In the know

Robert Wilkinson, Robert Coffey, and John Stanley are steeped in business and e-commerce. The three have built businesses focused on the online channel in the past, and when they got together to form a new venture, they knew where it would live. "We were looking to leverage our experience in the online world," recalls Robert W., "and we saw printing supplies for businesses as a great opportunity, but were originally thinking of a price comparison model. We soon adapted the model to sell directly and haven't looked back."

In 2001, they leased 450 square feet of office space in Phoenix, Arizona. Next came the name. "We wanted something near the start of the alphabet," says Robert W., "so it would appear early on sorted lists and came up with Abacus24-7.com." They then built out their site and, shortly thereafter, opened a Google AdWords™ account to drive traffic. "But it wasn't until 2005 that we started to make the most of all AdWords features," says site marketing manager Jason Hesse. "Since then we've done almost everything – search and content network campaigns, mobile text ads, site-targeted campaigns, and tons of testing to refine our approach. We now use more than 5,000 keywords. AdWords is one of the centerpieces of our advertising; apart from employees, it's our main spend."

That same year, the Abacus24-7.com team signed up with Google Analytics™, a free tool that provides a host of useful site metrics. "We wanted to gain a better understanding of how customers interact with our site. Analytics has been very helpful in verifying and aligning our marketing activities. We use it in coordination with AdWords to test different types of campaigns, specific landing pages, and to determine how best to position different products on our site."

A better buying experience

Abacus24-7.com then heard about Google Checkout™, which offers a faster, safer, and more convenient checkout option. Consumers can store their purchasing information in a single account and buy from stores across the web with their Google Checkout login. "The fact that Google was behind it gave us the confidence Checkout was going to be around in the long term," says Robert W. "Their approach fit our belief that the purchase experience really is about how many clicks until you buy. When you make the purchase process go that much quicker and smoother, it makes for a much better experience for the customer. Personally, it's the kind of thing I want to see on a site, and it's what we want to offer our customers. We'd love to eventually do away with credit cards all together, and this is definitely a step in the right direction."

The team also cites Checkout's promotion of free credit card processing through the end of 2007 as a driving factor in their decision. "We knew we would have offered Checkout sooner or later," continues Robert Coffey with a smile, "but the promotion definitely sped things up."

Boosting business

Jason worked to integrate Checkout into the Abacus24-7.com site. "The setup wasn't that difficult at all," says Robert W. "As soon as we implemented it, we saw results," continues Jason. "All of our AdWords ads now feature a Checkout badge, which raises our visibility. From the start, we've been processing about 10 percent of our orders through Google Checkout, and that includes both new and existing customers. For one of our top AdWords ad groups, our conversion rates increased over 100 percent and our clickthrough rate increased over 200 percent. Our overall AdWords conversion rate increased by seven percent, and we're saving an average of three percent per transaction."

"The combination of Checkout, AdWords, and Analytics makes it all easier to manage," says Jason. "We see the value on our end by giving customers more choice and then gaining a better understanding of them. They associate our brand with a simple, straightforward search and purchase process.

Expand with demand

Abacus24-7.com continues to adapt its model, expand its product offerings, and grow its customer base. It now occupies 3,000 square feet in the same office building, has opened a UK site and a customer service office in Novi Sad, Serbia, to offer 24/7 customer support, and the two Roberts and John have been joined by 33 employees. "We talk daily about expansion, and see our use of AdWords and Checkout growing as our company grows."