York Daily Record: Replitiques Article

Written by Sharon Smith. Reprinted by permission of the York Daily Record. (This article originally appeared in the January 2, 2005 issue of the York Daily Record.)

E-commerce paying off

Area business profits from Web sales

By SHARON SMITH

Daily Record/Sunday News

Sunday, January 2, 2005

When Liz Chiz needed to buy props that would give a movie set in California the look and feel of an East Coast farmhouse, she logged onto the Internet. The independent contractor needed antiques or something that looked like antiques for the upcoming Steven Spielberg movie “War of the Worlds. She also needed two of everything — one for the clean set and another for the one used by special effects.

Ron in shop Normally, Chiz would rent the items. But the items in this movie set will be destroyed. So Chiz did what anybody in her situation would do. She Googled. What she found was Replitiques, a York Haven-based business specializing in antique reproductions.

She bought two candle boxes in barn red, two parlor boxes in antique pine, two wall boxes in whitewash and two pantry cabinets in Amish blue.

For Chiz, her prop problem was solved. For Ron and Diane Brougher, Replitiques’ owners, the order meant their online marketing is working, and their gamble on e-commerce is paying off.

Shopping online

Don’t let the dot-com bust of the 1990s fool you. Online retailing has been growing and is continuing to grow for the Broughers and others like them. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that U.S. retail e-commerce sales for the third quarter of 2004 were $916.5 billion. The third quarter 2004 e-commerce estimate increased 21.5 percent from the third quarter of 2003, while total retail sales increased 6.2 percent during the same period. According to the Census Bureau, e-commerce sales accounted for 1.9 percent of total retail sales made between July and September of 2004.

The figures come as little surprise to Ron Brougher. The Replitiques site had registered 265,923 hits as of Dec. 30.

With the help of their daughter-in-law, the Broughers took their business online in the late 1990s. The Internet has enabled the couple, both in their 60s, to build their business without having to schlep their wares to craft shows.

“We gave up the arts and crafts circuit,” Brougher said. “It’s a lot of work. We have dealers that we sell to pretty much around the United States.”

Promoting e-commerce

And that is just the kind of entrepreneurial success the state is trying to encourage. Through a variety of programs and partnerships, the state has tried to assist residents in their online endeavors. The e-Business Technical Assistance Program at Penn State University is one way the state is reaching out to perspective online-retailers. The program offers free technology experience to Pennsylvania businesses. Last year, e-TAP’s specialists responded to 430 requests for assistance. That help lead to the creation or retention of 455 jobs and $15 million in economic benefits, according to the Pennsylvania Technical Assistance Program’s annual report.

The Internet is an ideal place for small businesses with little capital, but big ideas. “It’s much more cost-effective from some of the business plans we’ve looked at,” said Jeannine Marttila, with the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development. Specialty items, crafts and rare books are all businesses that lend themselves to e-commerce, she said. “You could reach a much broader customer base online,” she said.

And that’s exactly what the Broughers have done. The couple’s small role in the upcoming Spielberg movie proves it.

When Chiz called the couple and told him who she was, what she wanted and who she was working for, Ron Brougher was skeptical.

“I called her, she said ‘No, for real,’” he said. “They had looked at quite a few Web sites. (Spielberg) needed things like what we make.”

The couple, who make the antique reproductions in their basement, are working to fill Chiz’s order. The order, which amounts to about $800 for the Broughers, has to be in California by Jan. 7.

“We’re pushing it,” Brougher said.

But for the Broughers it’s a good kind of push. If everything works out, the couple should be able to see their handiwork on the big screen this summer.

Reach Sharon Smith at 771-2029 or ssmith@ydr.com.