Hat Blog

Keeping eCommerce Real

I have an aversion toward modern clichés like "keep it real", but in a world of avatars, nanos, virtuals, digital manipulation, etc. this heretofore fatuous remark, needs some new respect.

"Keep It Real" monkey stencil by British street artist, BANKSY photo: banksy.co.uk

In my line of work, what could be more basic, old-school, "real" if you will, than a hat? Why bother making distinctions about what's real and what's not? Well, it's not so simple if the hat seller is online. Here's why: Instead of the indispensable focus on styling, workmanship and materials, fit, functionality, trimmings and other details of the trade, hatters today can easily get bogged down in online marketing and e-commerce competition, improving operations, software, hardware, IT upgrades, logistics of shipping, receiving, distribution, etc. Don't get me wrong, all these activities - peripheral to the hat itself - are important for an online retail business to succeed. But, all these other things are for naught if the headwear delivered at the end of this complicated chain of activity is not a good product. Furthermore, there may be other online sellers out there who can do some of this other stuff better than us (there are plenty of e-commerce generalists selling hats online, as well as every other product), but compared to us, many of these others are not, and will never be, "for real".

2010 is our 30^th year in the hat business (and we've just completed our 14^th holiday season online). We know that keeping our eye on the ball - uh, I mean the hat - is what it is all about. So, as the year develops, stay tuned for lots of new products. We will continue to add hats that are well made and are good values. New and interesting additions to our catalog are arriving regularly. We have 2010 visits planned to hat factories all over the world and will hold the manufacturers "feet to the fire" to get our products made right.

Please continue to help us with this process by writing Customer Reviews at the page where your product was purchased. Not only is this feedback very useful for other people considering a purchase, but it informs us about which headwear needs improvements (or elimination from our offerings) and why.

Thanks for your support over these past three decades. We are the same people with the same fundamental values who opened the first Village Hat Shop on May 2, 1980. We will continue to provide the good service and good hats that our customers rightly expect and deserve.

Thank you for your patronage and best wishes for 2010,

Fred Belinsky
www.VillageHatShop.com

The Village Hat Shop Rocks Hillcrest at its 2009 Holiday Party

This year, the stars aligned. We have three very talented bands closely associated with our business. These are established, well-recognized, California musicians and song writers. So, what better way to celebrate than to dine and imbibe at our favorite local Hillcrest restaurant, Saigon On Fifth, and "kick out the jams" (am I showing my age and Detroit roots?). We took over the banquet room, set up the back line, closed the doors to the main restaurant, and rocked.

The Silent Comedy opened. Their set included the world premier of guitarist Tim Graves’s song "Bartholomew". Among the bands many accomplishments, The Silent Comedy performed this year at the San Diego Music Awards and won the 2009 Best Pop Artist award. Next up was Lauren DeRose accompanied by Marissa Oliver on violin. Lauren is a top-tier singer/songwriter. Her musical training includes 3-years at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Boston's loss is San Diego's (and The Village Hat Shop’s) gain. Simply put, Lauren’s honesty and musical virtuosity is wonderfully unique. After stomachs were full with good food and potent potables, the perfect closing band was the rhythm and blues of Tori Roze and The Hot Mess. The big sound of this five-piece band filled the room and the party was on, full-tilt. The Hot Mess is Lee Clark (Tori’s mom!): Flute/Backup Vocals/Added Percussion, Jordan Morita: Trombone, Johnny Alexander: Guitar, Harley Magsino: Bass, and Serge McCoy: Drums. Tori, in addition to the lead vocalist, plays trumpet, keys, and acoustic guitar. Tori's soul singing reminds me of the great jazz and blues stylists of the middle 20th Century, but with her own very distinctive modern lyrical bent. The music and lyrics from all the bands is original.

What a party! What good fortune to be surrounded by such wonderful and talented people on a daily basis. Lauren and Tori work at VHS HQ. Our connection to The Silent Comedy is by way of our Christine, Tim Graves’s "lady" as he so aptly put it his shout-out. We also have a sponsorship deal with TSM (these fellas wear Jaxon Hats; and they did so before we hooked up). So, it’s all good. We should only be as fortunate next year to have this entire gang still closely connected to The Village Hat Shop. Who knows, maybe we even can run this gig again!

Fred Belinsky
www.VillageHatShop.com

Iconic Hats: Newsboy Hats and Ivy Hats

[This is article #8 in a series on iconic hats. It joins The Top Hat, The Bowler, The Fedora, The Cowboy Hat, The Beret, The Baseball Cap, and The Fez.]

^{Newsboy caps and ivy caps – variously known as flat caps, baker boy hats, driving caps, golf caps, English caps, eight-quarter caps, etc. – date to pre-World War I and historically are associated with the working classes. In pictures from this period, as well as in literature, one finds factory workers, laborers, construction workers [there is a famous 1932 photograph by Charles C. Ebbets of construction workers on a beam over NYC - Lunch Atop A Skyscraper -where most are wearing a newsboy or ivy cap], etc. wearing variations of cloth caps. Because this headwear was cut-and-sewn primarily from either cotton or woolen fabrics, variations were plentiful and a man could easily distinguish himself from the next by his choice of color, material (e.g. tweed, herringbone, etc.), or style (cut). Furthermore, these caps were inexpensive when compared to the full size hats of the day like bowlers, top hats, or fedoras, so a person could own more than one and, if so inclined, change his hat from day to day. Because of the small size, soft nature, and portability of these caps, their popularity spread to young professionals, college fraternities ("ivy" cap as in Ivy League), sportsmen ("golf" cap as worn by the likes of Bobby Jones and Ben Hogan), etc. A man accustomed to dressing up for work during the week with a full size hat, could now wear this informal cap on the weekend signaling his "time off" while he pursued leisure activity without stepping down in class.}

^{Today, the popularity of ivy and newsboy hats is perhaps second only to its ubiquity in the early 20th Century. The English-born Kangol 504 cap helped to revitalize this style in the mid to late 1990s. Movie stars, musicians, golfers, fashionistas, skate boarders, people young and old, can be found on a daily basis wearing a newsboy or ivy cap frontwards, backwards, or sideways. . Those who determined that this was "my style" quickly learned that the variations of this headwear style are virtually limitless. Many – like my father – make a hobby of collecting caps and make certain to pick up one or two while traveling in the British Isles or Europe.}

^{Fred Belinsky
VillageHatShop.com} 

 

The Promises of the Internet

We launched www.VillageHatShop.com in 1997.  Over the years, I have written about what I considered to be the promises of the Internet – major advancements in the areas of information, communication, and shopping. The potential synergy (an overused word but it fits here) of all this provided impetus for us to get an early start as online merchants as we believed that this new sales channel was a good fit for our abilities.  Although there is much to argue about in the areas of information and communication (e.g. Google’s efforts at digitizing the world of books, controlling junk email, the integrity and value of new media/blogs, etc.), I believe that, basically, the promise has been met.  Namely, email is the reason that I’m back in touch with many old friends and I can find the answer to virtually any question that comes to mind.   

However, the promise of online retail – what I do and think about every day – to improve shopping has had mixed results and the future is unclear.  E-commerce was to include a great selection of goods, the convenience of not having to bother with malls (some of us, I for one, don’t particularly like going to malls), and, at least in part, the possibility that the customer and the merchant would once again have a meaningful relationship (primarily because email would allow for exceptional communication in support of shopping and fulfillment).  The customer could visit the merchant’s site, see and read information about the products, get a good sense of the business, email questions to the merchant with the expectation of a timely reply, purchase conveniently, and have the product show up at his/her door.  (Wow – what was there not to like?). 

Isn’t this working?  Some things are: They include price competition as it’s easy to compare prices from one site to another, delivery is getting faster because fulfillment speed matters, the promise of a bigger selection has certainly been met, along with the ever-growing ability to garner more information online about one’s prospective purchase. 

So what’s the problem?  A meaningful connection between customers and merchants in real stores is in danger of being lost (later: why we should care).   This merchant/customer relationship started out well in the early days of e-commerce (at least with the better merchants), but is eroding.  An increasing number of online customers have no idea who they have purchased from!  In the first half of 2009, fully twenty-four percent* thought that they had bought from either a search engine (Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc.) or a comparison shopping engine (Shopzilla, Shopping.com, NexTag, PriceGrabber, etc.).  In the early days of e-commerce, a smaller merchant actually could compete rather well against big faceless corporations. The current trend however is clear: businesses with the deepest pockets will dominate the top positions at the search and comparison engines.  The giants, with their online marketing partners, will overwhelm Main Street in this new channel just like they are doing in the old world.  Good communication between the customer and a real merchant about product features, delivery, etc. – forget about it.  Phone calls to a real store – nope. 

Here’s an example of one e-commerce business model that is growing rapidly:  The online seller has no store (never has had one) and no inventory (never has had any).  All the products sold are delivered to the end-user from a drop-shipper.  If you call the site and ask a question about a product, the customer service people are trained to search the Internet for the answer.  We tested one such company (this one has 200 people answering phones!) with a call and this simple question: I’m considering one of your hats.  How do I determine my hat size?  The answer was read, verbatim, from our site.  No stores, no inventory, no direct experience with the merchandise that they sell – a virtual business.  The CEO proudly claims that they add 2-3 drop-shippers a day – every day.  They aggressively compete in all online marketing channels, and virtually every decision is driven by the extraordinary data that’s available to the nth degree: each customer’s shopping habits, the conversion rate of the site’s content and navigation stream identifiable to the smallest bit, the drop-ship vendor’s report card, and much much more.  This model worships the data that inexorably grows the top line revenues and allows for the continual narrowing of profit margins to the point where smaller merchants (with three-dimensional merchandise to stock and stores to run) will not be able to compete.  There is nothing nefarious about this.  Simply put, smart and savvy businesspeople are exploiting and leveraging the manifold elements of this new channel for financial gain.  Unfortunately, this was inevitable.  In order to compete, smaller online merchants hailing from the late years of the last century - along with their experimental spirit and pioneering enthusiasm – will either considerably grow and change their businesses so that they adapt to new methods of commerce (throwing in the towel on a Small is Beautiful**/ClueTrain*** people-centered and product-focused approach) or will be trampled. 

Cultural historians often identify the “Golden Years” of television, the movies, rock and roll, impressionist art, etc. as the nascent times when these heady mediums were most dynamic while early adapters felt their way forward, before the interests of big money saw the potential and entered the fray.  Add online retailing to the list. 

With online shopping, we need to ask the same questions that we are (hopefully) asking in the bricks-and-mortar world.   If (when?) it becomes all about price and nothing more, what will we lose?  What about quality or harmony or convenience or neighborhood vitality or meaningful relationships?  Although an inexact parallel, a restaurant’s quality where the proprietor is present is almost always better than one where he/she is not. 

Despite where this will go, I feel that The Village Hat Shop and www.VillageHatShop.com is duty bound to achieve something beyond making money.  Any self-respecting merchant understands that he/she is an actor within the confines of society.  To truly succeed (beyond financial success) one must contribute to the community by creating a place that improves upon the larger world that the customer leaves when entering the store (or web site).  This mission can be complicated and I would be disingenuous if I did not make clear that we operate four stores in three different California cities (I am not the restaurateur greeting you at the door).  Some might argue that I am no longer a merchant, but have crossed the line to retail businessman.  They may be correct, but I do still struggle with the scale of our operation and its relationship to doing the right thing.   Businesses with these values have already begun to move out of our neighborhoods.   

That’s the problem, and why we should care.  We’ll all be voting with our pocketbooks as to what kind of world we want (assuming that our searches – on or off line - continue to return real choices).

Fred Belinsky
www.VillageHatShop.com
 

*ChannelAdvisor White Paper: “How Consumers Shop Online: A bi-annual study of consumer buying behavior”

**Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered by E. F. Schumacher

*** The Cluetrain Manifesto - http://www.cluetrain.com

Business and Creativity

 

I’m fixated of late - obsessed at times - on the relationship between successfully navigating The Village Hat Shop through this current state of affairs and thinking creatively. Whether it be remaining open-minded and experimental in marketing our web site, or creating new ball cap designs, or introducing a community herb and vegetable garden at our headquarters location in San Diego, or pulling out our decades-old, vintage hat trimmings and marrying these wonderful old accouterments/feathers/spangles/etc. with our felt hats for the upcoming season, something tells me - some loud and clear voice from within – that the way through this "thing" is to employ innovation as the guiding principle. Retail business has always been, and will always be, more art than science.

What’s the relationship, one might ask, between a herb and vegetable garden and selling hats. It should come as no surprise to those of you who are gardeners that as I dig a hole in the small plot next to my office and prepare the soil for our four different varieties of tomatos, that some idea, totally unrelated to what I am doing, will "pop" into my head. Eureka!--Break up the Ivy and Newsboy page at the site into micro sites for easier navigation. Or, design a ball cap with . . . .  You get the point.

This imperative for creative thinking is evident; I’m only edifying the obvious. The world - certainly the world of ecommerce - is changing with stunning speed. Last year’s great idea may be this year’s "old hat." Close-mindedness or inflexible business plans are the death knell. Thinking outside the box is a requirement if one is to discover - or catch the wave of - the next big thing.

None of this is to say that the merchant fundamentals of offering the right products along with good customer service will be anything but the very foundation of a good retail business. But, how to get the salient message to the customer that we are delivering these fundamentals in the midst of this very competitive and difficult environment  is the goal that requires the utmost in creativity. 

Fred Belinsky
www.VillageHatShop.com

Customer Service and Family History

 Detroit, Michigan, 1933.  25-year old merchant Irving Belinsky (standing in center with rolled shirt sleeves) in his Film Exhange Drug Store.  

June 29, 2009

I spoke today with my UK based nephew Bruce who heads our newest headwear venture, www.VillageHats.co.uk in London. I encouraged him to hire another employee as our business is doing well and the current staff is maxed out. His reply made me smile because it fit so neatly into our family lore. "The next person I hire would have to help me with customer service," he said. "That could be a problem because nobody in the history of the world has done customer service as well as me." I didn’t say it, but in fact I thought, "no way, no one could be better at customer service than me." My wife Tina – who heads this department at VillageHatShop.com – thinks the same about herself. I know that my now retired brother Arnold, a wildly successful retailer, thinks the same about himself. His three children – all retailers – ditto. Our entire clan was raised on the belief that this customer service impulse was in our blood. We come by this idea courtesy of my father Irving, Bruce’s grandfather, and the now apocryphal stories of the style and manner with which he ran his stores.

Here’s an exemplar: My dad, a pharmacist, was in the drug store business. Though, you would never see him trapped all day behind the pharmacy counter. He was a merchant, not a pill counter. One mid-1940s summer, my brother was working, as usual, at my dad’s store. He observed a customer-let’s call her Mrs. Kowalski-come up to the counter and ask my dad for a particular over-the-counter (non-prescription) preparation. "I’m sorry Mrs. K," my dad replied, "we don’t carry that product." As Mrs. Kowalski began to sag, my dad didn’t miss a beat, ". . . but I will have that for you tomorrow; come back in the morning. " She smiled and with my dad wishing her a good day, she left the store. The following morning, my father roused my brother a half-hour earlier than normal announcing that they had a stop to make on the way to work. Heading in a direction away from the store, my dad stopped at the warehouse of one of his wholesale suppliers. My brother waited in the car while my dad went inside, returning ten minutes later. Off they went to open the store. By and by, Mrs. Kowalski appeared at the counter. My father greeted her, "Good afternoon Mrs. Kowalski." He then reached around the corner and with both his thumbs and index fingers gingerly holding a small tube on each side, slowly presented the product on the counter in front of his customer. "That will be 49-cents please."

Bruce (and all the rest), beat that! We all learned from the master.

Fred Belinsky
www.VillageHatShop.com

Village Hat Shop's Guide to History: The History of Baseball

Click the image for more information about the history of the baseball cap.

Bridging the Classic Tension between the Sciences and the Humanities

Bridging the Classic Tension between the Sciences and the Humanities

or Handling IT Service Guys

 

Running a successful business is more art than science.  Of this, I am quite certain. However, understanding science, specifically technology and perhaps some math - or at least being able to effectively communicate with people who do - is vital.  This is especially true if one’s business is Internet retailing.  If, like me, you are more inclined toward the humanities than the sciences, successful communication with the techies can be a challenge.  [If you are an ecommerce CEO with the luxury of in-house IT staff, skip this blog entry.] 

Here is the persona that often shows up on the telephone when you call for IT service.  The guy (in my experience, the person is almost always as male) will rarely leave his comfort zone.  Before you can even dream of making human contact or chatting about the problem at hand, he’ll want your ID number, your case number, your password, your secret question answered, and perhaps your name (but this might be incidental and he’ll never refer to you by name).   His flat affect will remind you that he is doing this work because he thinks – mistakenly – that he can avoid the messiness of real human affairs.  When it came time to get a job, “Technology Service” was hiring, but unfortunately for him, talking to people was part of the deal.  At one point in his life, he was a “gamer”, a geek who was unpopular and “weird.”  He relished privacy and every single day hoped that people would just leave him alone. 

Now you need his help, and he doesn’t like you from the get-go because you are a. a human being and b. an idiot who doesn’t even know your own IP address or where to find your cookies.  You need a good strategy to get your needs met:  1. Be self-effacing (even if you know a thing or two).  For heaven’s sake, don’t try and sound competent as this will surely get you painted into a corner.  Example: “I am a dummy when it comes to this stuff.  Please go easy on me.”  2.  Build him up:  “Your skills make today’s world go round.  Or the rhetorical, “How could businesses survive without your expertise?” 

This should lay the necessary groundwork.  Now, your goal is to get a single example of any right brain behavior exhibited in the conversation, like humor for example.  If you succeed, don’t over-react as this may signal a retreat.  Rather, validate the behavior in an understated manner.  At this point, you should be home free.  Cautiously navigate your way toward completion of your IT service objective with your new friend. 

Good luck and . . . May the Force be With You (is that what those guys say?  I get the trekkies and techies mixed up).

Fred Belinsky 
www.VillageHatShop.com
www.VillageHats.co.uk

 

 

What I Learned From Marco Polo That Applies to the Current Economic Crisis

If you are disinclined to read this entire article and simply want to know what I learned, it is this: Empires and civilizations come and go, but good merchants survive.  The longer version follows.

My wife’s book club had sent her its latest offering.  She was not picking it up, so, after a few days, I did.   MARCO POLO From VENICE to XANADU by Laurence Bergreen pulled me right in.  Being a merchant, I immediately identified with the Polos (Marco, his father Niccolo, and his uncle Maffeo) who made their way around the world negotiating, forming alliances, and avoiding legal and political trouble.  The requirements for being a successful merchant today have not changed.  To my thinking, merchants are more like craftsmen than they are like bankers.  Banks, financial institutions, and the like are intimately connected with governments, their institutions and their economic policies.  Merchants however exist within and beside any and every economic system ever devised or that ever will be devised.  Marco, Niccolo, and Maffeo Polo were always looking out for the next trading opportunity.  In every country and culture that they traveled through or settled in, their objective was to find the local merchants and trade for goods.  Niccolo and Maffeo did this for 17 years, returned to Venice, and then departed again, this time with 19-year old Marco, for an additional 24 years.  Their adventures were hair-raising; we follow Marco’s coming of age and his maturation as a student of the world. The extraordinary stories were sometimes unimaginable. But all was in the service of their trade.  Whether operating within a rising or falling Mongolia dominated Asia (this was the time of Kublai Khan) or a rising or falling Venice (Marco Polo actually writes the story of his Travels while a prisoner of war in Genoa) – all of which supplied context for the Polos in the late 13th Century – they continued to “do their thing” and prospered. 

These days, as I go out and about, it is apparent that many stores and restaurants are hurting.  As a small businessman, it saddens me to see these businesses failing (no government bailout coming to these folks).  But, what really intrigues me are the, even now, many busy stores and restaurants.  I stand in them and marvel.  What-I ask myself–is this place doing right?  And, what do all busy businesses have in common?  Here are my observations: A. Sell what customers are looking for.  Gone are the days–for now at least–when people can be separated from their money for stuff they didn’t really want or need.  B. A business today must offer authentic value.  For example, no longer can you retail a purse for $1,500 when the materials, workmanship, features, and design ought to make it a $150 purse.  C. Service must be exceptional.  Nothing less will do.  D. A good reputation (brand) helps, but only if A, B, and C are in place. 

There are stores that literally survive hundreds of years through all manner of upheaval.  In my industry for example, Lock & Co. has been a retail hatter in London since 1676 and in the same location–No. 6 St. James Street–since 1764.  Think about what England has gone through these past 333 years.  Like I said at the outset: Empires and civilizations come and go, but responsive, open-minded, and creative merchants - like the Polos - survive. 

Fred Belinsky
VillageHatShop.com
VillageHats.co.uk

Why Unconditional Free Shipping Is Bad For Us

A few years back I was standing by the customer service counter at Staples.  A man walked up and handed the employee an empty ink cartridge for a copy machine.  The “customer” said that he bought the product six months previously but had just now opened the package and determined that the cartridge was empty – no ink.  He didn’t present a receipt or any of the packaging material (these big cartridges come packed in boxes with inner seals).  The employee kept the large empty plastic container, asked no questions, and issued the man a voucher for another cartridge.  When the customer walked away the employee must have seen me roll my eyes.  He volunteered that although he did not believe the man’s story, he did what Staples policy required.  “You see” he said, “that’s Office Depots policy and we have to compete.”

Last week I was at an Internet marketing conference at Google’s Silicon Valley campus.  One of the speakers was a VP who leads the worldwide ecommerce operations of a large corporation that did a billion dollars in revenue in 2008.  After the conference, we sat next to each other on the shuttle to the airport.  The topic turned to free shipping.  He told this story: his 14-year old daughter bought and returned 20 pairs of soccer shoes from Zappos.com before finally keeping a pair.  For those of you who may not know, Zappos is a well-known ecommerce shoe retailer whose marketing strategy has centered on their policy of free shipping and free returns.

I don’t know if Zappos is making money these days (I doubt they did on the soccer shoes customer), but I do know that they were not profitable in their early years and this past November they laid-off 8% of their people.  But whether or not this shipping strategy is sustainable is not my central point.  Zappos is not serving the public good.  Neither is Staples or Office Depot (if that return policy is still in place). Our society needs its people to take a measure of responsibility when an individual enters into a transaction with a merchant.  When people are allowed to behave with impunity in the marketplace, we all eventually pay.  [Think current economic crisis.]

I first saw this problem coming with Nordstrom.  What buzz was created with their take-it-back-no-questions-asked policy.  People competed to out-do each other with their “Who-screwed-Nordstrom-worse-and-Nordstrom-didn’t-care” stories.   It became a kind of shopping joke, while at the same time apparently, a successful marketing strategy for Nordstrom.  For small merchants, this was not a joke.  It was a problem on a par with Wal-Mart opening a store on the outskirts of a small town.  Historically, the fundamental goal for a merchant was to nurture a good relationship with a customer [not unlike a community’s banks].  Nobody was out to cheat anybody: merchants needed customers and people needed stores.  Each side took his/her respective responsibility in the trade.  To lose this nexus means losing a measure of our collective and personal values; unraveling a bit of our social fabric.  Big corporations, not operating on a human scale, “train” customers (like the innocent 14-year old) that our marketplace is neutral on the subject of responsibility in the transaction (the data from computer modeling informs these businesses that these policies can generate more profit given certain assumptions and time frames irrespective of specific transactions).  But for smaller merchants with fairly priced merchandise, unconditional free shipping is unsustainable; human scale and time don’t allow it.

“So what”, you may say.  If you can’t compete, try a monastery or a cave (or go to work for a big corporation).  But it’s not that simple.  Policies like “unconditional free shipping” or “return merchandise with no questions asked” are a bubble (or a deception).  And we have all become experts on the fate of bubbles.   As I am implying, I believe this is not unrelated to all the bad business practices that we all have become aware of and that have gotten us into this current economic mess.  Like lenders loaning us money for homes we couldn’t afford, or credit card companies sending us cards so that we’d go into debt and pay onerous interest rates and fees, this is ultimately (whether intended or not) just another way to dupe us.   

The best merchants on or off line are gimmick free, not shipping free.  I suggest supporting them rather than a business that, because it absolves the customer from acting responsibly, may be both sealing its own fate while simultaneously bringing down its betters.  But the overarching problem is worse-the erosion of our commonweal. 

Fred Belinsky

The Village Hat Shop