Lamps.com grows quickly at Arch Street Lighting

If you’ve wandered around Old City during First Friday you’ve probably passed Arch Street Lighting.
The light show room, in operation since 1914 seems old-school but on the third floor eight employees (each with their own favorite Philly sandwich) are working on one of the largest online retailers of lighting and lighting fixtures on the web.
Chris DiMarco, 35, took over the Lamps.com domain over a year ago and on June 28th, launched the current edition of Lamps.com with support Arch Street Lighting. According to DiMarco, the site has grown roughly 75 percent in sales since the first month and was will be named one of the regions fastest growing businesses at the Philly 100 event on Thursday, October 27th.

“It’s an older business, it’s well protected by the territories. They kind of shunned the internet for as long as possible,” says DiMarco adding that online retailers need an affiliation with a physical showroom to have access to wholesale lighting products.
DiMarco, who owns 90 percent of the company, says that most lightning is already drop shipped so creating a lightening e-commerce site was a perfect fit.
Lamps.com isn’t the first light retailer to make news here on Technically Philly, and the company takes pride in features like a service that maps the most energy effect bulb to the mixture you are purchasing.
DiMarco also owns FragranceUp a perfume and cosmetic e-commerce business.
The E-commerce club
DiMarco says that Philadelphia has a small but tight-knit e-commerce community that occasionally gets together for dinner. “Members” include representatives from Five Below, Revzilla and Zainy Brainy.
“It’s typically a dinner here or there,” he says adding that Lamps.com’s drop shipping strategy was shaped through his interaction with his local counterparts.