World - Promotion

Computers,Internet,Web Design and Development,Promotion

Over the years, we have sent out vendor catalogs featuring a collection of specialty foods, a line of Christmas ornaments, and a sale on kitchen gadgets. Because the suppliers know you will order all the merchandise in the catalog from them, the price for a single-line catalog is often quite low. Buying the catalog merchandise from one source makes it easy to reorder, and catalog shipments are often given priority by the vendor. Multivendor, or syndicated, catalog groups function either as a buying service, with all orders from individual stores going through a central 242 Advertising Your Shop office and single shipping point, or as an advisory service, with the stores buying their own merchandise for the catalog directly from the vendors. Some catalog groups allow retailers a great deal of say in what goes into the catalog, and others have professional buyers who select all the merchandise. Catalog groups offer many advantages beyond the production of a slick, professional-looking catalog with your store name on it. Catalog groups offer many advantages beyond the production of a slick, professional-looking catalog with your store name on it. Most public television stations raise funds through an on-air auction or membership drives that feature premiums to reward those who sign up. Donating merchandise for the auction or fund drives is an inexpensive way to gain exposure on your local public television station. All of the merchants on our street group our auction donations together into a special auction hour featuring Monroe Street products, with our business owners as the auctioneers. RIDING THE ELECTRONIC WAVES: RETAILING ON THE INTERNET The Internet has become a major force of good and evil for specialty shop retailers in the five years since the first edition of my book was published. The positive side is, or course, the ease with which information about venRiding the Electronic Waves: Retailing on the Internet 249 dors, business ideas, and trade shows can be accessed, and the fascinating opportunities it presents for advertising and direct selling. On the down side, the Internet makes it possible for vendors to sell directly to the public, for customers to easily locate collectibles once valued for their scarcity, and for shoppers to spend an estimated $4 billion a month without leaving home. On the down side, the Internet makes it possible for vendors to sell directly to the public, for customers to easily locate collectibles once valued for their scarcity, and for shoppers to spend an estimated $4 billion a month without leaving home. mation about your major vendors Calendar of Special Events, listing all upcoming in-store events Best Seller List, showing your most popular products (keep it current!) Photographs to make it visually interesting (bearing in mind that loading photos slows down the opening of a page, and most visitors are impatient) Guest Book, a forum for visitors to give you feedback Employment Opportunities, showing what jobs are currently available Contact Us, giving phone, fax, mailing and e-mail addresses for the business, and perhaps also individual members of the staff Visitor Meter, counting the number of hits your site has received (you may wish to code this so that it is not visible to the public) Many Web experts also feel that it is helpful to have some free attraction such as a contest, game, or gimmick to help bring visitors back regularly. Our site has a random recipe generator (from the Orange Tree Imports Cookbook) as well as a questionnaire that is used for a quarterly prize drawing. One advantage to having a contest on your site is that you may get listed in various contest and sweepstakes newsletters on the Web, although these visitors tend to be interested only in the game. One advantage to having a contest on your site is that you may get listed in various contest and sweepstakes newsletters on the Web, although these visitors tend to be interested only in the game. A Place of Your Own? There are several options for selling on the Internet, ranging from setting up your own Web site as a retail store with a shopping cart and credit card processing to selling a few items through person-to-person auction sites such as E-Bay. If youve already set up a basic Web site for your store and dont want to host your own on-line store, you can always send customers to any other Web location you are using to sell your goods. Riding the Electronic Waves: Retailing on the Internet 253 Your own on-line store gives you the most control over the entire process and is also the most expensive to set up. In addition to being able to offer secure credit card transactions, youll probably want to have a Search feature on your site so that customers can easily find the items they are looking for. Youll need a way of compiling and receiving orders, and probably will want to set up a software system that allows you to complete each transaction and print out a shipping label without reentering a lot of data. A Promotion.