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    Electric Eye Finds Niche with Shopify

    It’s only appropriate to listen to the song which inspired the name of digital design and marketing company Electric Eye. Click here and crank up the volume as Judas Priest serenades you while you learn more about metalheads and business partners Shawn Khemsurov and Chase Clymer.

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    Khemsurov and Clymer bring unique backgrounds and balancing skill sets to the agency that has one major goal: grow a business’ online sales with Shopify.

    The duo met about 10 years ago when Clymer was a punk-rock playing freelancer. He and Khemsurov worked together on the album art for Clymer’s band. Clymer spent the next decade learning the ins and outs of the business of freelancing.

    Khemsurov earned a degree in environmental science…then spent several years in graphic design for major retailers. He worked for Old Navy, Abercrombie & Fitch and was instrumental in the early days of Homage. After leaving Homage to explore what was next through freelancing just over two years ago, Khemsurov took on some projects for friends in the fashion industry, projects which often involved e-commerce and Shopify.ElectricEye400

    He turned to Clymer for some help with technical questions and soon the two were doing more and more work together. Instead of continuing to pass money back and forth, the pair decided, “It’s time to make this official and make this an agency,” Khemsurov says. 

    With Khemsurov focused on the product and design side and Clymer on the technical and marketing aspects, Electric Eye launched about a year and a half ago to provide e-commerce solutions for small- to medium-sized businesses.

    When they first started, it was a do anything for money affair, leading to some interesting projects. However, Clymer says they quickly honed in on e-commerce because it was easier to show ROI. A business was making $x a month, and with a better e-commerce solution, now they are making $Y, whereas a general website is more difficult to calculate a tangible increase.

    Now for Electric Eye it’s all Shopify all the time. Certified Shopify Experts, “We believe it’s the best e-commerce platform around,” Khemsurov says.

    Clymer explains that Shopify was built from the ground up to be an e-commerce platform, “Some of the contenders out there were built as websites and then as a growth strategy they implemented e-commerce into it.”

    Shopify’s ease of use is another bonus. Khemsurov says business owners often ask who manages the Shopify store once it’s set up? Electric Eye empowers their clients to take it from there – if a user can update their Facebook profile picture, they can update their Shopify store.

    Electric Eye prefers to work directly with business owners and decision makers.

    “Working directly with people involved and helping them grow their business is what we’re passionate about,” Khemsurov says.

    That primarily falls into two categories.

    “We’re dealing with people that have existing brick-and-mortar businesses and they want to get online, or it’s a startup that’s looking to get their product to market,” Clymer says.

    For existing businesses, Electric Eye can help with clicks to bricks, either establishing a new online presence or optimizing current online operations. The duo think more and more businesses will continue to flock to e-commerce. For smaller businesses, the barrier to entry is low. While massive big-box retailers are closing stores and getting smaller, smaller stores are able to expand their footprints with e-commerce sales.

    Electric Eye provides services all the way from creating a Shopify Business Roadmap to entire Shopify Store Setup. And they do it all through transparent, flat-fee pricing.

    Pricing isn’t something a lot of customers are used to finding on agency websites. Clymer says being up front about it helps attract the caliber of customer they want to work with. It saves everyone’s time and the client from unexpected invoices.

    In the debate between hourly versus flat rate, “I believe hourly rewards inefficiencies,” Clymer says. The value-based pricing strikes a balance between an expert being able to complete tasks quickly and potentially dragging out hours to make more money.

    As a small agency, Electric Eye has built a network of partners to support its operations. They’re hoping to ramp up business enough to grow their development team in India from four to six. They have an SEO partner to funnel opportunities to. They’ve also networked in the Shopify community to meet a number of other agency owners in the space willing to share insights and best practices. Khemsurov says it makes them feel comfortable that they can solve nearly any problem that comes up for clients.

    Electric Eye is also interested in collaborating with other agencies non-competitively. With enough fish in the sea, Clymer says they don’t want to fight over projects, they would rather have collaboration and referrals.

    “We shine with Shopify and we can offer that to these other agencies where they might not have that expertise in house,” Clymer says.

    For more information, visit electriceye.io.

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    Susan Post
    Susan Post
    Susan is the editor of The Metropreneur and associate editor of Columbus Underground, and also covers small business and entrepreneurial news and the food scene in Central Ohio.Susan holds a degree in Communication with a minor in Professional Writing from The Ohio State University. She sits on the board of the Central Ohio Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and loves coffee, whiskey, cooking and spending time with friends and family.
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