Internet Hatter Making His Mad Idea Work

Small-town America doesn’t get much smaller than this rural back-road village.

About 350 people live here in homes radiating outward from the grain silo, a fixture in almost every corn-belt hamlet, and the tiny post office. That’s about all there is: no grocery, no country store, no gas stop. There wasn’t even enough business to support a coffee shop.

Hidden beneath the surface, though, is an outpost of global commerce. Doug Young takes orders from customers around the world and fills them with goods from manufacturers in four countries using the Internet.

His business, Noggintops.com, reaches the world through a virtual store. His real-world headquarters is a small, long-closed country store where he warehouses his stock of high-quality men’s hats.

Young said he chose to set up shop in Congerville--as opposed to somewhere more businesslike--because he and his wife like living in the country. He said having an online store frees them to live the lifestyle they wish while ignoring the retail mantra “location, location, location.”

“I really could have located this anywhere I wanted,” he said.

Chris Merritt, a consumer business specialist for Kurt Salmon Associates in Atlanta, said large, established companies take in the overwhelming majority of dollars spent in e-commerce. However, he said, a surprisingly large number of small entrepreneurs like Young are staking out territory on the Internet by catering to a niche market.

Merritt said the technology enables them to do so with minimal start-up costs and without regard to location.

“You can pretty much do that anywhere as long as you can get the [Internet] connectivity” and access to shipping, he said. “At least in theory, your reach is all across the world.”

Since many overhead costs are avoided in e-business, it is easier for them to offer goods at competitive prices, Merritt said. Smaller outfits must be able to differentiate themselves from the crowd, he said.

In Young’s case, his love of headgear helped him identify the market he is attempting to serve. An avid outdoorsman, he had trouble finding high-quality, stylish hats that fit his lifestyle--even on the Internet.

“I was always on the lookout. We’d stop at a store and I’d go check out the hats,” he said. “I wanted something really outdoorsy and couldn’t find it, and that’s kind of how this got started.”

Last September, Young and his wife began researching the possibility of opening their own e-business and finding suppliers. Noggintops.com went online Dec. 1, and the first order rolled in three days later.

Young, who quit working as a counselor in Bloomington to run the business, said close to 3,000 people visit his site each week. Sales average about 100 hats per week, he said, and that’s going up.

He said he hears a familiar story from many customers, some of whom live as far away as western Europe and Japan.

“They’re looking at old black and white photos and saying, ‘Why don’t they make hats like that anymore?’ Well, they do,” Young said. “They’re just not as easy to find.”

At his site, those looking for a nice chapeau can find everything from straw to wool or fur felt hats in styles ranging from the venerable fedora to the bush hat issued to Canadian soldiers during the Gulf War. They are made by suppliers in the United States, Australia, Ireland, England and Austria.

One customer, Ola Klapbakken, lives in Norway. He said in an e-mail interview that he was having trouble finding an affordable, high-quality felt hat until he chanced across the Noggintops Web site.

“A rather small company with a very interesting stock of hats. Just what I had been looking for,” he said.

Young has employed more traditional media to advertise. He currently is running ads in five fishing and three hunting magazines.

Young answers all e-mail inquiries himself and encourages potential customers more comfortable with using the telephone to call. He said he tries to come as close as possible to providing the personalized service customers would expect if they were physically in his store, and that seems to help old-fashioned types nervous about buying such a personal item without touching it first.

“There are people who are reluctant to buy a hat they haven’t tried on, and there are still people who are reluctant to buy over the Internet,” he said. “We get phone orders from people who can’t bring themselves to punch in a credit card.”

Merritt said customers expect good service and a clear return policy--and won’t become repeat customers if those needs aren’t filled.

Young said that’s how he tries to make his online store stand out from the others.

“People who are very familiar with shopping on the Internet seem very surprised when they get a little extra,” he said.