Playing Cupid, 50 Times a Minute

Vermont Teddy Bear’s Yahoo! Merchant Solutions Hosted Website Braces for Record Valentine’s Day

With about 30% of its year’s business riding on the brief Valentine’s Day holiday, Vermont Teddy Bear predicts its most intense “peak” season in the company’s 26-year history.

“We market mostly to male last-minute shoppers, and because Valentine’s Day falls on a Wednesday, we have a sort of ‘perfect storm’ that means the vast majority of our orders will be taken in just a handful of hours on two very busy days,” says Vermont Teddy Bear Company CEO Elisabeth Robert.

The company reaches its target customer (whom Vermont Teddy Bear refers to internally as “Late Jack”) through thousands of live radio spots, television commercials, online ads, emails and direct-mail catalogs. The company’s Valentine’s Day teddy bears, like “Loverboy” with a heart-shaped tattoo, or “Bear Naked” wearing nothing but a fig leaf, are hand-made in Vermont and are a popular alternative to flowers.

Since first venturing online in 1997, Vermont Teddy Bear has continuously been hosted on the Yahoo! Merchant Solutions ecommerce platform.

“We’ve asked Yahoo engineers to brace themselves for a top pace of about 1,500 orders per website per hour,” says Robert. That’s about 50 orders per minute, combined.

“With the Yahoo! Merchant Solutions e-commerce platform, Vermont Teddy Bear will have a worry-free peak Valentine’s season. Supported by Yahoo!’s world class network, Merchant Solutions is reliable and scalable, and handles billions of dollars in transactions each year, including busy holiday and event-based sales spikes,” said Jimmy Duvall, director of e-commerce, Yahoo! Small Business. “Yahoo!’s e-commerce solution is designed to easily accommodate surges of last-minute shoppers.”

In February the company’s staff temporarily swells from about 250 people to over 1,250 to handle the expected Valentine’s Day volume. Extra UPS trailers line the long driveway at Vermont Teddy Bear’s Shelburne, Vermont, headquarters, waiting to be loaded.

Customers can order any time and have their package held to arrive precisely on February 14th, Valentine’s Day. But in a quarter century selling Valentine’s gifts to men, the company has learned many guys put off gift buying to the very last moment. In recent years Vermont Teddy Bear has stretched operations to the limit to satisfy that last-minute demand - - accepting orders as late as 10 pm Eastern the night before, for guaranteed arrival on Valentine’s Day.

Peak season is complicated by the fact that one of the company’s sister brands, PajamaGram.com, launched in 2002 and also hosted by Yahoo! Merchant Solutions, is now the Vermont Teddy Bear Company’s fastest-growing line of business. This year, for the first time, PajamaGram eclipsed parent company Vermont Teddy Bear in annual sales transacted online. Between all its brands, over 67% of the company’s sales come in across the web.

“The amount of business we transact online has grown more than thirty-fold since we launched our first website a decade ago,” says Robert, “Yahoo! has always been there to make sure our sites are up and performing well. This Valentine’s Day, we’ll sell more gifts online in a couple hours than we used to in the entire month of February. And if we can make a few hundred thousand sweethearts happy on Valentine’s Day, then we’re happy.”

About the Vermont Teddy Bear Company

Each Vermont Teddy Bear Company Bear-Gram gift includes a customized Vermont Teddy Bear accompanied by a personal greeting card and candy treat, all packaged in a colorful gift box with an air hole. Orders are placed by calling 1-800-829-BEAR or by shopping at VermontTeddyBear.com

The company’s fast-growing PajamaGram brand is a gift delivery service where customers can pamper their loved ones by sending pajamas and spa products in luxurious packaging by calling 1-800-GIVE-PJS or shopping at PajamaGram.com.

The company also offers floral gifts from Calyx Flowers, gourmet foods and sweets from the TastyGram Company, and handbags and accessories from Gift Bag Boutique.