How do you Promote your Online Business?

[F0F0]

I'm not majoring in fashion in particular, but I am a finance major and what we learned about online business is it's best to start locally. Don't start a web based business hoping to be world wide immediately. Where you're basing out of should be seen as your target area and market

It depends. You can IMMEDIATELY start profiting from selling bags worldwide . Just look at any new international vendor at Etsy or eBay. Few of them are big retailers, but most of them are either small business owners or individuals (i.e. designers).

Anyhow, it's always recommended to small (or even medium) sized-business (or individuals) to go after a NICHE market and DIFFERENTIATE from competitors through unique selling propositions (i.e. superb customer service), either global (or regional) and/or local.

Here two examples of these two last approaches mentioned:

Global
Women, ages 20 to 24, with similar socio-economical status, education, lifestyle and/or attitudes towards a particular fashion, looking to buy online for leather belts with gothic motifs. Read about the Long Tail theory to get more inspiration about going global, regional.

Local
Women, living in London, ages 20 to 24, with similar socio-economical status, education, lifestyle and/or attitudes towards fashion, looking to buy online bags to accessorise theirselves for job interviews in London City.

 

[electricfeel]

Did you seriously just compare E-bay to someone starting out a boutique?

They have a way more advanced business model, and the creator of ebay had owned businesses before that site. So if you are strapped for cash, didn't major in entreprenuership, etc, it's best to start small or else you'll be seeing a lot of money going down the drain for trying to target people world wide. Not even e-bay started out world-wide, they first started with targeting people in America. The biggest downfall for online websites is everything is too scattered, it's always smart to start smaller, before you start trying to advertise to the world. It'll lever her a lot less exhausted and plus she'll be trusted in her community as a reliable retailer and get easy advertising through word of mouth. Also notice e-bay is online for a reason and doesn't have many physical stores. It would make more sense for her to advertise locally and try to get consumers in her area to buy from the site mainly because she wants to physically have a store, eventually. Someone in the Philippines buying from your online store is great, but if you're going to have a business in Kansas city, that's not the consumer you need to be worried about

It depends. You can IMMEDIATELY start profiting from selling bags worldwide . Just look at any new international vendor at Etsy or eBay. Few of them are big retailers, but most of them are either small business owners or individuals (i.e. designers).

Anyhow, it's always recommended to small (or even medium) sized-business (or individuals) to go after a NICHE market and DIFFERENTIATE from competitors through unique selling propositions (i.e. superb customer service), either global (or regional) and/or local.

Here two examples of these two last approaches mentioned:

Global
Women, ages 20 to 24, with similar socio-economical status, education, lifestyle and/or attitudes towards a particular fashion, looking to buy online for leather belts with gothic motifs. Read about the Long Tail theory to get more inspiration about going global, regional.

Local
Women, living in London, ages 20 to 24, with similar socio-economical status, education, lifestyle and/or attitudes towards fashion, looking to buy online bags to accessorise theirselves for job interviews in London City.

 

[F0F0]

Did you seriously just compare E-bay to someone starting out a boutique?

No, I didn't (I talked about eBay's vendors). Although is recommended to make serious comparisons between big players like eBay and small, starting boutiques for the sake of analysing business and revenue models. Benchmarking doesn't hurts!

They have a way more advanced business model, and the creator of ebay had owned businesses before that site.

Yes, and as a matter of fact this case illustrates how important is to have the right set of skills to innovate an old business model through internet technologies. B) An auction site it's the updated version of an antique business model that has it's origins somewhere 2500 years ago. eBay doesn't has any physical stores as it's commercial web intermediary or a electronic marketplace where buyers and sellers meet, generating income through a comission and transaction-based revenue model. The creator was a guy, not a girl and hadn't owned businesses prior founding eBay as he was a software programmer (but he indeed founded a software developing company prior coding eBay).

it's best to start small or else you'll be seeing a lot of money going the drain for trying to target people wold wide.

I'd say this is relative as you can start small and go global right away as those eBay vendors and small businesses doing international businesses since the mid 90's. You can also drain ALL your money trying to reach your local market. How many small business have gone bankrupt in their first year of their conception? How many went out of business before eBay or the Internet? And how many small retailers have a rag-to-riches story to share since the advent of the Internet and e-commerce? Amazon vendor's marketplace has plenty of examples of small successful retailers doing and starting overseas businesses.

The biggest downfall for online websites is everything is too scattered...

Sweet! Sounds just like the Long Tail theory I mentioned before and a perfect business opportunity for entrepreneurs (opportunists that found unmet needs and work really hard to find a solution met them)!!! And the best thing about this is that you don't need a major in entrepreneurship to capitalise business opportunities

It would make more sense for her to advertise locally and try to get consumers in her area to buy from the site mainly because she wants to physically have a store, eventually.

Who's this poster you are referring to? Can't find her in this thread! I mean, who wants to open a brick-and-mortar on a budget when you have the internet on your side?!

 

[electricfeel]

Yes, and as a matter of fact this case illustrates how important is to have the right set of skills to innovate an old business model through internet technologies. B) An auction site it's the updated version of an antique business model that has it's origins somewhere 2500 years ago. eBay doesn't has any physical stores as it's commercial web intermediary or a electronic marketplace where buyers and sellers meet, generating income through a comission and transaction-based revenue model. The creator was a guy, not a girl and hadn't owned businesses prior founding eBay as he was a software programmer (but he indeed founded a software developing company prior coding eBay).

I think your skills of researching are impressive, but i don't think anyone needs you to tell us the origin of where auctioning came from. The internet is a great technology and can help you but the fact of the matter is there are millions and probably BILLIONS of websites. It's actually really hard to gets a significant number of hits on a website, let alone hard enough to get people to buy something from you. It's hard to make money off of google ads for that sheer fact. Plain and simple, an online store isn't as easy as people make it out to be, there is still a large investment on time, you still need a business model, and it's simply smarter to start out smaller. Sure they can take your 'long tail' theory, but regardless whether you didn't major in entrepreneurship or not, what you're telling them are basic risks people who are trying to start a business should know about. They can listen to you if they want, but it's always best to start out smaller. If you plan to open a store in your area, you need to be targeting people in that area with your online store.

While you continue to talk about big play makers like Ebay and Amazon, they all started when few people still had the internet, their competition wasn't as large they were the first people to come up with their kind of sites. Amazon has a patent for the one-click feature, apples to oranges. Amazon and E-bay in a sense almost run a monopoly, with how they're the most trusted site for resellers and the main place people want to look for the cheapest prices. When it comes to other retailers and you selling a similar product, with millions of substitutes the business is very different.

 

[BetteT]

I think you both make valid points.

If the goal is to open a brick and mortar store, then yes, promoting locally will definitely make sense. We have another thread here about Opening a Retail Boutique: Store and/or On-Line ... so I think that might be a great place to offer that good advice to someone who's goal is to start online, them evenually open a store.

However, both people who are asking indicate that they are only interested in doing "e-commerce" and neither one of them expressed any interest in opening a store in the future. So that is what this thread is about ... as the title says ... "How do you Promote your Online Business".

So, my question is ... if you don't intend to ever go to brick and mortar and intend to ship almost anywhere, al least in your country, is there still a strong reason to start promoting your site only locally?

 

[F0F0]

...So, my question is ... if you don't intend to ever go to brick and mortar and intend to ship almost anywhere, al least in your country, is there still a strong reason to start promoting your site only locally?..

Thanks electricfeel and BetteT!

That's a very good question, BetteT! Before answering yes or no I'd say you need to consider your business goals and type of business, your segment, target customer and your unique selling proposition, your budget and your capability to profit from an internet opportunity.

I'll try to illustrate to better understand what I said using this fictitious business cases from three pure internet players:

• A Parisian specialist e-designer that sells haute couture scarfs made from bamboo which are relevant to high-ticket spenders tourists from Bahrain, benefits from using a balanced mix of offline (i.e. using brochures or pop-up showrooms in luxury hotels rooms in Paris to create trust and encourage potential leads to go online and purchase when they're back home) and online (with the intention of converting local leads in potential future online sales and retain purchasers with a customer relationship management system) internet marketing communications.
  
• A Shanghai based accessories specialist e-retailer that ships worldwide but mainly in China, sends 90% of its orders within the city, and the rest elsewhere, profits using a proportional balanced of online (i.e. SEO, Online PR, social media marketing, etc.) and local offline promotions (i.e. PR in business conferences/events, or ads in local lifestyle magazines).
  
• A Londoner fashion designer that offers for sale a DIY fashion collection book through her Etsy account (that reaches a global audience but didn't made her a single sale), reappraised her marketing communications plan to better disable her account and achieve her financial goals doing only local PR and personal sales and promotion in ethical fashion fairs, swaps exchanges, swishing events, and charities, secondhand and vintage shops. Would you suggest her to continue her online presence?

Online and offline promotion strategies should aim to relevant audiences to achieve communication and business objectives.

When formulating business and interet marketing strategies consider --specially in highly competitive, dynamic and complex offline/online industries like the fashion one-- all your options before choosing the best. Leverage on those that support better your business objectives. B)

To people with experience in fashion e-tailing reading this thread: what other possible solutions/considerations you think should a starting e-tailer or retailer (click and mortar) consider before setting-up business/going live?

 

[kimberwyn]

I'm not majoring in fashion in particular, but I am a finance major and what we learned about online business is it's best to start locally. Don't start a web based business hoping to be world wide immediately. Where you're basing out of should be seen as your target area and market

That only works if you have a website in conjunction with a brick and mortar local business, or product that's locally centric. If you're selling clothes, the worst thing you can do online is target only your area, especially if your area isn't interested in fashion (like mine lol).

My first sale was to Ireland. In the 3 years Ive been open, I've had ONE sale locally, and that was after doing a fashion show to 400 people here in town.

 

[Sophie66]

I think mailouts/email newsletters are an excellent idea if you can get your existing customers to sign up with their email addresses in store (perhaps with a competition to win stuff as an incentive)

YMLP.com is a good mailout provider if you have a big mailing list or you can just send html/text (depending on your level of expertise) via windows live/outlook/hotmail.

Mailouts can feature new products as well as celebrities wearing garments similar/the same as the ones you sell to inspire readers to buy.

You can also get customers to become a fan on facebook and set up competitions there to get them to share with their friends. Eg tag us in a post of you wearing our product. Photo with the most likes wins a gift voucher.

Keep sharing, sharing, sharing every time you get new stock/a celebrity wears your stuff you release new campaigns to get people to like and in turn share and promote your content.

Also contact fashion blogs and get them to do a post on their top 5 items from your website. Then your favourite poster wins all of the items (make sure you contact lots of blogs to maximise your return on this!)

Be creative! Email local magazines and newspapers and offer to lend them stock for photoshoots.
Etc
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Sophie.xx