Our History

In 1994, Amazon was just a river and two enterprising young guys were making their mark in e-commerce. Scott Sanfilippo and Joe Palko had a plan. They wanted to create an on-line pet store that shipped product directly to consumers, a concept unheard of a decade ago. Once they lined up vendors, they cleaned out a closet in Scott's apartment to make way for inventory and TheFerretStore.com was open for business.

The Ferretstore.com was the very representation of e-commerce pioneering. Amazon.com hadn’t been invented yet. In fact, in those early days you couldn’t even charge by credit card over the internet! The Ferretstore.com struggled along in those early days, withstanding the challenges of much larger competitors like Pets.com. While Pets.com was spending a million dollars on a Superbowl ad, the Ferretstore.com was slow and steady. Who won the race? When Pets.com went broke within a couple of years the Ferretstore.com bought out their inventory for pennies on the dollar.

While TheFerretStore.com continued to grow, the company launched additional pet supply websites, such as ActiveK9, Rabbit Central, The Kitty Store, The Critter Store, and Pet Care Central - and formed an advertising and design firm called Solid Cactus.

"Your Partner in Success." It's more than a slogan, it's our way of doing business and it's what sets us apart. We like to say we're "non-traditional" in the sense that when you sign on with Solid Cactus you're not just another client in a portfolio, you're a partner in whom we take a vested interest to do whatever we can to make you successful. After all, Solid Cactus grew out of one of the most successful e-businesses on the internet, we have first hand knowledge of what works and what doesn't and we're in the unique position to guide you down that same path of success. We've assembled a team of world-class creative and programming talent from around the world that takes each project personally and makes recommendations during the implementation process based on years of experience. That's something that can only come from a company that has your goals and vision in sight, and it's what we mean when we say Solid Cactus is your partner in success!

Solid Cactus is a multi-faceted creative agency with a flair for the unique. We know you know that to set yourselves apart from the competition, to stand out from the crowd, you need to be memorable and professional. We provide that uniqueness to every client on every project we complete.

In 2001 we created Solid Cactus by spinning off The Ferret Store’s print and web departments. We now do for others what we did for The Ferret Store: we design Yahoo! Stores, we do consulting, we help with marketing. And yes, because we’ve operated a large and successful e-commerce site for more than a decade, we help you avoid making the same mistakes we made.

We’re a privately held corporation, so we don’t answer to a corporate office. We’re accountable to only one person—YOU. When you partner with Solid Cactus, you’re teamed with a company that wants to know every aspect of your company. We want to see you the way you see you, so that your internet vision becomes a reality.

Each project is a personal experience for everyone involved. We’ll communicate with you on a daily basis and involve you in the decisions every step of the way. When we’re done there will be no surprises. There will be a state of the art e-commerce web site, just like you wanted. And Solid Cactus will be your partner in success, just like we promised.

Let's face it; the Internet is complex and confusing. Let us take what we learned over the years and apply it to your business. Our hands-on expertise in e-commerce is an advantage few design firms have. We've been there, we know what works and doesn't. Tap into our experience and let our success at on-line retailing guide you when it's time to choose a design firm.