E-Spresso Shop serves up home furnishings Web help

Johne Albanese, Steve Bailey launch marketing company

Lisa Casinger -- Furniture Today, November 19, 2008

HIGH POINT — Industry veterans Johne Albanese and Steve Bailey have launched a Web marketing company, The e-Spresso Shop, to help home furnishings retailers and manufacturers reach Gen X and Y consumers online.

Johne Albanese

"We named the company The e-Spresso Shop because we like the idea of giving business a jolt, much like we get with coffee," Albanese said.

The firm, online at www.e-spressoshop.com, offers clients five different Web strategies ranging from Breakfast Blend to Full Bodied Cappuccino. The Breakfast Blend includes a business analysis and the creation of a relevant Web presence, while the Full Bodied Cappuccino includes everything on the menu, from development to implementation. There also is a Coffee Club, a content and analytics maintenance program.

E-Spresso Shop services range from populating a Web site with content and writing blogs, to helping choose the best ways to market a site through social networks and affiliate marketing, including the use of search engine optimization.

"Johne and I have worked in the industry as retailers and wholesalers and we know the business from the inside," said Bailey.

Albanese said younger shoppers "are the Web's most prolific users and we want to help the industry reach them.

"We're not telling clients to stop the marketing or advertising they're doing now," he said. "What they're doing now is reaching the Baby Boomers and they need to do that. We're just recommending that they divert some of that money to reaching the other 80% of the consumers and reach them where they shop - and that's on the Web."

Albanese said Gen X and Y consumers "specifically seek online companies with whom they identify on a very emotional level. If a site doesn't speak their ‘lifestyle language,' they ignore it."