Page 76 - AVN March 2016

FEATURE
Variety Packed New
exhibitors offered unique
items. Top, Hotshotz, a
reusable hot pack that needs
no electricity; sex kits hidden
in books from Novel Erotics;
vibrators shaped like French
macarons by Tokyo Design.
Bottom, massage and body
products from intt (left) and
Sexy Romance (right);
and bondage items from
The Pleasure Paradox.
(Novel Erotics photo by JFK;
others by Rick Garcia)
Dave “Sex Toy Dave”
Levine delivered the
keynote speech this
year for the AVN Adult
Entertainment and AVN Novelty
expos, and repeatedly reminded
attendees of one thing: Your
health is more important than
anything.
‘Know Your Customer’
Keynote points from Sex Toy Dave
Levine is the owner and president of
CNV.com Inc., the parent company of
AdultShopping.com and SexToy.com,
one of the largest distributors of adult
products not he internet. He has been in
the adult industry for more than 20 years.
Levine—who opened his Internet
Virtual Mall Shop in January of 1995—
peppered his speech on January 22 with
breaks where he asked audience members
to drink water, stand up and breathe and
stand up and stretch and move around.
In between those reminders to be aware
of your body and balance your work with
taking care of yourself, he talked about
his history in the industry, his reputation
as “Sex Toy Dave” and his thoughts on
where the industry is headed.
“Nothing in life is difficult,” he noted
at the beginning of the speech. “The only
hard part is finding which easy thing to
do.”
For Levine, he said when he learned of
the internet, he decided he wanted in. He
approached various vendors, and asked
for them to directly ship their products
to his customers while also selling to him
at wholesale prices. Many agreed, and he
opened his virtual mall online. He quickly
noticed the leading store was the one
that sold sex toys, so he concentrated his
efforts there.
“I bought the SexToy.com domain for
$70,” he said. “But I didn’t buy
SexToys.com because I didn’t want to
spend another $70.”
His business grew exponentially
and today he works with more than 30
warehouses stocked with more than
30,000 products. His overhead costs are
almost non-existent: He does not own
any of the warehouses, nor does he have
to stock any of the products himself, and
his employees all work from home.
“I have some employees who have been
with me for 20 years who I have never
met in person,” he said with a chuckle.
The key, he said, is to work with all
the tools available to you. Google, he
noted, offers free services from email to
Google Docs, Google Hangouts, Google
Analytics, Goggle Slides and much more.
And once you have your company
under control, he said, is to know your
customer, which he admitted is not
always easy. Surveys help, he said, as
do questioning customers in person.
Compiling that data can help with direct
marketing for your product, whether
you are a manufacturer, retailer, content
producer and the like.
Levine also touched on the increasing
acceptance of adult materials by
mainstream consumers and retailers alike.
“The big companies are coming,” he
said, and he showed a slide of Fifty Shades
of Grey sex toys on an end cap in a Target.
“It’s a sign that the industry is becoming
more mainstream and getting bigger. And
that can mean bigger competition, but
also bigger opportunities.”
— Sherri L. Shaulis
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