They’ve been around since 1996 and offer more than 40,000 Adult products for sale on the Web, but despite the apparent prominence of the online Adult affiliate retailer, you might not even know they exist.
That’s because MALLcom (www.mallcom.com) prefers to stay behind the scenes and seamlessly mesh with the look and feel of their clients’ Web sites. From the graphics and colors to the product selection of their custom-integrated Web page, most of the time a surfer won’t even know that they are actually looking at MALLcom’s selection of toys or DVDs, rather than products offered by the Adult site they were navigating through. And that’s one of the things that separates MALLcom from most of their competitors.
“What we do is we customize Adult shopping for existing webmasters who have their own site. For example, if you have a big tits site and you want to sell big tits’ movies we customize the store to match your own existing site – like the graphics, the logos, the colors, and so on and so forth,” said Domenick Bongiorno, MALLcom marketing director. “So if you have a site you can click on a link to purchase the movies and you come to our shopping system, we fill your orders and the invoice is customized with the actual webmaster’s Web site – thank you for shopping at bigtits.com, for example.
“We’re not like an actual store… we actually customize people’s sites to make shoppers out there believe this is their own store.”
So when you’re buying a product at AdultFriendFinder.com or PeterNorth.com, you’re actually buying from MALLcom.
The orders are delivered to and processed directly by MALLcom. The products are packaged and drop shipped directly to the customer and the enclosed invoice reads as if it came directly from whichever Web site the buyer used to make the purchase.
“The invoice is customized to each affiliate’s Web site name and the order goes to our warehouse and gets shipped out; so basically, the owner of the Web site doesn’t have to do anything,” Bongiorno said. “He just gets the checks at the end of the month.”
Webmasters have minimal work to do on the design, too. The only requirement is that they submit the design for their top frame, so it matches the rest of the site, and plug in their colors and logos. The rest is done in-house at MALLcom, where their designers will take additional requests.
Although other Adult online retailers have integrated this customize-everything method into their affiliate programs, MALLcom has stood up over time because of the basics of good business.
According to Bongiorno, MALLcom was one of the first online Adult retail affiliate programs. The company has established a reputation for great customer service and affordable prices, and now boasts more than 10,000 affiliates.
“We switched to MALLcom one year ago and it turned out to be a really profitable move for us,” said Fred Valiquette, president of BrainCash (www.braincash.com), which operates LexSteele.com and PeterNorth.com. “It almost increased our sales by 33 percent overnight. Also, their guys are amazing. I can always get them on ICQ day or night, and can change anything I want in our custom store quite fast. I was not really in touch with the people at our previous retailer and I talk on a daily basis with people at MALLcom. They double-check my links, keep me informed about new promos, and deliver new projects I need at a blazing speed.”
Because of such customer satisfaction, word has gotten out in the community.
“Our success is mostly a result of word of mouth through other webmasters,” Bongiorno said. “Our webmasters are always paid on time; when a purchase is made from their site they get confirmation emails in real time. So we’re reliable. We don’t shave; we’ve never done that. So word of mouth has gotten around.”
And word has gotten around to some of the biggest players in the industry. Along with providing service to the bulk of BrainCash’s sites, MALLcom also serves Seymore Butts’ TeamTushy.com.
“I’ve been extremely happy with the level of service they’ve provided, not only to me, but more importantly, to the customers,” Butts said.
Being a pioneer in the industry, means the people at MALLcom have seen a few changes over the years. In addition to taking on a much greater load of orders, there has been great shift in retail purchases over the years.
“When we first started out it was more just VHS and toys,” Bongiorno said. “Now, there are so many manufacturers out there that are producing movies and only about 10 percent of our orders are VHS. We concentrate mostly on the DVD sections and toys. So the in-house structure is different, but the Web site is the same.”
That division is likely to change again very soon, at least slightly, with the continued integration of Video-on-Demand (VoD).
At press time, MALLcom was testing a VoD system for their site and planned to have the service live by the time this magazine hits the street.
“There are going to be many more factors, including Video-on-Demand, rentals, downloading, which some people are kind of skeptical about because it takes away from the money of the DVD purchase,” Bongiorno said. “So instead of a company making a 15-dollar profit on a DVD, they’ll be making a few bucks from VoD. So in a way, that’s changing everything.”
And if the most prominent way for people to view their Adult content changes again, MALLcom will adapt again.
“Who knows what the next format is going to be? It could be a little microchip you purchase,” Bongiorno said. “We’ll be selling those then.”
The only major problems for the Adult retailer are the ones that come with the territory – the extensive state indecency laws that dictate residents of certain states cannot buy adult products online.
In addition, stringent anti-pornography legislation put into effect by the Bush administration forces MALLcom to screen all of the DVDs they receive and makes them unable to do business with select companies, according to Bongiorno.
So is there any chance any of this will change in the near future?
“Sure, if Bush leaves office,” Bongiorno said.
