Orange County Register

On a recent visit to OC’s own Buy.com, I noticed that the Aliso Viejo online store still has dot-com flair.

Free ice cream, sodas and Naked Juice. Catered lunches every day! I’m told that scooters, Razors and even Segways are regularly used by employees to move from one cubicle to another — although not on the day I got a tour.

Little pots of fresh grass decorate the conference room tables and the lobby. Someone comes in weekly to trim grass with scissors. While the game room got cleared out for more customer service staff, a Ms. Pac-man arcade game found a new home in the cafeteria.

Neel Grover, its chief executive since May 2006, is young, friendly and determined. Dressed in dark jeans and a long-sleeved black shirt, he’s far from the suited exec at most companies in the county. That’s him on the right, although that’s not his motorcycle. Buy.com’s founder Scott Blum is a collector.

The company plans to report its sixth consecutive profitable quarter soon. Not bad when you’re selling everything at a discount (except for prices set by the manufacturer).

“It’s not just me, by any means,” Grover tells me. “I have a great team. Most of the employees have been here for 10 years.”

That means the bulk of its 125 employees were there during the dot-com mania days, when it was a publicly traded company, employed more than 300 people and had free-shipping deals so frequently, I’d time purchases to take advantage of the deal. But also back then, the company was losing money and many critics thought Buy.com was going bye bye.

Buy.com, obviously, is still around. Grover said listening to the customer has helped boost sales. And now, he said, “We make money on every product we sell — we make a little less money than our competitors.”

“We’re a very mature young company. There’s still a long way to go,” Grover concedes. And yes, he said, answering my next question before I could ask it. “We think we’ll catch them (Amazon).”

Jebb Harris, a Register photographer, took photos of our tour and offers a picturesque view of life at today’s Buy.com. Click here to check them out!

Read a longer story after the jump:

Buy.com still living in dot-com land

The difference between then and now? Today, the O.C.-based site is profitable.

By TAMARA CHUANG THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

O.C.’s own Buy.com still has that dotcom flair.

Employees of the Aliso Viejo online retailer have free access to ice cream, sodas and Naked Juice. Lunches are catered daily – a perk that was scrapped for just two weeks during the dot-com aftermath. You can even find staff roaming the hallways on a scooter, Razor or Segway.

Little pots of fresh grass decorate the conference room tables and the lobby. Someone comes in weekly to trim grass with scissors. While the video game room got cleared out for more customer service staff, a Ms. Pac-Man unit found a new home in the cafeteria.

Neel Grover, chief executive since May 2006, is young, friendly and determined. Dressed in dark-washed jeans and a long-sleeved black shirt, he’s far from the suited executive at most companies in the county.
The company – known for selling electronics, books and music – plans to report its sixth consecutive profitable quarter next week. Not bad when almost everything sold is at a discount.

“It’s not just me, by any means,” Grover said. “I have a great team. Most of the employees have been here for 10 years.”

That means the bulk of the 125 employees were there during the dot-com heyday.

Back then, Buy.com was a publicly traded company, employed more than 300 people and had free-shipping deals so frequently, customers were known to time purchases to take advantage of the deal.

But also back then, the company was losing money, and many critics thought Buy.com was going bye-bye.

After a run of heavy losses, dwindling sales and a stock price of 17 cents, Buy.com went private in November 2001.

Its founder, Scott Blum, returned and paid nearly $25 million for the virtual retailer.

The company stayed quiet for several years.

In 2005, it re-emerged and said it wanted to go public again. It reported $300 million in revenue for the three years prior, which was less than half of the $788 million it pulled in during the 2000 peak.

But its public outing fizzled and the company put plans on hold.

Today, Grover, a former securities lawyer who previously worked for Blum on other projects, believes the company is running as lean as ever so it can concentrate on growing. He hinted that going public again is not off the table.

“We fixed a little bit of everything with the company,” Grover said. “Now, it’s all about sales growth for us.”

In October, Buy.com reported income of $411,000 for the third quarter of 2007, an improvement of the year-ago quarterly loss of $5.6 million.

For the nine months ended Sept. 30, the company’s net income was $2.1 million on sales of $300 million. Income excluded $401,000 of stockbased compensation.

Buy.com plans to release its most recent figures next week.

JupiterResearch, a market research firm, said online sales are still a tiny portion of overall retail sales. Last year’s $128 billion in online sales was just 5.5 percent of total U.S. retail sales.

But overall, says the firm, online sales will continue to grow for retailers. That $128 billion is expected to nearly double by 2012 to $215 billion.

Jeff Wisot, Buy.com’s vice president of marketing, said Grover focused on customer service and adding tools to help consumers shop.

On each product page, there’s a price-comparison area that shows Buy.com doesn’t always have the lowest price. Even though it could lead customers to rival Web sites, it’s hoped that the tool will keep customers coming back as a place to start their shopping.

“We’re beating people over 70 percent of the time,” Wisot said. “When Neel started (as CEO), he started saying ‘yes’ to many things. Anything that helps the customer, he says yes to.”

In December, Buy.com expanded into jewelry and watches. It already sells clothing through its marketplace of more than 500 partner stores.

“We’re a very mature young company. There’s still a long way to go,” Grover said.

Like beating Amazon?

“We think we’ll catch them,” he said.

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