Two-thirds of Americans are online, including your customers. Will you join them? If you’re not already plugged in, consider what you may be missing. There are retail and promotional ideas, class plans, project ideas, and other resources available to you on the internet.
Your involvement on the web can be adjusted to suit your time, resources and technical skills—you can observe consumers chatting online about their favorite products or start your own web site to complement your brick-and-mortar store.
Level 1: Use Manufacturer’s Web Sites For Retail Information
Most manufacturers have web sites to educate readers on their product, while offering free projects and crafting or scrapbooking tips. Log on to your favorite vendors’ web sites to see what they offer.
Hot Off The Press’ web site (www.craftpizazz.com) provides constantly updated retail information. Store owners can access HOTP’s Retailer Resources to read articles on retail marketing, merchandising, and in-store promotions. They can also read scrapbooking technique articles. Teachers can use the Scrapbook Teachers Resource section to access class plans, gain teaching tips and techniques, learn how to maximize the profit potential of store classes and read profiles of other successful teachers.
Retailers are also encouraged to sign up for Hot Off The Press’ twice-monthly email newsletter, The Inside Scoop, to get an exclusive look at the newest releases, techniques and ideas from HOTP.
Most manufacturer web sites also have a feature to direct consumers to their local retailer. Contact manufacturers like Leeco (Cropper Hopper) to find out how you can be listed on their retailer locator pages. Every manufacturer has a different policy—Hot Off The Press’ Retailer Locator lists stores who order a minimum purchase of HOTP merchandise. And consumers are utilizing this service: Puzzle Piecing in Maine says they’ve gained customers as a result of HOTP’s Retailer Locator.
Mrs. Grossman’s web site is another that offers a retailer listing, and offers independent retailers a special section dedicated to merchandising and display ideas, plus a page listing areas sales reps, and a Sticker Classes page that shows a monthly schedule of sticker art classes at various retailers.
Level 2: Check Out Online Magazines
Online magazines—and the online versions of print magazines—offer tons of projects, ideas and articles that busy retailers can access and put to use. Make a list of web sites that offer solid information, innovative projects (that you can duplicate or print out for display) and informative articles. Bookmark them and check them on a weekly basis. Two Peas in a Bucket, Scrapjazz and Scrapbooking.com are three; Hot Off The Press also offers Creativepapercrafts.com, which is updated at the beginning of each month, packed with ideas and examples. Memory Makers, Creating Keepsakes and PaperKuts each have online versions of their print publications.
Level 3: Join an Email Group For Market Research
Wonder what customers in your area are talking about? Want to communicate with other retailers? Whether it’s for scrapbooking or polymer clay, there is an email community for you to interact with and learn from!
Consider joining (or starting) an email list group in your area. eGroups is a free email group service, maintained by software that automatically distributes an email message from one member of a list to all other members on that list. Thousands of lists are available on various topics, from scrapbooking to decorative painting to polymer clay and much more. Simply go to www.egroups.com and type in your area or state name in the Search box (try Florida Scrapbooking, for example).
Retailers can find out more about joining 4scrapbookretailers, an email list of store owners who get together to share retailing information. This group has restricted membership: no store within 100 miles of another member may join. Teachingsb is an e-group of scrapbook teachers who exchange ideas for class topics and handouts.
Retailers can also join an email community of consumer crafters or scrapbookers—this is a great way to stay connected to consumers who might just be your customers. From scrappersofArizona and mainescrappers to NorCalscrappers to SouthFLscrappers, you should have no problem locating a group in your state or region. And while there are rules of etiquette against blatant advertising on these groups, you’ll find that consumers reach out to retail members for advice about their craft and information about the store.
“Through word of mouth, our email group enables us to bring in product or provide services tailored to the general consensus of the group. Also, if there is a problem with a product or company, we’re aware of it and prepared to address it. We’ve also met a lot of very nice and talented people through the group,” says one Oregon retailer who belongs to a scrapbooking email group with 220+ consumers. This retailer has used the email list to promote store events and to ask scrappers for their opinions on classes, crops and other events.
And although scrapbookers are very computer savvy, they’re not the only ones surfing the web for community and information. The polymerclayinterest list, where members share techniques and ideas, has 881 members. Decopaint, for decorative painters, has 306 members. Or if you want to narrow it down a little, check out NOCAPS, for North California Painters, which has 120 members.
To see a complete listing of general craft categories, click on Arts & Entertainment, then on Recreation, then Crafts. It’s all at www.egroups.com.
Level 4: Promote Your Store Via Email
Send your store newsletters, reminders of special sales and promotions, and other information through email. Keeping customers informed is surprisingly quick, easy and inexpensive via email. Just keep in mind that while it is possible to include fancy fonts and graphics in an email message, some of your customers’ computers might not have the latest technology. Keep things simple—an email notifying your customers of a special event or sale is so effective because it is targeted, immediate and direct. Email newsletters are fast becoming one of the best advertising methods available.
Level 5: Open Your Own Web Site
Marketing analysts and business advisors predict that companies (retailers and manufacturers) who exist on the web as well as in a physical, brick-and-mortar location are in the best position to take advantage of all the internet has to offer. Your site can inform customers of your store hours, provide a map to your location, showcase the newest releases, and let customers email you. It can also offer techniques, tips and ideas supporting your product mix.
Starting your own web site requires an investment of time, money and resources. Research the sites you like and make a list of features and characteristics you want, then sketch out your dream site—starting with the home page. Unless you plan to program and maintain the site yourself, you’ll need to hire a web developer to do it for you. Demand for web developers is high, so plan to spend a significant amount of time finding the right one for you.
You can also sell online, but most web developers will tell you to be cautious about taking this step—between programming, privacy policies and shipping, e-etailing is a major step. For retailers wanting to break into the world of e-commerce, it’s smart to start with a basic site informing customers, then move to online sales if you have the resources.
The web is a powerful sales and marketing force—and getting more and more influential all the time. But you don’t need to invest a lot of time and money into online marketing to profit from the web. Start small and discover what’s right for you in terms of time and resources.
As America points and clicks its way through the new millennium, you have the opportunity to profit.
