Karen McMasters BareBabies.com

Karen McMasters started Barebabies.com (visit site) in February of 1999 with no business background and very little computer experience. She had a dream, a goal and the drive to make it happen.

Like most entrepreneurs, Karen started off with a great story. “I started selling my daughters old baby items on eBay. I was amazed at how well everything sold. I ran out of things to sell, so I started going to garage sales to find more baby products to sell via eBay. It was incredible. Everything kept selling and I needed more!”

Even though Karen had no business experience at all, she had the online itch and started exploring other options for selling online. “I really like the baby resale business and I thought it would be fun to try to open and online store and sell new baby products.”

And BareBabies.com was born. Literally.

Karen was a single employee when she first started, no venture capitol or angel investors here. She got it started with hard work, dedication and the vision to succeed. “We started seeing orders almost immediately”, McMasters recalls. “It really was pretty amazing.”

In 2001, Karen was attending an online advertising meeting and met someone who had recently had their Yahoo! Store Redesigned. “I’d been thinking about freshening up our site, but I didn’t know where to go, who to trust or even what to ask. The person I met at that meeting has worked with Colorado Web Solutions and after looking at his site, I knew I had found my new design firm.”

Karen proceeded to hire Colorado Web Solutions to do a make over on her site. It was a great success for her business. “They (Colorado Web Solutions) have been great to work with. Their work is really professional. We still receive compliments daily about the look of our store and how easy it is to navigate.”

“Working with Colorado Web Solutions was fantastic. They are professional, kind and go above and beyond the call of duty. You are always on the “Front Burner” when working with Colorado Web Solutions. Trust me after 6 years working with them, I wouldn’t ever want to change our relationship.”

Seven years later, sporting 6 full time employees, BareBabies.com is thriving. They are seeing an average of 350 orders a week.

When asked about things she’s learned over the years working with Yahoo! Stores, Karen was quick to point out that “Yahoo! Cares. If there is a problem, they are on it. Most of the time before you even know about it. You are backed by the Yahoo! brand and they are the best.”

Looking back on the years as a successful online retailer, we asked Karen what she felt her greatest success story was. “I was a stay at home mom when I started my business. I have been able to take my daughter to school and pick her up every day for the past 6 years. I get to attend all of her school events and activities. I really have the best of both worlds.” A true success story.

BareBabies.com uses a few third party tools as well on their site that are worth mentioning. They use eWish for their baby registry and Constant Contact (managed by Colorado Web Solutions) for their email campaigns. Colorado Web Solutions also just added a full functioning Customer Reviews Module to Karen’s site which will allow her customers to share reviews and ratings with other visitors. It’s a dynamic module that is managed by Karen (approving reviews, etc) that automatically publishes all the approved reviews to the correct product instantly. Karen hopes that this new added feature will create even more of a draw to her already successful store.

When wrapping up our interview with Karen, she enthusiastically added, “I highly recommend Yahoo! Web Hosting and Colorado Web Solutions. I wouldn’t be where I am today without them. Thank you Yahoo! and CWS! I am truly blessed.”

Thank you Karen. We’ve enjoyed every moment working with you as well.