It was 2001, and R. Tyler Smith believed
that e-commerce was an opportunity waiting to be developed.
With a background of entrepreneurship
and a desire to succeed, he and one of his
clients, Brad Sorock, formed a partnership
to start the company that became Niche
Retail LLC.
Noting the lack of specialty Web stores
on the Internet, Sorock had started his
own specialty ski Web store, partnering
with Jeff Wedren. Together, they built the
Web store in a way that was unconventional at the time.
Later that year, Sorock and Smith partnered to expand the concept of creating
niche Web stores to appeal to shoppers
who liked to research a product before
making a purchase. To encourage that,
they not only allowed customers to post
reviews — both positive and negative —
they also provided charts that allowed customers to compare options and offered an
easy shopping experience.
By 2005, Niche had 20 Web stores specializing in items such as jogging strollers
and water trampolines.
Smith is continually innovating, coming
up with new marketing techniques to set
his company apart from competitors. He
developed the concept of return shipping
insurance, allowing customers to return a
product for 2 percent of the product price.
And to reward those who don’t use the
insurance, he offers a percentage of the
cost back on a future product.
He also developed the idea of same-day
shipping if an order is placed by 4 p.m., an
idea that has since been adopted by many
other online retailers.
HOW TO REACH: Niche Retail LLC, www.nicheretail.com or
(248) 738-6200
