SALEM SUPPLIER For business, it's party time online

It grew slowly, but now the company's Web site averages 65,000 clicks a month and produces 70 percent of its sales.
By CYNTHIA VINARSKY
VINDICATOR BUSINESS WRITER
SALEM -- Chris Greenamyer has a handle on technology.
A former computer instructor, he designed his company's e-commerce Web site and updates it daily with interactive bells and whistles to keep customers coming back.
But the Salem entrepreneur says that it's not technical know-how, but the old-fashioned concept of giving customers what they want that has been the primary factor in his business success.
Greenamyer is president and owner of GreenEprises Inc., a multifaceted company on West State Street in this small city. The business includes Colonial Paper & amp; Party, a retail party supply, janitorial and office supply store; Colonial Cleaning, a commercial and residential cleaning service; and MyPartyPal.com., his online party supply business.
Each division has other offshoots, as well, most of them in response to customer requests.
For example, Greenamyer has been adding magic supplies at his party store, and he'll be offering magic classes for all ages and skill levels starting next month.
Classes will include a six-week course and specialized weekend classes focusing on a different subject each week -- coin tricks, card tricks, close-up and general magic effects.
Taking off: A magic buff himself, the owner said he started selling magic supplies, videos and books on his Web site about two years ago and has seen online sales in that category take off. Response has been good locally, too, since he started promoting the classes and materials in the store.
Party entertainment items, such as inflatable mazes for toddler birthday parties and sumo wrestling costumes for older children to play with, were also added when party supply customers began asking for something to do at their parties.
Now he's offering magic acts, juggling, balloon art and other live entertainment.
"Our whole business is based on what customers want," he said.
Greenamyer's business venture started as a class assignment in 1993 when he was a student at Youngstown State University. Assigned to create a business plan, he came up with the idea for a commercial cleaning company.
When the class was over, he decided to put the plan into action. With $500 in capital he started Colonial Cleaning, a one-man operation serving business and residential customers.
The cleaning service quickly developed a following, so when the company lost its materials supplier, the young owner decided to expand into cleaning supply sales.
Party supplies came next. Customers began asking for colored plates and party accessories, and before long Greenamyer was stocking a full array of party paper products and favors for children's birthdays, bridal and baby showers, graduation parties and other events.
In 1995, when e-commerce was still in its infancy, he designed a party supply Web site and took his business online. MyPartyPal.com grew at a snail's pace at first.
"For the first few years we were happy to get one or two sales a week," he admitted. "Now, if we're only getting one or two sales an hour, we're having a bad day."
Major part: MyPartyPal.com has become a major part of Greenamyer's business, averaging 65,000 clicks a month and producing 70 percent of the company's total revenue. The site has a customer list of 30,000 and ships orders all over the world, including regular customers in Japan and England.
Online entrepreneurs often make the mistake of thinking that the money will start rolling in as soon as they go online, he said, but it can take months or even years for customers to discover and embrace a new site.
Instead of spending a lot of money on advertising, Greenamyer believes in taking the time to make the site interactive and to give the impression of constant change. "Our site looks different every day because we're always making changes."
A big selection is important, too. Greenamyer said many of his online customers are from western states where stores are few and far between and from U.S. military families in other countries. They can't run to the mall or the shopping plaza, so they're thrilled to find the thousands of party items MyPartyPal.com offers.
At first he spent a lot of time experimenting with key words on the site to try to get it to come up among the first listings on various search engines, such as Yahoo and Google. He stopped worrying about that, however, as the site gained popularity.
"I don't worry about that any more because now we're easily one of the top three party product sites, based on the number of items we offer," he said.
He uses the site as a bellwether to help determine what items will sell best in the store -- the advantage is that he doesn't have to stock inventory for the site because he buys it only when orders come in.
What's popular on the Web site isn't always an indicator of what his Salem store customers will like, however. Greenamyer has noticed that customers in California, New York City and other big cities tend to prefer more unusual children's party items and more risqu & eacute; adult items, while his store customers have conservative tastes.
Greenamyer said his goal is to build up a large customer base and to keep people coming back. To do that, he tries to keep his store and Web prices competitive and offers free shipping for most online orders.
"I'll do whatever I can to attract more customers," he said. "I'd rather have more customers paying less than a few customers paying more, especially when the economy is slow."