Calumet Photographic Company Overview
In 1980, after 40 years of manufacturing and selling its mostly large-format proprietary product lines, Calumet Photographic developed the first photo supply catalog offering a full line of professional photographic products. With the merger of Calumet Photographic in the United States and Keith, Johnson and Pelling, a retail chain in the United Kingdom, the company embarked on a global focus, adding new locations in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. In 1998, this focus expanded
when Calumet launched its website. For nearly 70 years, photographers around the world have been depending on Calumet for the equipment they need as well as expert advice. Calumet is the “top drawer” in the photographer’s toolbox, adding products and services every day to its more than 30 retail locations worldwide.

ChannelAdvisor Complete Solutions:
Products:SearchAdvisor^TM, ShoppingAdvisor^TM

ChannelAdvisor Complete^® combines on-demand software, integration technology and best practices to help retailers manage the complexities of selling across multiple e-commerce channels – more efficiently and more profitably – all through a single interface. Complementary components of the ChannelAdvisor solution, SearchAdvisor™ and ShoppingAdvisor™ work together for an integrated search and shopping solution that provides a winning retail combination.

Designed exclusively for online retailers, SearchAdvisor™ enables retailers to manage, automate and maximize campaigns across top search engines – including Google, Yahoo! MSN and Ask.com – without adding costly resources or missing ROI targets.

ShoppingAdvisor™ puts control back in retailers’ hands, giving them the freedom to market every product – easily and effectively – across the comparison shopping landscape. By enabling them to achieve unsurpassed relevancy and generate maximum returns, ShoppingAdvisor™ helps retailers isolate the most compelling campaign strategies.

Situation

Ten years after debuting its website, Calumet Photographic still marvels at the Internet’s power to attract new buyers. Calumet had long depended on professional photographers to purchase products at one of its retail locations. Now, the company needed to broaden its buyer base and aggressively target a new market of hobbyists. “Photocrats” were highly skilled amateur photographers making the income required to purchase Calumet products, but with little time to shop in brick-and-mortar stores.

Along with adding the new segment, Calumet wanted to expand its e-commerce efforts overseas. “We had experimented in-house with paid search for international campaigns,” said Jerri Helms, E-commerce Manager, Calumet. “But due to cultural and language differences, managing keywords proved too complicated. Being in the consumer electronics business, we felt the constant squeeze on our margins, so we had to be extremely vigilant about spend and keyword performance.”

Calumet was also enticed by the prospect of appearing on comparison shopping engines and considered them another opportunity for strengthening their global presence. But again, their expertise was limited in-house. After researching the available software options, Calumet decided to rely on ChannelAdvisor because they offered both an integrated paid search and comparison shopping solution.

Solution

SearchAdvisor and ShoppingAdvisor provided the perfect combination of technical prowess and international industry expertise. In just a few days - instead of months - Calumet’s paid search campaigns were collecting rave reviews and their products were selling on all the top comparison shopping sites.

ChannelAdvisor personnel in the U.K. and Germany were able to surmount the language barriers and hone in on paid search profits. Search marketing analytics allowed Calumet to dig deeper and gain detailed visibility into performance. They were able to monitor campaigns down to the keyword, order, and product levels. With ChannelAdvisor’s automated bid management, they could align key
metrics and profit goals.

“We trusted ChannelAdvisor to keep an eye on our bottom line,” said Jerri Helms, E-commerce Manager, Calumet. “Another software provider might have asked us to spend money upfront without being able to predict the results. ChannelAdvisor not only helped us manage our advertising budget, they helped us manage our overall financial performance.”

Results

Less than a year later, Calumet was able to double their revenue from their e-commerce efforts. In one six month period, paid search campaigns grew by 177%, while comparison shopping campaigns increased by 154%. In addition, their business began to spread more evenly among domestic and international buyers, hitting squarely on the “photocrat” sector.

“We achieved our goal of reaching out to a new demographic,” said Helms. “With staff and expertise in place right where we needed them, ChannelAdvisor provided speedy implementation and succeeded in taking us into the global age.”