What's in a Name? Try $2.5 Million for 'Cabinets.com'
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What's in a Name? Try $2.5 Million for 'Cabinets.com' CHICAGO - Kitchen cabinets are among the top five most expensive purchases made in one’s lifetime, but  85% of cabinet owners do not know (or care) what brand name stands behind them.

This is the rationale behind the asking price of $2.5 million for the newly available Cabinets.com, for sale by Panama City-based Media Options. The website url is owned by Steve Krengel, who also owns Kitchens.com and WhitePicketMedia in Chicago.

A Google search for the "cabinets.com" url, or website address, brings up the expected string of sponsored ads - cabinet firm CliqStudios.com is number one, having paid its way to the top for the moment -  along with the search-engine optimized links to Innermost Cabinets (a unit of Elkay); Crystal Cabinets, a large independent custom cabinet manufacturer in Minnesota; Decora Cabinets, a unit of Fortune Brands MasterBrand Cabinets; and Masco's Quality Cabinets.  

These businesses figured out how not to pay $2.5 million for a url.

What's in a Name? Try $2.5 Million for 'Cabinets.com' Media Options clearly uses boiler plate copy to promote the value of owning the url:

Whether building new or remodeling, consumers simply prefer to search for 'cabinets' …And after paying an average of $18,000 - $40,000 for quality, functionality, and design, they typically forget the brand name soon after purchase. This makes cabinets an ideal product for selling and marketing online - and the playing field is level, except for the one player who owns the most important domain name, Cabinets.com!

"When you look at the fact the company Blinds.com reportedly just sold to Home Depot this year for over a $1 Billion and did over $100 million per year in annual revenue, you can easily use your imagination to see the potential behind Cabinets.com," says Media Options CEO Andrew Rosener. Why?

"Cabinets cost a multitude more than blinds and are in every single household; whereas blinds could be replaced by curtains or often left without any window treatment. We expect Cabinets.com to sell quickly.”

Media Options does have some practical advice for online marketing, noting:

  • Some entities build their primary site on a domain name that is not their brand name, and the cabinet industry is an ideal candidate for this type of online strategy since brand name is not as important or recognized by consumers.
  • A 2012 Microsoft study shows domains with exact keywords like Cabinets.com maximize search engine ranking performance, but also increase click through and conversion rates in ecommerce.
  • Utilizing a “category killer” domain like this is often recommended as a savvy proactive move, establishing the owner as the definitive resource in that field.

Cabinets.com owner Krengel says, “From our research, we’re seeing companies in the online cabinet space selling more than 100,000 cabinets a year with better revenues than 90% of the traditional manufacturers and twice the profit per sale."

his numbers are useful:

About 25,000 US firms specialize in kitchen and bath design and installation, says Media Options, with $16.2 billion spent in the U.S. specifically on wood kitchen cabinets, according to a Dun and Bradstreet 2009 Industry Report. (That number is now under $10 billion according to the 2014 Wood Industry Almanac.) Home centers and distributers sell about 20% each of total market share, with a 25-50% profit margin on cabinet sales.

 

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