Overview
Headquarters: Omaha, NE
Insight Investment: $19.5M from Dec 2004 – May 2006
Current Status: Portfolio company


Business Description
NetShops is an online retailer that operates over 140 single product specialty stores such as hammocks.com and dartboards.com. By focusing on one product category, each NetShops store can offer customers the most complete selection at competitive prices and knowledgeable customer service. The Company has expanded rapidly over the past five years and is currently in the top twenty of the Inc. 500 list for high-growth companies.

Challenge
NetShops experienced continued growth since inception through its ability to quickly identify and launch new stores. As NetShops achieved scale in the home and garden segment, it has been pursuing expansion outside of its core. The Company wanted to improve its process for identifying and evaluating new stores.

Solution
Insight’s On-Site team engaged to improve NetShops’ already data-driven process of new store development by testing and modifying existing key steps for identifying new opportunities. Outputs include:

• Development of an automated category identification tool to identify new potential stores
• Analytics to estimate the value of owning a particular domain name, assessed by determining the incremental profit a store gets from ownership of a domain
• A tool to evaluate the potential profitability of a store prior to launch in order to help prioritize among the thousands of potential NetShops stores reviewed each year

NetShops and the On-Site team are currently in the process of finalizing and implementing Onsite’s recommendations. The new tools and processes are being used as the company looks to develop a three year strategic plan and store roadmap.