HOSPITALGOWNS.COM business makes great strides helping patients.

hospitalgowns.com launched a retail website where consumers can purchase direct designer hospital patient gowns, surgical scrub caps and bouffant hats for top quality healthcare clothing.

(PRWEB) December 20, 2003

If you've ever spent time in a hospital — recovering or visiting — chances are you're familiar with the traditional patient garb: a stale blue or light green snowflake gown with just enough fabric to provide adequate coverage — hopefully. There's nothing very inspirational — or comfortable — about these hospital gowns. That's why, after spending an extensive amount of time in hospitals visiting ill family members, Clif Shakun felt compelled to create something that would better represent people's lives and personalities. So in 1999 Clif launched hospitalgowns.com, a retail website where consumers can purchase designer hospital patient gowns, surgical scrub caps and bouffant hats.

"Doctors and nurses have great cool designs on their outfits," said Shakun. "Why shouldn't patients — the people who need inspiration the most — have a better quality, creatively-designed, colorful hospital gown to make their experience a little more uplifting?"

Self-funded and started from a small kitchen table with his creative design, this Interland customer offers an online-only catalog featuring 26 colorful designer hospital patient gowns, 65 surgical scrub cap prints and 21 bouffant hats prints. His designs, with imaginative names, such as Tropical Indigo, Rosaria, Coral Fish, Flames, Sushi, and Cat's Meow, come in adult sizes: S thru XXL.

Customers can easily and quickly click on their favorite colorful swatch print, see a model, review the measuring charts for accurate sizing, submit the order via the Dansie Shopping Cart, choose a shipping option, and proceed seamlessly to AuthorizeNet's secure

real-time credit card processing.

However, Shakun is more than a source of colorful patient gowns for his customers. He has added more than 1,500 links to health-related sites which provide access to information on a range of health resources and conditions, including the American Organ Transplant Association, National Kidney Foundation, Association of Cancer Online Resources, National Institute of Health, and many more. He has supplied these links through his own research as well as through customer suggestions. He also posts and invites testimonials from customers, many of whom have found that either they or their family members, dressed in the designer patient gowns, scrub caps and bouffant hats, get a lot more attention from doctors and nurses. This boosts their spirits and brightens their day, promoting an overall happier hospital stay.

Shakun has experienced dramatic growth since launching his website online in 1999, and has tested then implemented a number of strategies for achieving online success. He has seen growth every month compared to the previous year's sales, and sells as much as 10 percent of his products around the world — from Japan to Saudi Arabia.

To ensure his company's capabilities are fully represented online, he owns the domains for both hospitalgowns.com as well as surgicalcaps.com. And, while print advertising has not paid off for Shakun, Google AdWords have made a tremendous impact. Shakun has strategically selected about 20 Google AdWord phrases that position him precisely for Internet searches. As a result, he averages an overall click-through rate of 11.3 percent on Google searches, with as much as a 22 percent click-through for some key words. Through his search engine optimization plan, he ensures that his leads are very targeted. He attributes his success to five years of carefully refining his optimization so that he is positioned in a prominent spot.

In addition to Google Ad Words, Shakun participates in a link exchange program that provides him with free banner ads on other medical-related sites in exchange for hosting banner ads on his site. This has worked for Shakun because he is able to determine which categories of sites are acceptable for the exchange without having to seek out advertising.

Shakun tried selling pop-up ads for his website without success. However, rather than abandon the idea, he opted to use the pop-ups to feature meaningful Web sites for site visitors. Several times each month, Shakun rotates the pop-up ad to showcase sites representing Breast Cancer Awareness, Scleroderma Foundation, Ronald McDonald House, Tour of Hope and Victory Junction, just to name a few.

In a time when many companies rush to send mass e-mails to every e-mail contact they can find, Shakun is particularly sensitive to the needs and desires of his customer base. Each year, Shakun sends a one-time only seasonal holiday thank-you e-mail to each customer to show appreciation for his or her support and purchases. But Shakun has intentionally steered away from e-mail marketing as a strategy.

As Shakun looks to the future, he continues his counter-intuitive approach to business. He actually hopes that he will see more competition, as this will mean that more patients are served with colorful, friendly hospital patient gowns, surgical scrub caps and bouffant hats.

For more information, please access hospitalgowns.com or surgicalcaps.com.