Attention Getting Marketing

Small Biz Success Tips – Since 2012

Tag: selling online

Huge Sales Opportunity for Your Online Shop This Week

February 17, 2020 /

by Gail Oliver, Online Marketing Consultant

Now that Valentine’s Day is over, if things are slow in your online shop, there is another huge gift buying opportunity that you can take advantage of.

In the last 4 days searches for “employee appreciation gifts” has spiked.huge sales opportunity for your online shop

  • Friday March 6th is National Employee Appreciation Day, a day for companies to thank their employees for their hard work and effort throughout the year.
  • Only 2,800 listings on Etsy are currently taking advantage of this search phrase, and only about 50,000 on Amazon, so the opportunity is there if you hurry!
  • Gifts under $20, gifts under $10, personalized gifts, bulk gifts, team gifts and cards are the most popular employee appreciation gift searches.

So get going with only 17 shopping days left!

Before You Go

  • If you do not want to miss out on exclusive tips like this, be sure to follow my blog (see sidebar on the right⇒).
  • Are you experiencing slow sales at your online store or e-commerce business? Set up a phone consultation and I can quickly determine why and how to get things moving again.

©2020 Gail Oliver. All rights reserved. 

5 Easy Ways to Promote Your Business This Summer

July 8, 2016 /

by Gail Oliver, Online Marketing Consultant

Summer is here and people are out and about – travelling, going to farmers’ markets, the beach, outdoor concerts – you name it. So it presents a lot of great opportunities for you to get your business seen by your local market with only a little bit of investment.

ways to promote business this summer

5 Easy Ways to Promote Your Business This Summer

  1. Baseball Games – If you are lucky enough to live in a city that has a major league baseball team (minor league is fine too), wear a t-shirt to the game with your shop url on the back (and front) and try to stand up every chance you get. Stadium seats are fairly low in the back so make sure your shop url is large and positioned between the shoulder blades. This also works great at music festivals, outdoor movies, anywhere a lot of people are going to be staring at your back for a while.
  2. Food Trucks – Food trucks are big business in the summer so approach a few about the possibility of putting a temporary sign advertising your business on their truck. Either offer to pay (extra revenue for them) or barter to see if they will go for the idea.
  3. Car Windshield Sun Shade Covers – This is an idea from my ebooks, but if you park your car in a busy lot all day, or outside a major summer event, use it to advertise your business by creating a sun shade visor for the front (and back) windshield of your car that clearly shows your shop url.
  4. Beach Umbrellas – You can have your shop url and/or logo screened onto anything these days, including a large umbrella that would get seen all day long the next time you decide to go to the beach (if I owned a bikini shop, I would totally be doing this!).
  5. Campers and Trailers – If you are planning on taking your camper on a long road trip this summer, have a banner made for the side advertising your business. It will get seen by hundreds of cars on the highway, especially since everyone will be passing you.

Are you inspired? If you can’t use one of these ideas, hopefully you are motivated to come up with one of your own!

IMPORTANT! If you want to get your products into holiday gift guide editorial for print magazines, they are working on these issues right now! Download my July Planner as it includes a Holiday Gift Guide Media Contact List for 40 major magazines and don’t miss out! If you need a reminder of how to pitch, be sure to read my post, Why You Should Be Pitching Your Products for Holiday Gift Guides NOW.

More

© 2016 Gail Oliver. All rights reserved.

13 Things to Post to Social Media This Weekend

June 30, 2016 /

by Gail Oliver, Online Marketing Consultant

13 things to post to social media this weekend

There is lots going on this holiday weekend, so if you wish to get your business seen on social media in the next few days, this is the type of content you need to post that will likely get share.:

What to Post to Social Media This July Holiday Weekendsocial media content calendar

  1. Red, White and Blue Recipes
  2. List of Best Summer Festivals in (pick a city, state or country)
  3. Favorite Steven Spielberg Movies (the BFG comes out tomorrow)
  4. Favorite Roald Dahl Books (the BFG is his book)
  5. Amazing Fourth of July Fireworks PhotosBest Online Sales this Weekend
  6. Best Beach Reads Summer 2016
  7. Cool Facts about Canada (July 1st is Canada Day)
  8. Hottest Soccer Players from UEFA Euro 2016
  9. Favorite Country Music Lyric (for #NationalCountryMusicDay July 4th)
  10. Stylish Wimbledon Fashion
  11. The Coolest Celebrity Fourth of July Style
  12. Best Moments from Game of Thrones Episode 11

© 2016 Gail Oliver. All rights reserved.

Creative Ways to Expand Your Product Line to Increase Sales

May 28, 2016 /

by Gail Oliver, Online Marketing Consultant

Adding more products to your online shop is another obvious way to increase your sales. Now, it might not always increase your profits right away because costs could increase with the addition of the new products, but it is another obvious way to grow your business. So, what are some creative ways to expand your current product line?

 

creative ways to expand your product line to increase sales

Start by taking a look at your current product line and see if you can offer different:

  • Colors
  • Materials / Ingredients
  • Shapes
  • Sizes
  • Scents
  • Languages
  • Embellishments
  • Styles
  • Prices
  • Uses

For example, one of my customers, Bad Tags, sells cute dog tags in a variety of sayings, colors and shapes. They even have tags that indicate if a dog has special needs and add-on accessories such as rhinestone rings for the tags. Therefore, how do they expand their current product line even further to increase sales? Since their tags do have sayings, maybe they could offer them in different languages other than English to broaden the market; or they could do a higher priced line of dog tags with embedded birthstones or diamonds (trust me, there are customers for this); or they offer a dog tag that has an LED light in it so the dog is seen when walking it at night. They have customers buying tags for animal fundraisers, so they could offer a value bundle strictly for fundraising purposes.

I know a lot of art and photography shops have taken their art and put in on everything from t-shirts to mugs, which is great, but now everyone is doing it, which is not so great. However, these shops could take their work and sell it in a different form, such as an image spliced into three images. They could try putting the art or photograph onto a trendy new medium, such as glass, or onto supplies such as fabric and ribbon and now they can sell to other businesses instead of just to the end user.

Even repackaging items can help if you don’t wish to add new products. If you sell monogram necklaces, for example, sell a mother daughter monogram necklace set, which means you now get two sales but to the customer it looks like one. If you sell baby blankets, sell a set of three together that are embroidered with “crib”, “car”, and “stroller”. Simple ways to turn your current products into more listings.

Need ideas on how to expand your product line? I can take a look at your products and give you ideas on how to expand, just book my 30-Minute Phone Consultation.

Trending This Week

  • May 28 – #NationalHamburgerDay
  • May 29 – #SundayFleaMarket
  • May 30 – #MemorialDay, #TheBachelorette
  • May 31 – #NationalWearAFlowerDay
  • June 1 – #WednesdayFamily
  • June 2 –#ThursdayThoughts
  • June 3 – #NationalDonutDay

© 2016. Gail Oliver. All rights reserved.

How to Price Your Products to Appeal to the Gift Market

May 13, 2016 /

by Gail Oliver, Online Marketing Consultant

I often see people offering $20 necklaces for Mother’s Day and I sort of cringe. Now, I would expect a $20 necklace from my 13 year-old son for Mother’s Day, but I’m not going to buy a $20 necklace for my mother, it just feels too cheap. I realize some people are on tight budgets, but gifts take on a life of their own as everyone has a price point they feel is appropriate. If you are positioning an item as a potential gift, you may want to know some stats about the average prices people spend, so you are pricing your products for the correct gift giver.

 

How to price your products for the gift market

Grad Gift Pricing

The National Retail Federation said that college graduation gifts hit a new high last year to an average price of $102.50. Now, this price is a range covering parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc., and you can safely assume that parents will spend the most.

Valentine’s Day Gift Pricing

The National Retail Federation also indicated that the average price spent on a Valentine’s gift in 2015 was $146.84, and that men tend to spend more on the gift than women do.

Wedding Gift Pricing

Again, I often see $25 products being positioned as a wedding gift and I think no way. According to American Express people will spend $179 on a close family member’s wedding gift, $119 on a close friend’s, $114 on a relative’s, $79 on a friend’s, and $66 on a coworker’s for an average of $108.

Anniversary Gift Pricing

Now, what about anniversary gifts? According to research done by the Daily Mail, couples spend on average $170 on the first anniversary, $173 on the 10th anniversary, $242 on the 25th anniversary and $208 on the 40th anniversary. Again, this is couples buying for each other, not children buying for parents. 

Baby Shower Gift Pricing

The consensus at the blog, Baby Center suggests that the average amount spent on a baby shower gift is $20 to $25 for a co-worker or acquaintance, $50 for a close friend, or $100 for a best friend or family member (or a group gift).

Kids Birthday Party Gift Pricing

According to Learnvest, most people spend $10 to $20 on gifts for regular classmates but $20 to $25 for your child’s closest friends (at the elementary school level).

Teacher Gift Pricing

The price spent on a teacher’s gift does vary according to a person’s budgets, but Parenting magazine says the range for teacher’s gifts is $20 to $75.

This why many people avoid trying to target an individual or occasion altogether and will simply have shop categories entitled: Gifts $10 to $25, Gifts $25 to $50, Gifts $50+ and so forth.

A Real World Pricing Example

I wanted to buy a birthstone necklace for my 16 year-old daughter’s birthday and price was one factor I searched on. I wasn’t even considering any necklace under $50 because it didn’t feel special enough for a 16th birthday. I also didn’t want to go too much over $125 because she is only 16. Therefore, this became my search: “birthstone necklaces $50 to $125″. These are things you need to think about this when targeting a specific gift giver.

Trending This Week

  • May 13 – #NationalApplePieDay, #Fridaythe13th
  • May 14 – #SaturdayWellSpent
  • May 15 – #NBAPlayoffs
  • May 16 – #NationalLoveATreeDay, #MondayBlogs
  • May 17 – #TuesdayTip
  • May 18 – #WednesdayAfternoons
  • May 19 – #NationalDevilsFoodCakeDay, #ThursdayThoughts

MORE

Feel free to share this post, and if your business is struggling, check out my very affordable Marketing Services.

© 2016 Gail Oliver. All rights reserved.

90+ Online Selling Sites and Marketplaces

March 25, 2014 /
online selling sites marketplaces

Online Selling Sites Marketplaces

Updated for 2022. Need a comprehensive list of online selling sites and marketplaces where you can sell your handmade, print on demand or vintage products? Luckily for you, you have so many options to choose from, and you don’t have to choose just one!

In fact, the best strategy for any e-commerce business is to try and sell on as many online sales sites as possible, to really widen your reach as well as not be too dependent on one customer source. You just never know when the market will change or a company will get bought, so don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.

Below are 90+ online selling sites and marketplaces where you can sell your products and services. Some are niche-specific, some are country-specific, but many are for international sales of any type of handmade product. Related content: Top Trending Products to Sell Online.

Be sure to also check out my blog OnlineShopLove.com where you will find my daily product picks from cool and unique online shops.

Also, my blog post 18 Marketing Ideas for Selling Online is another great read.

Online Selling Sites for Selling Art

There are many sites for selling your art online, so there really is no need to just settle on one, especially since the profit margins are not always ideal. These sites below are specifically geared just for artists and their artwork but you can also sell your artwork at the sites for home decor and the general marketplaces links that I have coming up.

⇒Be sure to download my 12-Month Marketing Plan for Online Art Shops.

Online Selling Sites for Fashion

When I say selling clothes online, I do not mean used clothes (keep reading for those) but rather original fashion creations by indie designers. Related content: How to Increase Your Online Sales Conversion Rate.

⇒Be sure to download my 12-Month Marketing Plan for Online Fashion Shops.

Online Selling Sites for Wedding Products

A lot of wedding blogs realize the value of selling products right on their site and then taking a commission. So here are some that are now selling products from small vendors:

⇒Be sure to download my 12-Month Marketing Plan for Online Wedding Shops.

Online Selling Sites for Kids & Baby Products

One of the biggest selling sites for kids and baby products is Zulily, but they also sell other product categories so we kept them in the marketplace list further down. Here are some other top kids and baby marketplaces to try selling your goods at:

⇒Be sure to download my 12-Month Marketing Plan for Kids & Baby Shops.

Online Selling Sites for Home Goods

There are a growing number of sites just to sell your original home decor including art, accessories and furniture. Keep in mind that Wayfair also owns Joss & Main, ALLModern, Birchlane and Perigold.

⇒Be sure to download my 12-Month Marketing Plan for Home Goods Shops.

Online Marketplaces

The following are a combination of sites, marketplaces and e-commerce platforms where you can sell any type of product from art to home decor to wedding products to kids and baby to vintage. Commission percentages do vary, as do monthly fees, and in some cases, you will have increased competition from other shops selling competitive products.

⇒You will also want to read my post, 4 Online Selling Sites for Eco-Friendly Products.

Online Transaction Sites

The sites below  are more of transaction platforms that handle payment processing for you for digital products, but will not really bring you any customers as they do not have much of a main marketplace for customers to enter in from. You typically use these types of sites to accept payment on your website, blog or even your social media pages.

UK Only Sites

The UK has a really large handmade community, so there are several marketplaces that have been set up exclusively for UK sellers:

E-Commerce Platforms for Selling Online

If you want total independence online, then you can set up your own e-commerce store using any of these platforms below. The downside is that you do not get the marketing benefits of being on a large marketplace that will drive customers to you. You pretty much will have to do all the marketing yourself. Related content: How to Start Selling Online

Print on Demand Selling Sites

If you don’t want to make huge profit, just some extra money, then you can sell your graphic designs to a print on demand site that also has a marketplace. Not a ton of work involved on your part, just upload your designs and they do the rest. You do have to sell a lot of volume for it to be really worthwhile.

Wholesale Sites

If you are selling handmade products and you would really just rather sell them through wholesale, these sites will help you:

Used & Vintage Items Sites

This is where e-commerce all started, selling used, second hand and vintage items. Here are some marketplaces for these types of items:

⇒If you decide to sell on Poshmark, be sure to check out my 13-Page Poshmark Planner.

⇒Be sure to download my 12-Month Marketing Plan for Vintage Shops.

Costs of Selling Online

Again, all of the above are online selling sites that will take a cut of your sales as that is how they make their money. Most sites are very affordable, such as Etsy at just 5% commission, whereas others will take up to 50% of the sale as a commission (basically wholesale pricing), as well as a monthly fee, making them a much more costly option.

The e-commerce options such as Shopify Wix, SquareSpace, IndieMade and Big Commerce are platforms, not marketplaces, therefore they have monthly fees in addition to taking a cut of your sales.

Auction sites like eBay are for selling both. new and used items, and sites like One Kings Lane are really flash sales sites, and sites like these have struggled in the past (remember Fab?). Hopefully there is a selling site here that suits your particular interests and needs.

How to Drive More Traffic to Your Online Store

If you currently have an online store or are planning to open one, be sure to download one of my online selling sites marketplacesOnline Shop 12-Month Marketing Plans  as it will walk you through everything you need to do to have an effective marketing strategy to drive traffic and sales! There are plans for Jewelry, Home Goods, Art, Photography, Pets, Vintage, Bath & Beauty, Fashion, Wedding, Eco, Gifts, Food, Bakery, Tshirts, Greeting Cards and Kids & Baby shops.

More to Read:
©2012-2022 Gail Oliver. All rights reserved.

© 2024 Attention Getting Marketing

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑