Only a limited number of people in Greater Des Moines are in the market for drafting supplies, chocolate roses or other unique items at any point during the year. It’s a known risk entrepreneurs take when they open specialty stores.

But thanks to a growing e-commerce environment, as shown by 25 percent more online sales during the most recent holiday season compared with 2003, several local businesses have significantly grown their customer base and sales revenues without investing in another storefront or incurring other major expenses.

“Our corporate sales this holiday season grew 212 percent this year over last year, and that wouldn’t have happened without our Web site,” said Steve Shearer, who co-owns Chocolate Storybook in West Des Moines with his wife, Meg.

The Shearers, who both come from a marketing background, have revised their Internet sales strategy frequently since they bought the business in 2002. Their willingness to try new ideas has paid off.

“Where we see tremendous opportunity for growth is with our Internet sales,” Steve Shearer said. “For 2004, we can attribute more than $100,000 worth of business to people seeing our products on our Web site.”

Chocolate Storybook thrives on seasonal business during “chocolate seasons,” so the Shearers invest more in their site, www.chocolatestory.com, during certain times of the year. They purchase key words or phrases from search engines, such as “chocolate roses” or “Valentine’s gifts,” to draw more online shoppers to their site.

“We’ve been able to pull in a lot of business from the East and West coasts by purchasing key words in the few days leading up to Valentine’s Day and Easter, our strongest time for Internet orders,” Steve Shearer said.

The Shearers learned from experience that although purchasing key words is an effective way to draw customers to a Web site, it can also be expensive. Each time a key word search brings a visitor to the store’s site, the Shearers pay about $1.50. Some key words can cost as much as $5 per hit.

“The beautiful thing is that you receive sales from it, but on the other hand, the cost from that sale is high, because every time someone clicks on that link, you pay, and it may take 20 clicks to make a sale,” Steve Shearer said.

Luckily, the Shearers have found another strategy that also works. During the Christmas shopping season, traditional marketing materials combined with an effective Web site work better for the Chocolate Storybook’s corporate gifts clientele. After reviewing the products online with other decision-makers, a company spokesperson calls to place an order, sometimes for as many as 1,000 boxes of chocolates.

“We expect this area, using the Internet to promote our business, to become at least half of our total business in the next couple of years,” Steve Shearer said.

With about five years of steady Internet sales growth so far, Fitness Sports, a Windsor Heights sports store, has reached the point where more than half of its track and field shoes sales originate from the Web. Store owner Steve Bobenhouse said sales for the 2005 track season began last month, and were better than expected.

“It looks like this coming year could be one of the best ever because of the strong sales we had in December,” he said.

Although the Fitness Sports store carries a variety of sports equipment and apparel, Bobenhouse said it makes more sense for him to target a specific group – competitive runners – through his Web site.

“To me, there are two things that appear to drive Internet business, either a quest for the lowest price or a search for a product that is hard to find,” Bobenhouse said. “I chose the latter, and I think more and more people are shopping online as they become more aware that hard-to-find items are available through that form of retailing.”

The Art Store’s Web site has also benefited from being a source for many hard-to-find items, according to Joe Domeier, the store’s owner.

“Many people do not have access to a store with our depth of product,” Domeier said. “They may live in small towns in Montana and have to drive two to three hours to their closest art or craft store. We fill that niche.”

Since The Art Store re-launched its site, www.shoptheartstore.com, 18 months ago, Internet sales have surpassed fine pen sales as the store’s fastest-rowing line. This past holiday season was a learning experience for the store, which had not anticipated such a high number of e-commerce sales. Domeier said the staff at The Art Store had to adjust from shipping 10 orders per day to 60, but made the transition as smoothly as possible.

One reason Domeier says The Art Store’s online sales have grown is because of its attention to being ranked for specific products, such as the Alvin architecture scale.

“We do not go for generic search terms like ‘art supplies’ or ‘acrylic paint;’ we instead are very product specific,” he said. “This way, when a client finds our site on a search engine, they click through and are brought directly to the page describing the product and can start the buying process.”

The Art Store’s Web technician continually checks Google and Yahoo to make sure the site is listed in the top three to five sites for specific products.

Like The Art Store, search engine optimization has also become standard practice at Broken Arrow Screenprinting and Design, according to Kurt Stocker, who co-owns the Urbandale business and its Polk City production facility with his wife, Mari. Stocker does search engine optimization to keep the site, www.broken-arrow.com, easy to find for people in the market for custom garments.

“With the bigger orders, you’re competing with foreign countries,” Stocker said.

Through its Web site, Broken Arrow tries to distinguish itself from competitors by targeting small- to medium-sized jobs instead of large orders.

“Our specialty is not to go after the huge contracts, but smaller ones for businesses, schools and specialty groups that need a quick turnaround on custom work,” Stocker said.

Broken Arrow took a more aggressive attitude with its Web site about three years ago, and since then, Web-generated sales have increased from about 10 percent of all orders to about 40 percent, Stocker said.

“We keep investing in the site,” Stocker said. “We will invest more in our brick and mortar business as well, but the Internet is definitely a cheaper way to grow. On the Internet, $30,000 can have a huge impact, but to put that money into a store, it’s not going to go very far.”