Chinaberry’s winning combination: soft on the outside, savvy on the inside

By Reported Donna Loyle

Currently, 11 percent of the company’s sales come from the Web. While DeMaine would love to see that increase to 20 percent or 25 percent, he notes that in today’s market, e-commerce is no gold rush. “It’s a channel that’s just as difficult to make work as any other,” he says.

Prospecting initiatives include list rental and exchanges, says Ed Ruethling. “We’ve used co-operative databases like Abacus, but we’ve found that the response rates from them have been steadily declining over the years.”