Firebox.com: Toy Store for Adults in Cyberspace

If Sharper Image, Toys R Us, Best Buy and Radioshack had a child, never let him grow up and raised him in the United Kingdom, Firebox.com is what he would be. The site is the brainchild of Michael Smith, a full blooded Brit with a refreshing sense of humor that's a bit out of his age bracket. His site, founded in 1998 with his college buddy Tom, is forthe kid in all of us adults that is eager to get out, but who still attempt to act like an adult. The site is split into 12 categories. The gadgets section features an idiot proof mp3 song wireless streaming device, a flashlight that charges on your USB hub, solar panels to charge your Ipod and a do it all wi fi enabled rabbit (you heard me) are among a few. Other categories include boys toys, eccentric audio components, retro fitted video games and a play at work section. One particular ingenious invention out of the several thousand on this website is the Sonic hand grenade, which does exactly what you think it does and is a last resort alarm clock, aimed exclusively for the most valiant of heavy sleepers. A USB artillery cannon is another stand out comedic desktop device that blast squishy darts across the room with a flick of your spacebar, all to a symphony of circus music. The site features thousands of products like the ones I mentioned and much much more. Firebox also just released a United States only version of the site. Its prices are now in US dollars instead of Pounds, tailored to the consumer in the states and written in "American" instead of "England" English. I stopped by Firebox's P.R. company in the states, Sandbox inc., on Madison avenue, to talk with Michael Smith about Firebox.

AC: How did your site get started?
Firebox: I set it up with a friend of mine, Tommy, we were graduating school and we didn't know what we wanted to do. We thought that selling cool Games, gadgets and toys were the kind of things we loved and would be the perfect thing for us to do. That's how we set it up. We didn't have enough money for a shop or a catalog so we built a site online back in '98 and there weren't too many people online at that time so it was pretty tough in those days. And then I kind of broke through with the shot glass chess set. Very weird idea but we sold thousands of them.

AC: A shot glass chess set? What is that?
Firebox: So imagine chess board but instead of pieces we replace the pieces with a shot glass and they have different ones for each kind of piece and such you can play white wine against red white or whiskey against vodka and as you play every time you capture a piece you have to drink it. So the better you're doing the more drunk you're getting. And we got press out of it. It launched the whole company with that and we thought of it in a pub and we were amaze that no one has made one yet.

AC: That is truly amazing, So you've had the same domain name since 1998?

Firebox: No, when we first started we were called hotbox and the main idea behind that was the products were so hot that they were literally bursting out of our boxes. We designed a cool little logo with flames coming out of the top and we owned the name hotbox.co.uk we didn't own the name hotbox.com but we didn't think it mattered. Yet in our naivety we soon discovered that hotbox.com was actually a porn site. It was very embarrassing and my parents would all tell their friends to go check out their sons website and suffice to say they were shocked. Eventually we had some investors that loved our site but they told us that we had to change the name and we wanted to keep it something similar to the original so we thought firebox.com was appropriate. We didn't want to call ourselves gadgets.com or boys stuff or anything like that, that would appeal to a more tecchy audience, we wanted to appeal to a bigger market

AC: So you're not just an online company?
FireBox: No we launched a catalog about three years ago. It's been very successful for us. It's a bit weird, an online site having a catalog. Allot of our customers like leafing through our catalog, they have it on the kitchen table or browse it on their way to work and then they go online and buy the stuff they like. It's worked very well and we don't have any shops or plan to have any either.

AC: So do you do TV advertisements?
FireBox: Many ask how on earth do we get our customers because we don't do any advertising its been all Pr Work. We are just generally featured here and there and its cheaper and allot better then advertising.

AC: So this is the U.S. site your doing now, What's the difference?
FireBox: Most people think that when you sell on a website you can sell anywhere in the world and when we sold exclusively in the UK about 2 or 3% of our products went to America. But the problem was the site would set up in English so the prices were in pounds and the prices were written in ways that would appeal to British consumers. Allot of little in jokes and references to tv shows that American consumers weren't aware of. We changed all the prices to dollars, we offer a flat rate of ten dollars shipping to the US and were much quicker getting the product to America. So it doesn't seem like allot but it's a big shift and even though we've wanted to do this for years and years its taken quite a while to take those changes and if you're an American, the site knows where you are automatically and throws up the American site and it is a big difference. There was a day last week where we were getting more traffic from America then we were getting from the UK so its amazing when you think about it when we've been up for two weeks, which is incredible since when you think about it we've been running the UK site for 7 or 8 years so far. It has already gotten more traffic then the uk site, it is just mind bending and we already got 350 orders in one day on the US site. We don't nearly get that many in the Uk site in one day so the US is a huge market for us.

AC: So what do you think is the biggest difference in what people buy in the different countries?
FireBox: We don't quite know that yet but my gut feeling is that it will be pretty similar but the firebox customers, what they love about the site is that we sell things that they cant get in every day retail. If you happen to buy a gift or a birthday present for someone you probably don't want to go to a typical retailer you would get something that is unique and special to that person and that's what firebox specializes in and that's what hopefully will be unique to the UK and the US customers alike.

AC: I noticed buyers can upload their own videos to your site and review the products they buy. The online consumer reviews are nothing new but the videos and photos of them using their products is. Is this exclusive to your site? Is firebox the first site to use this unique feedback method?
Firebox: Good question, I have never seen any other retailers that do it and we've been doing it for years and years before even you tube launched. We should have created youtub on the back of it if we've been smart but you know, anyone can write a review but when you actually see someone with a product, doing stuff with it that you've never seen done before we thin that's a great way to sell a product. We can make videos of products but when consumers see other consumers who have actually bought it really helps to sell the product and demonstrate it.

AC: How exactly do you find all the stuff you sell? You don't make them yourselves do you?
Firebox: We make a few of them actually. The chess set of course is one and Perplexity is one of them. So since we sell hundreds and hundreds of products we cant make them all so we go to trades shows around the world and we go to trade shows in Tokyo, Hong Kong, we go to CES which is a consumer electronics show in Las Vegas, and basically we find cool stuff there. Now we have allot more suppliers coming directly to us so they can sell us their products.

AC: So do you buy People's patents and ideas or do you buy actual finished products/prototypes?
Firebox: No normally almost in all instances we buy products that are made up we do get allot of people writing in and saying ive got an amazing idea for a product and normally we don't get involved until it's a finished idea for a product. It keeps our lives easier if we stay out of other peoples ideas. But what we always try to do is get stuff first before it actually launches and its exclusive to use because if consumers think they can get it from firebox and only from us then that's very valuable to us.

AC: So do you sell any normal electronics? Like mp3 players, DVD players, video game systems?
FireBox: Normal electronics? We do, most of the stuff we try to sell has a twist but nothing we sell you can really buy at a best buy or radio shack because we might not be able to compete with them on price. We do sell mp3 players and mp3 players. For example we sell a brand of portable DVD players we buy directly from the far east so we can sell it very cheaply. We sold it for under 100 pounds. We sell digital cameras, we sell digital photo viewers ,creative Zen mp3 players. But like I said we cater to unique products for unique people.

Firebox.com has its slogan "we don't stop playing because we get old; we get old because we stop playing" at the top of its website. That phrase sums up the general message of the company, enjoy life while you have it, being an adult is overrated and go a little different on your next purchase. Stop by firebox.com when you have a minute and you'll see why it's a big deal. Oh yeah and if my mom or girlfriend is reading this, for christmas I want the Star Wars FX light saber in blue please, its on the site, Thanks.