Facing ‘disappointing’ revenues, Funtober founder shares what’s next

Robert Melton admits it. Revenue at his seasonal ecommerce startup Funtober has been underwhelming.

At about $10,000 a year, Melton, 36, of South Philly, says it’s been disappointing.

“There’s a lot of competition in the Halloween costume space, and we don’t have the money to run ads,” he wrote in an email.

He added: “My original theory was that people would visit us in the fall for our festival/events/crafts/recipe information and then buy a costume. It turns out they don’t do that.”

Having seen success with Oktoberfest information, Funtober plans to expand its content offerings around seasonal festival.

But people are coming to the site for a reason. On the first day of Oktoberfest this year, Sept. 20, Funtober got 20,000 hits, Melton told Hire an Esquire. More than 50 percent of the site’s 1.5 million total visitors come for the information on Oktoberfests all over the world, he told us.

That’s why Melton, who started Funtober when he was a contract attorney and “needed something with a future,” plans to expand his seasonal festival content offerings. He’ll start with Thanksgiving events, like “Thanksgiving Eve parties to Turkey Trots to Black Friday/Small Business Saturday/Cyber Monday deals.”

He’s also thinking about distributing products from local businesses and farms. Melton delivered a Halloween cake from local cake shop Sandy’s Cutie Pies to our office last week (it reminded us of how ChargeItSpot delivered 150 cakes to Philly businesses as a marketing stunt).

Another possibility for Funtober: selling less mass-produced, more boutique Halloween costumes. Currently, the company sources costumes through a costume distributor whenever someone orders a costume.

What about expanding further than just fall?

He says he’s heard that advice from several people he respects but he’s sticking to his guns for now.

“My thought when starting it was that if I worked on something year round that other people only spend one month on, I might have a chance at competing,” he said.

Luckily, he said, since he has a day job, it’s not too much of a concern. Melton works full-time as a marketing coordinator for Center City whistleblower law firm Young Law Group. His father is the only one working full-time on Funtober.

Melton also participated in last winter’s Philly Startup Leaders’ Accelerator, where he said he learned that “there’s no golden ticket to success.”