"Online piggy bank retailer thrives on savers"

The Pierce County Business Examiner reported in their January 21st edition,

"While most merchants just try to get you to spend your money, business partners Michael Gehi and Rebecca Whitaker try to help people save their loose change with an array of piggy banks for sale at piggybankworld.com.

The partners opened the successful dotcom outside of Yelm’s city limits in 2002, after Gehi’s job as a shipping subcontractor for local Web-based hammocks.com ended when the business was sold to an Omaha-based company. Gehi and Whitaker, who knew the sale was pending, spent months trying to find a lucrative niche in a fast-growing Internet sales field.

Gehi put all of his shipping experience to use when the pair decided to specialize in piggy banks, which had to be shipped between suppliers and clients around the world. Starting with a product line of eight pigs, the two gradually widened their offerings, ranging from coin sorters and mechanical banks to an array of animal shapes from 200 breeds of dogs to rabbits, horses and water fowl. The company’s products range in materials also, from plastic to porcelain to metal and wood...

After having a 350 percent sales growth spurt between 2002 and 2006, piggybankworld.com seems to have hit a more gradual plateau in its advancement, but continues to grow by expanding the number of shapes and colors available, which now totals about 600, Gehi said.

This year, he also plans to make the business more efficient by preparing to directly import products from China...

With those principles in mind – saving a portion of its annual sales – the small partnership with no employees highlights one charity a year to focus on giving its donation. The Great Penny Drive benefited The Fruit Tree Planting Foundation in 2007. Gehi has yet to announce this year’s charitable recipient.

Eventually, he would like to see piggybankworld.com begin to manufacture its own piggy banks, although he may sell the company before that happens. His primary emphasis in managing it now is seeing that customers are made happy, he said.

'We’re professional, thorough, (and) very non-assumptive in our communications, regardless of how much detail there might be,' Gehi said. 'We want to create a positive experience for anyone that contacts us.'

Piggy Bank World
1-866-204-7733