Archive for September, 2007
Next Entries »Bloembox Flower Tins
Tuesday, September 18th, 2007As the weather cools down around much of the country, it’s time to start thinking about indoor flowers. It’s just not healthy to go through the whole winter without enjoying a bit of nature’s beauty indoors. While there are a lot of cute plants designed for indoor growth, I’m currently smitten with the Bloembox Flower Tins. For $36, customers get 6 little mini tins with seeds and growing instructions. Not bad.
If you’d like to find out more about reselling Bloembox products, get in touch with them at:
Bloembox
Laura Ouatrochi
967 Highway 128
Philo, CA 95466
Phone: (707) 895-3500
Fax: (707) 895-3100
Email: laura (at) wfigarden (dot) com
Fashion Jewelry That’s Actually Fashionable
Monday, September 17th, 2007If you own a small store, you’re probably aware of how tough it can be to get major brands to talk to you. Frequently, popular brands either have special deals with certain stores only, or they require minimum orders that make it impossible to do business in quantities that would work. Fortunately, Faint Jewelry offers some more affordable options, and their designs have been featured in magazines like Teen People and Vancouver Magazine. The ring below is actually strikingly similar to a much more expensive ring from Cartier:
If you’d like to get in touch with Faint Jewelry, contact them at:
Faint Jewelry
1901 West 2nd Avenue
Vancouver, BC V6J 1J2
Canada
Toll Free Phone: 1 866 faint-4u
Phone: 604 612-7290
Email: faint (at) uniserve (dot) com
Jenny’s Country Kitchen - Holiday Items for Traditional Homes
Monday, September 17th, 2007In retail circles, Christmas is practically…tomorrow, so if you haven’t started to pick items for your holiday displays, now is the time. If you cater to a traditional, country kind of crowd, you’ll want to check out Jenny’s Country Kitchen. Unfortunately, their catalog page seems to be broken, but if you’re wondering what they carry, it includes Christmas products, cocoa & baking chocolate, coffee, tea, condiments, and cookbooks. If you’d like to receive more information, contact Jenny’s Country Kitchen at:
Jenny’s Country Kitchen
438 Main Street South
Dover, MN 55929
Toll Free Phone: 800-357-3497
Phone: (507)932-3035
Fax: (507)932-4777
Email: info (at) jennyscountrykitchen (dot) com
Fine Design in the Kitchen - EGO of Denmark
Thursday, September 13th, 2007If your store caters to a more upscale, design-conscious crowd, you might like EGO. All of their products have conventional functions accomplished with new and unusual (but not un-useful) designs. Their firm is the recipient of the Red Dot Design Award, too, so I’m not the only one who thinks so. Right now, I’m quite taken by their pasta disn and spoon:
If you’re interested in distributing EGO products, contact them at:
EGO
Dyberg-Larsen ApS
Middelfartvej 47
DK-5466 Asperup
Denmark
ph. +45 6448 1474
fax.+45 6448 1470
thomas (at) dyberg-larsen (dot) dk
Small Business Web Marketing Help
Tuesday, September 11th, 2007First off, let’s get one thing straight. If you’re a reasonably intelligent person, there’s a very good chance that you’ll be able to figure out how to put together and run your e-commerce website (at least in the beginning, when you’re not getting millions of pageviews). That said, for most of us, spending the time required to learn those skills is not wise. We all have our strengths, and your time is used most efficiently when you focus on your strengths and get help for the things that don’t come as naturally to you.
Consider this: Instead of working on your website, you spend those hours working on your overall business strategy, or on formulating ideas for non-internet promotions, or training your staff to a greater level of competency, or reading industry publications…the list could go on, but for most of us, there are better things we could be doing than working on a website.
Companies like Website Pros exist to help small business owners with things like ecommerce website design so they can spend more time growing the business and less time worrying about valid HTML. Website Pros also offers web marketing assistance, which is great because a website is worthless if no one actually sees it. Web marketing is a totally different creature than regular, “real world” marketing, and it’s great to have a guide, especially in the early stages.
Recycled Album Cover Bags
Tuesday, September 11th, 2007While it’s not particularly trendy to haul sticky soda cans down to the recycling center, it’s extremely trendy to buy goods that are made of other old stuff. Rock Musick’s recycled album cover totes are a key example. Instead of buying yet another boring, regular tote made from original materials, these bags (like the one below) use the covers from old vinyl albums. I’m not sure if that makes for a comfortable bag, but what could be cooler than carrying the most popular album of the 1980s on your shoulder?
If you’re interested in carrying this bag or other products from Rock Musick, get in touch with them at:
Rock Musick
P.O. Box 3879
Rancho Santa Fe, CA 92067
Phone: 858-208-6011
Fax: 858-345-1224
Email: thevinylbands@aol.com
The Batay Box: Your Take?
Monday, September 10th, 2007While I generally only post products that I like, this one is odd, new, and somewhat intriguing, so I figured I’d post and see if anyone else likes it more than I do. It’s called the Batay Box, and it’s from IPTech International. It’s definitely an unusual idea, but is that enough? Have you ever said to yourself, “I really wish I could unfold my tool box/jewelry box/toy box?” I know I haven’t.
Let me know what you think - and if you’re interested in re-selling the Batay Box, contact IPTech International at:
IPTech International
Ermek Algazy
545 8th Avenue
401-B513
New York, NY 10018
Phone: 1 646 233-3342, 7 701 755-0723
Fax: 1 270 342-6566
Email: info (at) iptech (dot)biz
Fine Art for Your Store or Showroom?
Monday, September 10th, 2007Good art always improves on its surroundings. Whether you have plain walls, a small storefront, or even an already pleasing environment, your store could probably benefit from displaying a high-quality piece or two.
When you display artwork, it lets your patrons know that you care about creating a pleasant shopping experience, and it also provides a great conversation piece (this is especially great if your products don’t inspire a lot of chit-chat with random strangers).
Park West Art Gallery is one of the largest art dealers in the world (they do a lot of auctions around the US and Canada), and they have a great selection of pieces for everyone. Take a look around their site and see if anything strikes your fancy. Don’t be intimidated by the thought of “buying art”. Remember that art is meant to create emotion and enjoyment, and whatever snobby experiences you may have had with “art people” in the past are only reflections of those people, not the art world as a whole. No one is going to try to make you feel silly or unsophisticated, and you can browse their online selections for as long as you like before talking about a purchase. Happy shopping!
Bundling for Greater Profits
Monday, September 10th, 2007While most of us have strategically placed two similar products together (either in a store, or online through some sort of cross-promotion), Menus & Music takes it a bit further. They do the bundling for you, pairing fun, gift-y cookbooks with music that seems to fit the theme. This holiday cookie version seems like a surefire seller during the upcoming holiday season:
It includes 18 recipes, tons of tips and extras, along with a CD of the Nutcracker, as performed by the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra. Very nice - a lot of similar collections would have gone the cheap route and used some bland studio or electronic version of the instrumental.
If you’d like to get in touch with Menus & Music, do so at:
Menus & Music
Sharlene Swacke, Sales Manager
1462 66th Street
Emeryville, CA 94608
Toll Free Phone: 800-444-9515
Phone: 510-658-9100
Fax: 800-658-1605
Email: info (at) menusandmusic (dot)com
Visual Merchandising
Tuesday, September 4th, 2007If your only store is online, it’s easy to forget about the importance of appealing to your customer’s visual sense, though it’s still important. You may not be dressing mannequins or creating seasonal displays, but your page design still communicates volumes to your potential customer. Obviously, if you sell through something like eBay, there’s not a lot you can do about appearance. eBay is fairly standardized. If you run a website, you should always hire a serious professional to create a nice layout with a built-in method for you to make your own updates to the actual content. It’s one of the easiest changes you can make to increase your sales.
If you have an actual store, a little more is expected. Check out this article from MCT News Service.
Inventory Tracking
Tuesday, September 4th, 2007While I usually focus more on gift stores and housewares, I spent the last weekend out on the water, and that always makes me think about how cool it would be to run a store that focuses on watersports and powerboating. Until recently, I had always wondered how those stores kept track of everything - their inventory, plus all the parts associated with the models that they either work on or keep in stock. Then I realized that software from companies like Commander take more of the work out of it. A single software program lets them integrate all that information, along with the mercnet electronic parts and ordering catalog.
So, if you’ve ever thought about switching gears and moving towards a career in recreational vehicles of almost any type, you know where to start.
Sleep & Relaxation - Somna
Monday, September 3rd, 2007It seems like almost everyone has trouble sleeping at some point. Long days, stressful times, busy lifestyles…it adds up. That’s why Somna has created a set of CDs designed by a doctor to help you sleep better. If you sell gift items like candles or aromatherapy products, you could probably cross-sell Somna CDs very effectively. Their retail packaging is clean and attractive, so you don’t have to worry about quality.
If you’d like to get more information on reselling Somna CDs, get in touch with their contact at:
Anthony Hall
1099 Folsom Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
Phone: 415-864-2973
Fax: (415) 864-2973
Email: somna (at) somna (dot) com
Lawn Decorations and Seasonal Decor
Monday, September 3rd, 2007I don’t understand people who don’t like lawn decorations and Flags. I just don’t know what it is that makes a person think it’s wrong to put frog garden statues by your pond or a flamingo in the front lawn. Okay, so maybe it cuts down on the uniformity of a neighborhood, but unless you’re living in one of those crazy planned communities or homeowner’s associations, why is that desirable?
Personally, I love lawn decorations. In a world where commutes, jobs, and families often fill every hour of the day, I like to think that my next-door neighbor is coming home with a smile because she has a little duck in her garden - or that the guy three doors down and across the road giggles when he thinks of his wife bringing home the silly gnome that sits by their front porch. To me, that’s just awesome.
So, if you’re in the market for your own lawn decorations, browse for a while over at Online Discount Mart. They just put out the Halloween stuff, and I can’t wait to see all the fun vampires and pumpkins and bats spring up in my neighborhood.
Sock Monkey Journal - Wholesale
Sunday, September 2nd, 2007If you like Sock Monkeys, you’ll love this journal from Dark Horse Comics. They actually have a ton of other journals and products, too, but the Sock Monkey was my personal favorite. It’s simple and cute - the perfect place to scrawl random thoughts.
If you’re interested in carrying the Sock Monkey notebook or anything else from Dark Horse Comics, check out their page for non-comic book store retailers here.
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