Tricks of the Trade
Taking Advantage of Big Business Research for Small Business Profit
Sunday, December 23rd, 2007As a small business owner, you probably can’t afford to do the kind of research that large companies are able to do, and when you try to draw conclusions from your own data, you may find that it’s not statistically significant. If you’re not familiar with that term, it just means that you don’t always have enough data to make a strong conclusion that will hold up when applied over many more instances.
When it comes to choosing products for your store, it can be tough to figure out what will sell BEFORE you dump hundreds or thousands of dollars into inventory. Unlike big companies, you don’t have thousands of sales worth of data to help you decide what your customers want. All the same, you can use their information to help you figure it out.
To start, you’ll want to figure out what stores are most like yours. If you sell gadgets, you might select stores like ThinkGeek and X-Treme Geek and Kleargear.
Once you’ve found similar stores, you’ll want to browse their sites carefully. Pay attention to which items they’ve featured on their homepage and main section pages. Also note the items in the “Best Sellers”, “Most Popular”, and “What’s New” kind of sections. The items in those sections are likely to be a combination of their consistent top sellers and best hopes for the upcoming season.
Of course, you’ll also want to try to figure out what they’ve selected that doesn’t work as well. The “Clearance” section should help you out there.
That’s not to say that all sale and clearance items are poor performers. There’s a difference between a golf store that runs a promotion on Ogio bags vs. the same golf store putting last season’s prank gadget into the Clearance section until it sells out. Do your best to differentiate.
You can also get additional information from Amazon.com, as they rank every item on the site. Just look up the item you’re interested in and see how it fits in relative to other items. Obviously, the comparison will be somewhat lacking since Amazon is a general merchant instead of a specific store like what you may be, but it’s great for confirming your hunches.
Finally, you can seek out a keyword tool like WordTracker (commercial) or the free keyword tools from Yahoo! and Google AdWords. Wordtracker and Yahoo! provide actual numbers of searches from the previous month, which makes it easy to get a general idea of the interest level in a product or product type. Using only the free tools from Yahoo! and Google, I have had great success in choosing products that will be hot sellers. Just remember, though, that high interest doesn’t mean a whole lot if the product isn’t a fit for your customers.
There’s a pretty good chance that you’ll never be a retail giant like Amazon or Wal-Mart, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t take advantage of their hard work. If you have any similar ideas, please feel free to share in the comments!
Product Inspiration
Tuesday, October 9th, 2007It’s October again, and that means it’s time to amp up the buying for the holidays. For e-commerce retailers, it can be hard to add a lot of new products this late in the game, but smaller brick and mortar stores can run wild. Either way, it’s tough if you’re not sure what items you’d like to add. Here are a couple of places I turn to for product inspiration:
-Nearby retail stores. This one is kind of a no-brainer. Searching other stores is especially easy because it takes no time at all to flip the box and figure out where a product is coming from. The downside is that it’s hard to tell how well something is selling, and storekeepers are unlikely to give you a straight answer, especially if they know what you’re doing.
-Browing catalogs and websites. Catalogs and websites make it a little harder to source items, but they generally provide some information on what sells the best. In a paper catalog, look on the covers (inside and out) and the center. Those locations are generally the places where they promote their most successful products. Online, most catalogs have a “best sellers” or “most popular” page where you can view their best items. Also, the clearance items are often items that they committed to and couldn’t move (though that’s not always the case). Just remember, though, that their success doesn’t necessarily guarantee yours, especially if you target different types of customers.
-Blogs. Blogs are great places to find inspiration, especially if you sell products with a younger appeal. A few of my favorites are below:
Fresh Trend
Uncrate
Outblush
Rare Bird Finds
Oh My That’s Awesome
Happy Shopping!
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.
Dealing with Wholesalers - Quick Tip
Sunday, March 18th, 2007When you contact wholesalers, remember that even though you’re the customer, many of them are as concerned about you as you are about them. While many companies will sell to anyone, some will actively interview and grill you before giving you access to their pricing and terms. For that reason, I’d like to offer a few tips from my own experiences.
-Never bring up the fact that you’re an online retailer. Even if you have a retail store, just don’t even mention the online retail thing. Tell them if they ask, but if you offer it, you’re just giving them a reason not to take you seriously. There are too many old-fashioned people in the world.
-When you contact them, do so by phone if at all possible. At least 50% of your e-mails will go unanswered, and plenty more will be answered verrrrrry slooooowly. It’s irritating, to say the least. In a perfect world, businesses would only offer e-mail addresses if they actually intended to answer their e-mails.
-Once you’re talking to them, sound like you’re on the ball. Tell them that you’re in the midst of ongoing shopping for new items to add to your product lineup, and that you’d like to know where to fax your reseller license and catalog request. Most of the time, they won’t even want your license. They’ll just take down your name, number, and address, and send the catalog. Because you’ve presented yourself as a true professional, you’re less likely to be subjected to the usual hassles.
If anyone else has any tips, I’d be glad to hear them. Understand that I’m not saying you should actively attempt to deceive companies. I’m just saying that you want to reveal information on a need-to-know basis. Employees are imperfect creatures with all kinds of issues, and life is a lot easier when people perceive you favorably.
Product Sourcing - One of My Favorites
Friday, January 19th, 2007Every once in a while, I happen upon a store that is great for sourcing products. They have a good variety of the kind of product that I like, they offer good pictures, and they tell you who makes the product. MatterMatters.com is one of those sites.
MatterMatters.com carries a variety of fun novelties and home decor products, and every product’s individual page tells you the name of the company that it comes from. If you’re looking for those types of products, check them out. Once you’ve got the company name, it’s just a matter of simple Googling.
Great Places to Find Products
Tuesday, December 26th, 2006People often ask me how I find so many cool products to resell. Do I spend money to attend all the expensive conferences and trade shows? Nope. Do I source products directly from factories? Again, nope.
Here are just a few of the places I look:
-Trade magazines (mostly free)
-Online retailers. Just look around the sites. Many of them will even go so far as to tell you which items are their best sellers.
-Print catalogs. If you request one on their site or over the phone, it’s usually free.
-Consumer Magazines. Look for the gift guides, tips and trends sections, and new product features.
-Stores. Little boutiques are the best places to source stuff if you’re concerned about buying from places with small minimum orders.
-People. Pay attention to what people are talking about.
I’m sure there are more, and I’ll add them as I think of them. That should be enough to keep you busy, though. The important thing is that you like to shop, and that you’re always looking out for something good. It gets easier with time.
Buying from Abroad - The Basics
Saturday, November 11th, 2006Buying from abroad can be a pain in the butt, so if you’re just starting out, you may want to avoid it unless it’s for an item that you really, really, really want to carry.
If you don’t want to deal with foreign manufacturers and wholesalers, you may have luck simply by calling or e-mailing and asking them if anyone in your country happens to distribute their products. What you lose in paying a distributor’s small profit is almost always made up for in the lower cost of shipping (assuming that you’re talking about a fairly small quantity). And of course, you’re not dealing with any of the risks that come from completing a transaction. Not all the companies you may find will be trustworthy (though many are!), and your bank or credit card probably will be very reluctant to refund a $500+ transaction that has gone bad.
Where Can I Get That?
Monday, August 21st, 2006Ok, so distributors are great and all, but what if you see a product you just have to sell. How do you figure out where to buy it? There are a couple of great methods you can try, but sadly, they’re not 100% guaranteed. Sometimes you may have to admit that something is not available to you.
Scenario One: You see a hot item in a catalog or website and you want to resell it. What do you do?
You COULD buy a sample to see if you can find a label or plant name. I wouldn’t recommend it, though. A good detective can figure out most anything in this day and age.