How has the internet affected the knife business, need manufacturer input

L

Lizabelle

Joined
Feb 1, 1999
Messages
91
Hey!
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I'm doing a research paper for my internal business class on "how the internet has affected the knife business." Please tell me what you can about how the internet has changed the way you do business. Details would be great!
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If you prefer to not post here for any reason please email me. Thanks!! Your help is much appreciated.
 
In talking to Bill last weekend, he made it clear that the ability to show pics of his products on a website and then talk directly with customers and more importantly, let the customers talk to each OTHER on a single forum has revolutionized his business. Sales are booming. One pattern is that people who are already known for knowledge and honesty buy one of his pieces and review it; people like Cliff Stamp, Joe Talmadge and others.

I bought an HI piece after hearing people like that talk about theirs and then finally meeting Joe Talmadge and his HI Ang Khola 15" model. Once I saw that beastie it was just a matter of time before a piece matching what I wanted (more "fighter oriented") came on the market.

This is all a CLASSIC pattern. I own a Mad Dog ATAK for exactly the same pattern of reasons.

In other cases, the knife forums allow us customers to tell manufacturers exactly what we want, in some cases buying the results sight unseen. Example: I personally pushed hard for *anybody* to make a really large folding knife of good quality for the California market where we have no legal limits on concealed folders. Bob Taylor of Round Eye Knife and Tool eventually came out with the 5.5" Sifu "megafolder"; so far the first 70 serialized hand-ground blade editions have sold out (and FAST) and within a few months we'll see a regular production version in knife shops everywhere. (As an aside, for coining the term "megafolder" and pushing so hard for 'em for dang near a year I was allowed to buy serial number 1 - it's in my back pocket as I write this.)

Anyways...the manufacturers can feed us info, we can feed each OTHER info and we can feed info back to the manufacturer.

It's KEWL!

Jim
 
Without DARPA,we would not even know that this stuff was available,or how to get it.
 
Without the 'net I would not be a customer of Himalayan Imports because I would not have known that it even existed.

I was interested in the subject of Gorkhas, and was browsing on the internet to find Gorkha-related info and stumbled across the HI site. I've been a regular customer ever since. And, oddly enough, because of email and this forum, I feel that I get more personal service than I often get when dealing with local merchants.
 
If it was'nt for the internet, I would'nt have known about HI either. I had done a search on Asian style knives and went to the Ethnographic Edged Weapons Resource Site and while looking thru the Khukuri section, I found out about HI. I would say the Net has definitely improved buying and selling of knives. I was initially hesitant on buying over the net but after my discussions with Uncle Bill, and my experiences with the Khukuris I have bought from HI, I feel much more confortable buying over the internet. I also think the way Uncle Bill and Pala see each customer as a friend has much to do with this.
 
Liz,we are not clients,we are friends of Bill.As screwed up as the sitrep can get,this is required.A common customer would blow a gasket.

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I dunno Colonel, it's getting better all the time. We're learning how to communicate with the kamis despite language and cultural differences, turnaround really isn't worse than some of the high-end US custom makers and actually better than many, quality is going up, Bill is absolutely working like a fiend on the customer service end.

Have you guys realized yet that with over 3,500 posts Bill is the #1 Bladeforums poster that I can find so far!? He tops Mike Turber by over 500...this is all the more remarkable given Bill's relative newness to BF! Sal Glesser is nowhere close, Bob Taylor isn't even on the radar.

And he's doing this AND handling shipping/recieving and order processing on phone and EMail.

I tell ya what. The best answer I can see is to grow the Nepalese production side without dropping the per-blade value, get enough biz going that it's worth staffing an office-based US distribution arm. Have somebody or two else on orders and shipping/recieving, Bill semi-retires to PR and customer service. He'll be a lot better off...it's not that he's doing a bad job, it's that he can't keep this up forever.

If he keeps the fun part and just manages a bit, he *can* keep going and we get to keep him
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The "friend" part is NO BS. Bill is the most quality marketing guy there is, matched only by James Mattis.

Jim
 
If this is for High school Liz,you need to clean up your English.Hay is for horses.

You have part of your answer here.Let us know if you ever form a thesis,an antithesis,a conclusion and projection.I rather doubt it,surprise me.Getting beyond the intro would suprise me.
We will never hear from you again because despite your poorly worded question,you have no idea to correlate the data that you did get.
What is an internal class?Is that like Internal Affairs,everyones favorite ratfinks?Who would you shoot first,given the choice?

[This message has been edited by ghostsix (edited 09 November 1999).]
 
I'll hark back to "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", a book and movie we have referred to in the past in our forum. Remember the incident where our hero tries to rip up the wash basin and couldn't do it? He then says, "at least I tried."

That's how I feel sometimes.

Of course, before the end of the story the Giant Indian does the deed successfully. (He was a Cherokee, wasn't he Yvsa?) I am waiting for my own Giant Indian to appear.

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Uncle Bill
Himalayan Imports Website
http://members.aol.com/himimp/index.html


[This message has been edited by Bill Martino (edited 09 November 1999).]
 
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