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TMCNet: Eat'n Park has sold $800,000 worth of products online [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]

[March 31, 2012]

Eat'n Park has sold $800,000 worth of products online [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]

(Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) March 31--There are people who never received a Smiley cookie in their formative years, never had that warm fuzzy feeling from getting a free dessert at Eat'n Park when Mom would not have bought one otherwise, maybe have never even heard of the restaurant chain -- and yet they are buying its famed Pittsburgh cookie online.

The Homestead-based restaurant chain sold $800,000 worth of cookies and related goods online in fiscal year 2011, with just $236,000 of those to Pennsylvania addresses.

Smiley, set apart from competitors' cookies by his trademarked grin, turns out to be a useful ambassador for this experiment. Lessons learned here could be useful later as digital technology works its way into all aspects of Eat'n Park's business.

"We're starting to build an e-commerce expertise," said Adam Golomb, who worked in marketing for the company when he was named director of e-commerce for Eat'n Park Hospitality Group two years ago.

The project seemed a logical choice because the company already was online in a low-key way and already had a baking facility in Robinson with capacity to make more cookies.

And the food-gifting market, where cookies ordered online seem to fit, is growing. In 2009, it was estimated at just under $17 billion, up 7 percent from two years earlier, according to a report from Packaged Facts, a consumer market research firm in Rockville, Md.

Early on, the Eat'n Park operation counted on the Pittsburgh diaspora to order cookies and produce revenue while the team worked to reach new markets. Following the June 2010 upgrade of the company's e-commerce site, it recorded just over $53,000 in sales to Pennsylvania addresses and total sales of about $275,000 through December.

Even with the growth in 2011, the online sales are still a tiny piece of the company's total $350 million annual revenues.

A business-to-business segment was born after Mr. Golomb attended a trade show to pitch the food-gifting aspect and got questions about whether businesses could get their logos on cookies. He hurried back to figure out how to do that. A high-end logo printer converted to handle food color handles the customization.

Meanwhile, marketing tools such as search engine optimization, which improves a term's chances of turning up high in the results of people's online searches, as well as paid search ads and marketing that rewards third-party sites for sending users to Eat'n Park all raised Smiley's profile.

To really grab attention from groups of people who'd probably never heard of Smiley, the company worked with Living Social, a daily deal site that sends its email subscribers discounted offers.

Pittsburghers did not get the offer last September for $20 worth of goods from the Eat'n Park online store for $10. It was reserved for five mid-sized cities, such as Orlando, Fla.; Birmingham, Ala.; and Little Rock, Ark.

Mr. Golomb said 1,100 vouchers were sold, enough that the daily deal site included the company in a 12 days of gifting package in December. That one sold 5,600 vouchers and added 14,000 subscribers to Eat'n Park's email list. "They're driving a ton of traffic," he said.

The site also carries chocolate chip cookies, but those are in more direct competition with rivals such as Mrs. Fields. The original Smiley cookie is the real driving force, Mr. Golomb said.

Customers also can order a 12-inch Smiley cookie for $16.99 or 18 minis for $15.99. For $42.99 you get a Get Well Soon basket with a dozen basic cookies and a dozen milk chocolate Smileys made by Sarris Candies.

So far, the customer base is overwhelmingly female, generally between 30 and 50 years old, and buying a gift for a friend or a relative. It turns out that when ordering cookies online, said Mr. Golomb, "very rarely do people buy for self consumption." Teresa F. Lindeman: tlindeman@post-gazette.com or at 412-263-2018.

___ (c)2012 the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Visit the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette at www.post-gazette.com Distributed by MCT Information Services

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