Marrying weddings and Web to form a multimillion-dollar business.

BRAD and Jennifer Fallon got more than they bargained for when they walked down the aisle in 2003.

Their nuptials spawned a multi-million-dollar e-commerce site that 4 years later morphed into a veritable Internet empire consisting of more than half a dozen sites. But that is what happens when a bride who is determined to find something different for her wedding marries a groom who is an expert in search engine optimization.

When Jennifer was planning her wedding, she turned to the Internet to find favours for her guests. Specifically, she was looking for place-card holders for the reception tables.

Finding examples online was not the problem. In fact, Jennifer was overwhelmed by just how many different online merchants were selling wedding favours. But she was underwhelmed by the quality and variety.

Her fruitless Internet shopping experience did not ruin her wedding—rather, it gave her and her fiance, Brad, a great business idea. They decided to start their own online wedding favours site and to distinguish theirs from the competition with broader merchandise offerings, better design and more targeted online marketing.

Via their website, My Wedding Favors, the Fallons carry about 600 different wedding favours, as well as bridesmaids’ gifts, groomsmen’s gifts and other wedding accessories. They ship 800 orders a day from their warehouse in Norcross, Georgia, near Atlanta.

They also have several other e-commerce sites, such as Elegant Wedding Bands and Quality Bridal Shoes.com, that they cross-promote to couples planning to marry. The Fallons are also behind many other non-related Web stores like Electric Scooters Galore, The Corner Stock and Instant Poker Chips.

Just a few months after getting hitched, Brad and Jennifer launched their website, My Wedding Favors, with an initial investment of less than US$1,000 (S$1,504) including US$50 spent on a Yahoo store. They chose Yahoo specifically because it was a quick, easy and affordable way to build a Web store.

With the rest of their initial US$1,000 investment, the Fallons bought merchandise at the Atlanta Gift Mart and funded an online advertising and search engine optimization campaign.

Their Yahoo store launched with just 40 products, but within the first month, sales reached US$11,000. By the third month—on the strength of Web advertising and marketing—monthly sales rose to US$80,000. Within 6 months, the Fallons’ sales totaled US$150,000 a month, or US$1.8 million on an annualized basis.

Now, just 3 years into their venture, the Fallons are at the helm of a US$15 million company, with one-third of its revenues coming from their wedding favours site. They have both left full-time jobs to run their entrepreneurial venture.

The true reason for the Fallons’ success is that they drive a huge volume of traffic to their Yahoo store and convert a significant percentage of that traffic into sales. The Fallons went into business knowing there was a huge demand for wedding favours, decor and related items.

Excerpted from Amy Joyner’s The Online Millionaire, published by John Wiley & Sons. This article is printed in The Sunday Times, dated September 23rd, 2007.