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They say one of the traits of a successful entrepreneur is persistence, the ability to keep pounding away on your original idea until you can shape it into something viable. That’s what Ben Smith has been doing with MerchantCircle, and it may pay off.
When Smith first told us about MerchantCircle over a year ago, it had something to do with local merchants and newsletters. We nodded politely and walked away scratching our heads. Today, MerchantCircle, based in Los Altos, is something much different. It’s a place where local merchants can build online profiles, network with each other and get help placing ads on Google, Yahoo and other search engines.
Smith doesn’t view MerchantCircle as a destination site for users. Most people won’t go here looking for a local bike shop, although you could. Instead, they’ll find MerchantCircle profiles when they’re Googling for Palo Alto bike shops, for example.
The “circle” in the company’s name comes from the idea that merchants will create networks of affiliated businesses by adding their names to their profile pages and swapping ads with each other. The idea is to give merchants an incentive to invite other merchants into MerchantCircle. Indeed, Smith is relying on this type of viral marketing to build his business because he doesn’t have a cadre of salespeople to recruit business owners. Word-of-mouth is key here. If Smith can make this part work, he hits a home run. If not, he’s back in the same boat as so many other companies that are trying in vain to tap into the local merchants market.
MerchantCircle has pre-populated its database with generic business listings. Business owners can then sign in to claim their profile pages.
MerchantCircle has three tiers of service, from free up through $99 a month. As with with many online services these days, Smith is hoping he can lure merchants with the free service and then upsell them to a paid account.
One thing we’d like to see is more customization features for the profile pages. For now, the somewhat bland profile pages include a merchant blog, a recommendations section and not much else in the way of unique content. Ideally, merchants would be able to personalize their pages ala a MySpace account with templates and widgets. It’s a tricky balance to strike, because some merchants will be motivated and savvy enough to want to do a lot with their pages. They’ll want powerful tools, along the lines of what they can get through a Yahoo Small Business account. Others will want ease and simplicity.
Nonetheless, it’s a start. And if Smith can keep pounding away and listening to what merchants want, MerchantCircle might go somewhere.
MerchantCircle was incubated out of Rustic Canyon Ventures and has eight employees. It’s taken $4.3 million in funding so far.
Related: See this Local Onliner post for more.
Bonus: Listen to our Inside Silicon Valley podcast with MerchantCircle founder Ben Smith.
3 Comments
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Ben Smith said:
We really do try to pound away and listen to what merchants want, especially for the local businesses who are using the MerchantCircle service. One of our members, Blonde Bear Bed and Breakfast has 20 local merchants in their MerchantCircle business network. As Tina Showalter of Blonde Bear shared with us, “I’ve invited all of the business owners I know to join MerchantCircle, and every time I go into town, I encourage more merchants to join our business network. I know that building a strong network on MerchantCircle is a great way to draw more visitors to the gorgeous Kenai peninsula, thereby getting all of us more customers.” Another member, Jaworski Coatings, a painting Business in Avon, Ohio also has an extensive business network.
By actively building their business networks and by inviting other businesses in their communities to join MerchantCircle, we can help our members be more visible on the web and tap into qualified traffic on the Local Internet. That’s really rewarding for us. It’s truly exciting to see our members benefit from the MerchantCircle service and from relationships with one another. In the end, that’s what matters.
Thanks,
Ben -
Matt McGee said:
If there’s genius in this idea, it’s in the business network. You could see real estate agents joining together with recommended service providers — mortgage companies, banks, even carpet cleaners, roof repair companies, moving services, and so forth. The trick is convincing them that there’s benefits to be had by joining the network.
As someone interested in local search, I’ll be keeping an eye on how this develops.
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L Rubin said:
Just a quick note on MerchantCircle and its reason for being viral
After receiving an email from the Governors office inquiring to my email that I had supposedly sent them, I did some checking and here’s what I found. MerchantCircle had sent an email to the Governor of Connecticut fraudulently using my name as the signatory which boasted about the MerchantCircle service and asking them to sign up. Yes, they in-fact, took my personal email after I was jerk phone spamed, high jacked my email address and sent emails out making it appear they were from me with the intent of endorsing their service.
After days of aggravation over the issue (it’s my reputation not theirs) I officially reported the fraud to the State of Connecticut and to MerchantCircle, the State has promised to look into the fraudulent practice of Merchant Circle. MerchantCircle honored my request to cease and desist notice and removed my account. No apology, no answer on their practice – just hiding from phone and email inquires.
Their practice is certainly viral but not a mystery anymore –Ben Smith and Wayne Yamamoto are common internet spammers and scamsters of the worst kind that give legitimate companies a bad name.
For an in-depth unbiased look at MerchanCircle fraud tactics look at the post here:
battellemedia.com/archives/002632.phpL. Rubin
