AreteOutdoors.com built around Lowe’s designs

EDITOR’S NOTE: A continuing series of exclusive Business Report question-and-answer interviews with top management of leading e-business companies in the Boulder Valley.

BOULDER — One of the newer players in the e-commerce game grew his business out of a vision he had as a teenager. His image included the sale of high-end products that were designed and promoted by the experienced members of the society that used them.

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Quite a few business experiences later, Tom Raabe partnered with those experienced members and went online as AreteOutdoors.com. Raabe presently is chief executive officer of the firm. With the goal of reinventing outdoor adventures, the company provides products and product reviews, adventure trips and community exchange to outdoor adventurers and experiential sports enthusiasts.

The business of AreteOutdoors.com is built around the original patentable designs of Michael Lowe, co-founder of Lowe Alpine Systems and partner in AreteOutdoors.com. As an icon in the outdoor sports industry, Lowe is well known for his outdoor product designs.

AreteOutdoors.com currently is testing prototypes for products expected to be on the market soon. Designed for gravity biking downhill on dirt or snow, the Dirt RUSH and Powder RUSH are built from a modified mountain bike frame – one looks similar to a bike without a seat, and the other looks similar to a snowboard with handlebars. The company is currently taking orders for SnowFangs, a uniquely re-engineered snowshoe designed by Lowe.

Business Report: How do you plan to use the expertise of outdoor adventurers besides using their input in developing outdoor equipment?

Raabe: We’ll be providing product reviews and trip reviews. Right now, there’s not enough expertise in the sales force to give users the kind of information they need to make informed buying decisions. Our articles will come from leaders in the specific sport they are versed in, who will address products, trips and the sports themselves.

BCBR: Why would anyone want to be a member of AreteOutdoors.com?

Raabe: We are a database-driven site with a Web site shell. Our engine will know who you are and where you’ve been if you’re a member. We can e-mail members classified ads and alerts for products, and members can offer articles for publication. It’s an advantage in terms of navigation, and it helps us improve the site. Membership is free.

BCBR: What have been some of your challenges in getting your site up and going? What have you learned along the way?

Raabe: The challenges have been the unknown trips and traps of putting the site together. We thought about it a lot and decided to be database driven because that’s where e-commerce is going now – being permission-based. To market products, it’s necessary to establish a relationship with the user and get their permission to sell them something. People don’t like to be spammed. Banner advertising is falling off in terms of effectiveness. Interaction between a site and its customers is increasing in importance.

We learned that we needed to customize our site after it was built. Designers don’t have a clue about the business of a site, so we’ve started by putting a marketing spin on it and bringing in some graphics. We drive the users now, and we need to turn that around so they can drive themselves through the site. No one wants four buttons that will all take them to the same place. That makes users leave a site in a nanosecond.

We’ve also had to look at making our site able to work on the lamest machine out there. People want instant gratification and the freedom to come and go and to feel good about buying from us. We’re addressing these things with a content-based user-driven site.

Fulfillment is the last mile of the Internet race, and we’re currently looking at various sources for that.

BCBR: What do you think is the edge e-commerce companies need to be successful?

Raabe: Dot-coms can’t live and die by the Internet. They need other channels of distribution and to develop B2B (business to business) aspects. Use the Web site as a marketing tool and for fulfillment. We’re going to sell other products made by other companies as well as our own.

BCBR: What are some of your B2B plans?

Raabe: We’ll sell our products in the channels best suited to them, like selling snowshoe products to ski areas and resorts. People may buy a snowshoe from our site, but mostly they’ll want to touch it before buying it. We’ll use other people’s bricks and mortars for that. We’ll pick good products and write reviews on them – making us more of a marketing business than a sales business.

BCBR: What kind of funding do you have?

Raabe: Primary funding comes from our parent company, Arete Industries. It’s publicly owned and attracts investors. Our concept is different from a lot of other e-commerce companies, though. We have 10 employees, not 100. We’re not out to get $12 million and run a Web site. Instead, we’re going after products that will bring in revenue. We’re looking at our site as a marketing tool. We expect to make a profit next summer.

BCBR: What are your long-term goals?

Raabe: I’m an attorney by trade and have spent the last 18 years starting companies and working to fix and turn companies around. My goal is to become a seed stage start-up incubator and exit from active practice.