Hayneedle
Encyclopedia
Hayneedle is an online
ONLINE
ONLINE is a magazine for information systems first published in 1977. The publisher Online, Inc. was founded the year before. In May 2002, Information Today, Inc. acquired the assets of Online Inc....

 retail company
Company
A company is a form of business organization. It is an association or collection of individual real persons and/or other companies, who each provide some form of capital. This group has a common purpose or focus and an aim of gaining profits. This collection, group or association of persons can be...

 based in Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...

, USA. The company owns and operates over 220 online niche
Niche market
A niche market is the subset of the market on which a specific product is focusing; therefore the market niche defines the specific product features aimed at satisfying specific market needs, as well as the price range, production quality and the demographics that is intended to impact...

 stores featuring a wide variety of products. Hayneedle currently employs over 300 people in the Omaha Metro area. In 2009 Hayneedle, formerly known as NetShops, unveiled its new name.

History

Hayneedle began in 2002 with a single store, Hammocks.com. Within a few years, about a dozen more stores were added to round out the company's initial yard and patio furnishings platform. Today Hayneedle's proprietary
Proprietary software
Proprietary software is computer software licensed under exclusive legal right of the copyright holder. The licensee is given the right to use the software under certain conditions, while restricted from other uses, such as modification, further distribution, or reverse engineering.Complementary...

 ecommerce platform enables the continual development and launching of online stores specializing in a variety of product categories that the company recognizes as underserved in competing retail stores.

Hayneedle acquired Duluth, Minnesota based Thralow, Inc. stores in 2006, consisting of the ecommerce properties Binoculars.com and Telescopes.com, among others. In February 2006, Hayneedle, then known as NetShops, laid off approximately 50 employees from Omaha and all Thralow employees as part of a major internal restructuring. In February 2007, Hayneedle, then known as NetShops again laid off approximately 50 employees as part of another major internal restructuring. In September 2007, Hayneedle acquired GiftBaskets.com to help round out the gift categories represented by their niche stores. In February 2007, Hayneedle, then known as NetShops, laid off approximately 50 employees as part of a major internal restructuring
Restructuring
Restructuring is the corporate management term for the act of reorganizing the legal, ownership, operational, or other structures of a company for the purpose of making it more profitable, or better organized for its present needs...

, but has subsequently grown to over 300 full-time employees in addition to part-time and temporary workers.

The chairman of Hayneedle Inc., Doug Nielsen, is a co-founder of the company with his sister Julie Mahloch and business partner Mark Hasebroock, who is currently serving as Vice-Chairman. In October 2007 Carter Cast joined Hayneedle, then known as NetShops, as the new President and CEO. Carter helped found BlueNile.com and most recently held the position of President and CEO of WalMart.com. Shortly after, in March 2008, Hayneedle appointed Ash ElDifrawi as the company's first CMO. ElDifrawi was formerly an executive at Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...

.

In December 2008, Hayneedle, then known as Netshops, was featured on "Eye on America," an informative television program covering a variety of topics, trends, and issues. The company was featured as part of the show’s series, "Online Innovators: Shopping for a Stress Free Life."

On February 5, 2009, Hayneedle, then known as NetShops, announced the laying off of 42 employees as part of an organizational restructuring necessitated by the economic downturn. The company has since hired several full-time staff to address rebounding sales and aid in its re-branding effort.

On October 15, 2010, Hayneedle opened the Foundary, a web site on which the company stages flash sales of home products (furniture, cookware, linens, etc.) at discounted prices. It is a limited-time, limited-quantity format, with sales typically running for 72 hours.

Visitors to the Foundary must become members and sign in to view sales events. Members receive emails announcing daily events and inviting them to shop. Sales typically start at 12 p.m. Eastern time. Membership is free.

Hayneedle is privately held and funded by Insight Venture Partners
Insight Venture Partners
Insight Venture Partners is a New York-based private equity and venture capital firm founded in 1995 by Jeff Horing and Jerry Murdock. The firm focuses exclusively on software and Internet-enabled businesses and currently has a capital base of approximately $5 billion.The firm’s Executive Advisory...

 and Sequoia Capital
Sequoia Capital
Sequoia Capital is a Californian venture capital firm located on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, California. The Wall Street Journal has called Sequoia Capital "one of the highest-caliber venture firms", and noted that it is "one of Silicon Valley's most influential venture-capital firms"...

.

Ratings

The Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce named Hayneedle (then known as NetShops) one of "Omaha's Best Places to Work" in 2005 and 2006. They also awarded Hayneedle with the "2007 Excellence in Business Award" for local businesses.

Hayneedle, as NetShops Inc., has been a Nebraska Better Business Bureau
Better Business Bureau
The Better Business Bureau , founded in 1912, is a corporation consisting of several private business franchises of local BBB organizations based in the United States and Canada, which work through their parent corporation, the Council of Better Business Bureaus .The Better Business Bureau, through...

 accredited business since 2002, and currently holds an "A+" rating with the BBB. The BBB processed a total of 309 complaints about this company in the last 36 months (as of 8/15/08), the standard BBB reporting period. All of these complaints have been closed, including 170 closed in the last year.

In 2007, Inc.com, the website for Inc. magazine, listed Hayneedle, then known as NetShops, as #154 on its "5,000 Fastest Growing Private Companies in America" list, which determines ranking based on revenue growth. Hayneedle ranked #13 on the same list in 2006. Of all online retail companies, Hayneedle (as NetShops) ranked #5 on Inc.'s list for 2007.

Internet Retailer's Top 500 list placed Hayneedle (as NetShops) at #104 based on online gross revenue in 2007, and in 2008 they named Hayneedle (as NetShops) the 15th largest mass merchant on the web based on total web sales, and the 82nd largest retailer. In 2007 and 2008, Internet Retailer Magazine named Hayneedle (as NetShops) one of their Top 100 best internet retailers.

Hayneedle was named to Internet Retailer's Hot 100 list of online merchants in 2009.
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