Why the size of your business doesn't matter on the Internet

The Internet expands service for companies large and small.

Small is beautiful: iKitchen sells high-end kitchen appliances and housewares exclusively online.

As online retailing flourishes, companies large and small are finding that the Internet can be a great way to build strong relationships with customers.

UPS is often a big part of making those ties even stronger. With Yahoo! Merchant Solutions, a UPS-Ready^TM e-commerce package, UPS helps companies of all sizes by providing shipping and web tools that streamline traditional shipping processes, leaving business owners free to give customers the attention they deserve.

Companies can benefit in different ways, depending on their size. The result, however, is the same: more time to spend on customers – and, consequently, more customers.

Larger companies have found that online tools like company blogs and virtual communities can help them become more accessible to customers and more responsive to customers’ needs.

Smaller companies have found that the Internet provides a terrific way for them to expand their reach, finding new customers far from home. These days, a first or second generation e-commerce site will most likely appear homemade and send the wrong impression but, with a well designed, efficient website, even the smallest startup can compete head-to-head with industry giants without losing that small-company touch.

For David Balas, keeping the feel of a bricks-and-mortar store online was never an option. He started iKitchen  as an online-only business in 2000 and wouldn't have it any other way. Balas' business specializes in high-end kitchen equipment, small appliances and housewares. It's a classic case of a small company acting as if it were a huge one: With just 15 employees in its midtown Manhattan office and shipping center, the company's website, iKitchen.com has captured an estimated 6 percent of the online market in housewares and small electronics. "Orders come and go so quickly," Balas says. "Most days we ship 500 boxes, and it can go up to 2,000 a day at Christmas." But thanks to UPS and Yahoo! Merchant Solutions, he says, "We're able to do business in the busiest city in the world, seamlessly."

Hard work and good business sense are a big part of iKitchen.com's success. But Balas credits Yahoo! Merchant Solutions' online marketing programs with helping get the word out. And with UPS programs like UPS OnLine^® Tools and UPS Freight^SM, it doesn't matter if he's shipping a single saucepan or an entire palette of commercial toasters to a  wholesale customer; he never has to worry about getting the goods out. "Yahoo! Merchant Solutions is very customizable, very flexible and completely integrated with UPS," says Balas. That means fewer headaches, fewer mix-ups and fewer delays. "The competition is fierce," he says. "We streamline as much as possible on our end, and then with UPS, once it's out the door we know it's as good as delivered."