Business Notebook: Brick-and-mortar Southfork Homecenter aims to supplement e-commerce convenience

There's a dry-erase board covering the wall in Kyle Thoma's office -- several, actually -- covered in a sprawling idea web.

And scrawled across the top of that web is what the Cape Electrical Supply president and CEO said is a guiding principle of their business: "great experience!!!"

It was prioritizing customer convenience, he said, that led the company to focus on e-commerce.

"Our success in the e-commerce space has allowed us to do some really out-of-the-box ventures," he said.

The latest such venture is Southfork Homecenter.

The 5,000-square-foot home center carries thousands of products and offers a specialized paint center.

"I promise, there is very little you could want that I couldn't walk you to," said Jamie Jackson, director of branch operations and logistics. "We don't carry lumber, but we carry fixtures for lumber, sawblades, garden tools, you name it."

The new venture, Thoma said, came about in a way that would have been unconventional but is becoming increasingly popular.

"E-commerce has kind of been taking on a life of its own," Thoma said. "We're supplementing that by putting in a brick-and-mortar location."

This approach seeks to fuse the broad convenience of online shopping with the more situational convenience afforded by a physical store, he said. In other words, someone may order wood pellets for a barbecue grill online before the cookout, but if the pellet supply runs short on cookout day, it's more convenient to just pop out to the store and pick up more.

"You're seeing it with Amazon," Thoma said. "They've had big success with their marketplace, and now you see them putting in more brick-and-mortar [locations] to heighten their customer experience."

And going one better, a partnership with local ride-hail company carGO's courier service could allow someone to order the grill pellets online and have them delivered from Southfork Homecenter without leaving the backyard.

"It goes hand-in-hand with our whole theory," Thoma said, adding deliveries at this point may be made as far as Perryville and Sikeston, Missouri, or Anna, Illinois.

Meanwhile, the physical store at 495 Kell Farm Road is open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Jackson said the staff also are an extension of the customer-experience focus.

"It's like your grandpa's hardware store, where you know the people and feel like a part of something," he said.

"It's all about convenience," Thoma agreed. "You're not going to wander aimlessly."

tgraef@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3627

Pertinent address:

495 Kell Farm Road, Cape Girardeau, Mo.