Entrepreneur David Ashley always remembers the medical emergency that led him to create his business. One night in the early 90’s his father-in-law collapsed at home and needed an ambulance. Even though his in-laws had their address numbers painted on the curb and near the front door, the ambulance passed the house several times, unable to see the house number clearly. Eventually, Ashley’s mother-in-law directed the paramedics to the home using a flashlight.
“My father-in-law survived,” said Ashley. “He was fortunate. Delays can be tragic in those situations.”
Realizing that other families might have similar experiences, Ashley set out to develop an address sign that was easy to read on both sides, from hundreds of feet away, day or night, and in all kinds of weather.
Today, Ashley’s family-owned and operated business, Address America, is a leader in the home sign industry. It manufactures a variety of decorative address signs for homes, apartments, commercial properties, and even RVs, in their Jackson facility.
Address America has demonstrated incredible resiliency for over three decades. Early on, the company distributed signs through wholesalers. In the recession of the early 2000s, their wholesale business dried up and the company went through a downturn, reducing staff and closing facilities.
The company then began to look into ecommerce as an avenue to revive the company and even tried setting up their own direct-to-consumer website. But according to Ashley, “reaching customers, gaining their trust and providing a smooth experience were beyond our capabilities.”
Ashley’s son and business partner, Josh, knew that Amazon offered small businesses the ecommerce infrastructure they needed, so the pair focused on setting up their Amazon store. “This turned out to be the best decision we made,” said the younger Ashley. “Going direct to consumers breathed new life into our family business.”
Shortly after opening their storefront, the Ashleys became testers for an Amazon seller program that’s been critical to their success: Amazon Custom.
“Our product is not a pre-built item sitting on a shelf,” said the senior Ashley. “Each sign has to be customized to the specific address.”
When people add a product to their cart in the Address America store, the Amazon customization tool pops up. Shoppers are presented with a form in which they enter address numbers and any name they want on the sign, and they choose font size and styles.
While Address America handles the fulfillment of all customized sign orders, they’re able to use Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) for their new product line, finials, which now represents 25 percent of the company’s sales. “The decorative fence toppers are pre-manufactured items,” said Ashley, “so people choose a style they like, purchase it in our storefront and have it fulfilled by Amazon.” Partnering with Amazon has allowed the company to diversify their product offerings and expand to new customers.
The impact of Address America’s continued growth and expansion into new products ripples across the Jackson-area economy. All the materials used to produce the customized signs and finials are sourced locally. “There was a period when some materials were obtained overseas,” said Josh Ashley, “but we’ve made a big effort to bring everything stateside.”
Today, the company gets most of its components from suppliers around the Jackson and they are proud to know their orders create jobs at their supplier’s plants. “As we continue to grow through our partnership with Amazon,” shared Josh Ashley, “our biggest contribution to the local community is generating economic activity and creating jobs.”
Over the years, the Ashleys have heard countless stories from customers about how their signs helped steer emergency services to the right address – saving lives in the process. It’s their mission full circle. For these Mississippi father-and-son business owners, it’s an honor to provide peace of mind from their family in Jackson to communities all across the country.