see people selling this way on the Internet.”

Rosen describes the Web site, www.joebrands.com, as “a site where your typical specialty store customer can find brands they love.” Thanks to the Internet, JoeBrands.com can maintain a huge inventory, which means volume pricing.

“We have a strategy that’s built around volume, and to make a profit our prices have to be right,” Rosen said. “We’re trying to make our prices equal to or better than local stores.”

In addition to the discount pricing that customers are used to seeing at large retailers, Joe Brands routinely offers free shipping on orders higher than $99.

JoeBrands.com is divided into four merchandise categories: kids, home and garden, gifts and sports. The JoeBrands.com Web site has been up since 2004, and already Rosen is expanding the business by starting another site, ekydz.com, which specializes in children’s merchandise only. More specialty sites are planned for the coming months.

“We’re going deeper and broader into everything we presently do,” Rosen said. “But we don’t want to spread ourselves too thin. If someone comes into our site looking for Denver Broncos items, they don’t want to see two items, they want to see 50. We want to be sure that each one of our Internet stores has a great selection.”

Rosen, along with four other employees, operates Joe Brands out of an office in Boulder, and uses outsource warehousing for his inventory. The low overhead, combined with his innovative marketing of high-quality brand-name goods, has lead to success in spite of a sluggish retail economy.

“In the second year, our sales were 450 percent higher than in the first year,” he said. “And we expect this year’s sales to double from last year’s.”

But the ultimate object, he said, is not just to turn over dollars.

“Our goal is to create a sustainable, profitable business, not just a flash in the pan,” he said. “We want to generate a business that is profitable over time.

“It’s not like the movie ‘Field of Dreams’ – just something we threw up there and hoped people would come,” he added. “We’re investing a lot into making this as good a shopping experience as you can have on the Internet.”