Mark Poppen: Online Record Store Born on the Prairies of Saskatchewan

Funky Moose Records is an online record store born on the prairies of Saskatchewan. Our goal is to bridge the gap between the local record store that a lot of people don’t have access to (anymore) and the giant online retailers. We want customers to feel like they’re treated as if they were shopping in person without “store policies” and hoops to jump through if something goes wrong with an order.

Tell us about yourself?

I have a background in website design and as a hobby, I was involved in community radio. I’ve always enjoyed some of the retail jobs I worked when I was younger and when I ran my web design agency, I felt I was missing the physical products in the sale. I always wanted to start an e-commerce business but never had the product I felt passionate about.

Fast forward to 2014 when I re-purchased a turntable and a box of records, a lightbulb went on and I Googled “Canadian record distributors” and phoned the first one that popped up and created an account.

I told myself that if I could sell a handful of records per month, I’d be happy but after the first few orders came in, I knew I had to change that mindset because I pushed a snowball off a cliff and it grew rapidly.

If you could go back in time a year or two, what piece of advice would you give yourself?

A couple of years ago, an investment company reached out to fund our business. They would send us money in exchange for it to be paid off based on a percentage of our daily revenue.

Although it’s nice to receive a chunk of change, when times got a little tighter, the struggle to keep up with the bills became an issue. The money was already spent on inventory and some development of the website but that didn’t necessarily lead to more sales. So the money was “gone” and we were still paying it off.

Thankfully, we recovered from that. The money was paid back and now we’re debt-free. In hind-sight, I probably shouldn’t have taken the investment but who knows where the business would’ve been had we not invested in the development of the site.

What problem does your business solve?

With record stores struggling to stay open, for a lot of collectors, perusing inventories of local record shops is becoming a challenge. The closest physical record store for me is an hour away. A lot of our customers have a longer trip ahead of them if they want to shop in-person.

Shopping on large retailer’s websites may be convenient, but it’s very impersonal. You can’t “talk shop” with someone. You can’t ask if they’ve ever seen an original pressing of the “Butcher cover” or what the most valuable record they’ve ever had/sold was.

We want to land in the middle. Not only for our customers but for local artists as well. The business as a whole is focused on bringing people together again. Whether it’s through our Facebook community of record collectors or our podcast that chats with local musicians that want their music to be discovered by new fans.

What is the inspiration behind your business?

I mentioned this in previous questions. It started as “scratching an itch” for myself, wanting to sell physical goods online and it grew to this giant community of music-loving people.

What is your magic sauce?

We have a face. We care about the products we ship. We care about our industry and want artists to thrive. We want our customers to be able to get acquainted with these artists.

What is the plan for the next 5 years? What do you want to achieve?

Funky Moose will be a household name in the Saskatchewan music scene and know for its reputations around the country. We want to stock more records and more accessories. Funky Moose Records will be the go-to website for everyone in the music business.

What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far?

Cashflow is often an issue. The margins are small if we want to stay competitive with the giant retailers, which stifles the growth a little. That said, I’d rather stay smaller for a longer time than grow fast and having to close the shop due to money issues.

How do people get involved/buy into your vision?

We encourage musicians to reach out to us for a chat. We have many contacts and ways to help artists advance their careers. Shoot us a message at [email protected] and check out www.funkymooserecords.ca