The decision to take a brick-and-mortar establishment you’ve spent many years building onto the Internet is a tough one for any business owner, but it’s one many in the adult retail business are finding they must face in this wired age … and sooner rather than later.
Seattle’s Taboo Video is one such establishment, having just begun to dabble in Online retail, and AVN has decided to track their journey in doing so with a series of profile pieces beginning this month.
To kick off this journey, let us have a peek at the history of Taboo: Founded 20 years ago with one location in downtown Seattle, the business has grown and flourished, opening two additional stores in the Seattle area and five in Portland/Vancouver. Part of their success can be attributed to keeping up with the times and changing technology — they carry a full line of DVDs, videos and novelties, and offer multiple-channel arcades and private viewing booths at all their locations.
So why adult? Said Teina Manu, manager of the flagship downtown Seattle location, “The adult industry, for those who can brave the stigma of being a ‘pornographer,’ is very lucrative. Why adult? Money! Hot chicks! There is also a great group of people in this business. [We’re] the last pirates of our society.”
All pirates at times must fare rough waters, and in this instance, the waters in question are those of the electronic sea that is the World Wide Web. Taboo decided to jump into Online retailing due partly to the forces of changing technology, as mentioned earlier, but also as a means of keeping their customers more informed about the vast array of product.
“We thought it [was] time to grab all those surfers out there,” Manu explained. “We hope that our Website will be a place our customers and curious ‘newbies’ will find easy to navigate and a good source of info on what’s available in this industry.
“Our customers are pretty savvy. They want and need to know what’s new and release dates. Our site can provide that for them, as well as a way to pre-order.”
Manu told AVN that these conclusions were arrived at through in-house research and the demands they saw customers as having.
“What do our customers want?” he said they asked themselves. “What’s missing in our area? What can we provide online that’s not being addressed?”
Curiously enough, Manu said that despite the preponderance of adult Websites, they found few brick-and-mortar stores with an online presence.
“The challenge [is] the volume of adult Sites to compete against and adjusting prices to be competitive. But the strange thing we discovered when starting our Site was the fact of how many stores do not have a Site. We started from scratch.”
In doing so, the first thing to consider was what type of product the Site would offer. “We [wanted] to carry things online that we may not have the space to inventory,” Manu elucidated. “We also would be able to offer more variety and more ‘out there’ stuff over the Web.”
Of course, offering more “out there” stuff means having to consider the legalities of such.
“So far, not too many legal questions have arisen,” Manu offered to that end. “As we put more content up, we expect to have those issues. It will all depend on how ballsy we want to get with the content and that damn community standard thing.”
Another thing to consider is the possibility of an affiliate program. Manu said that Taboo has a similar business plan in mind: “We want to concentrate on franchising, which is close. Helping out mom and pop shops with their merchandising and displays, almost annexing ourselves out and allowing our name to be spread the world over in the name of freedom and filth.”
Is Taboo Video worried however, that by going Online, they’ll be cannibalizing their original business, the brick-and-mortar store?
“We think there will always be a love for your own porno shop,” Manu mused. “Just as people have a favorite bar or restaurant, the brick-and-mortar will always have a comforting feel to those stuck at home with a full house and nowhere to jack.”
View Taboo Video’s Website at taboovideo.com, or for more information, call 206.622.SEXY. Also see our cover package this month on online retailing, and look for further coverage of Taboo Video’s online venture in future months.
