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Mom and Pop Small Business Online Tactics
Updated: 15 Oct 2007
So you want to be an online merchant to the World!
If you don't have time to read this letter at least read the Bottom Line.
Consider this before you begin. The Internet is cyberspacing new life into many of America's, let me say, the World's small businesses. In this day of super stores and mega malls how does the "Mom and Pop" store survive? By doing what the "Big Guy's" can't do. Selling a large variety of products in a narrow niche. The Walmarts and K-marts of the world have a little of everything. What they don't have is a lot of one specific type of product. In other words their product list is a mile wide and an inch deep.
This is where the Mom's and Pop's of the world step in!
First, will your product sell locally? If your product will not sell locally then it most likely hasn't any better chance of selling elsewhere. I recommend you test market your product in your area. If there is an interest in what you sell then it has a good chance of selling on the internet. That doesn't mean there has to be a large demand for your product or service by the average person in your city or county. If your product caters to hunters and the hunters in your area are interested then that is sufficient. What the internet will do for you is multiply enormously your pool of potential customers. There are a lot of hunters connected to the internet. They would be your new pool of potential customers.
Stop thinking local! Think national! While your at it think international!!! Your store's clientele are no longer just the ones that can drive to your store. Your clients are now the ones that can visit your web store. And on the Internet they can visit your store from wherever they are on the planet.
Here is what "Mom and Pop" can do that will meet or exceed what the "Big Guy's" can do:
- The Mom and Pop store rides a small niche that is only viable on the web for success. Their only competition comes from other web stores.
- A small on-line business that, fills a niche, and has a very large selection of every variation in size, shape, color, and quality of a narrow category of a product, can fight those Big Guy's on equal cyber-footing. A good example is http://www.Eco-Furniture.com. They sell only furniture that is environmentally compatible, or "green" furniture. None of the "Big Guy's" can match the selection available from them. This makes them the only major source of "green" furniture. In other words they own the "niche".
- Remember, that the entire world is now your market. You need only a hand full of people from a few hundred cities who have a keen interest in your niche for you to succeed. This is particularly true in the world of hobbies and collectables.
- Excellent examples of a niche web site are:
- fraserclayworks.com Web site that sells custom tiles and ceramics. Very specialized riding on a narrow niche.
- DickPacksPlates.com A web site that has a very narrow niche that is a perfect example of what I am trying to convey. Dick started by selling on eBay and graduated to his own web site.
- Insects for sale: Buy/Sell or trade insects from around the world.
- Candlemart: Scented Candles and Candle Accessories, Aroma therapy Products and Candle Holders
- Corpses for sale: Purchase, rent or build a life size, realistic, decaying corpse. Yuck!
- A "Mom and Pop" small business on-line appears to be a "Big Guy" who's store is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
- Small Businesses can provide much better service. The customer can have direct contact with the owner, when necessary, not someone from the public relations department at corporate headquarters. Which could be hundreds if not thousands of miles away from where the product is being manufactured. You, the small business "Owner," have not only public relations responsibilities, but the authority to make final decisions on behalf of the company, giving all consideration to the needs of the customer and the company.
- Your Store can have personality! Unlike the Big Guy's who all have that cold "remote" feel about them, your store can convey "your" personality right through the modem and browser, to the customer.
- Customers are drawn to a "community" because they share an interest with the community. For example, collectors of Old Time Radio (OTR) programs number in the 10's of thousands all over the world. They are a tight-knit online community. They have a viable online community that supports various discussions and online events that focus on the collectors of OTR programs, scripts, photographs, memorabilia, books etc. Internet customers are compelled to purchase products because they want to reward the creation and sustaining of the "community" they share interest in. Not only do these activities generate participants who are apt to purchase OTR related products, but the interaction between the participants and the store creates a bond that leads to loyal, life long customers.
What do you need to do before you jump into eCommerce?
- First do your home work, research your product category on-line. Know what is already out there.
- Think about how you can do it better. Not necessarily "out do" their "shopping cart" program, but how you can convey the product to the potential customer that your product "feels" like it is the right one to purchase. Often the sophistication (i.e.; cost of web site) adds to the "canned" look. Just another web store of thousands of web stores. Be original, don't have your web site look like it came out of a box (even an Internet Tool Box!). There are more than enough of those!
- Don't make the mistake of so many web sites that set up shop and offer only to sell you something. Become part of a "community" by providing "Free" resources such as:
- Some history about your product(s). Or technical information about the product(s) such as a copy of the operating manual or instructions for use right there on line. Example: A lawn care company would offer tips for various lawn care situations.
- Have a forum for people to discuss their interests in this type of product. This works especially well for collectable items such as coins, stamps, models, classic movies or TV Shows, Beanie Babies or Pokeman products etc. It also works for passion interests such as those cat, dog, horse lovers, etc.
- Consider having a newsletter regarding your special product line. Take article submissions from your web site visitors.
- Research your web designer. Don't settle on the first one you talk to. Contact two or three, then settle on the one that feels right (they may be the first one you talked to after all). Don't deal with the "Big Guy" that has a salesperson that takes your order then passes you on to the next available technician who may be an outsource in another country. Remember the watch word above. Deal with a web design company that convey's personality.
In short: Be a destination and resource, not just a web store.
A note here on the "Free Internet". Now that the DOT.com "Boom" is behind us, most of the "Free" is disappearing from the "Free Internet". There is a very good reason for this. The "old" economy rule still applies even in the "new" economy. "You can't make a profit if you give the store away".
To succeed in the "New" economy, like you had to do in the "old" economy, you need to make a profit. That is not to say you should not provide some "Free" services. As explained above you should provide some "Free" content/services as part of your overall online service. But don't forget, income minus expenses must equal profit.
Patience is the watchword.
- A web site is not like the movie; "If you build it they will come". It takes months before your web address is added to all the major "Free" search engines. Especially, these days. The search engines are being inundated with hundreds's of thousands of submissions, each day, to their databases.
- Don't rely on those web sites that gurantee to place you at the top of the search engines. Believe me they can't.
- Those Mega submission services that will list you with 200, 300 or even 500+ search engines will in the end cause you more grief than you bargained for, because you must provide a valid e-mail address (or your listing will be wasted). The problem is that 90% of these sites are nothing more than a "Free Links Page" or "Link Farms", with the sole purpose of getting your e-mail address for spamming. My own experience with these services resulted in me getting as many as 200 Spam e-mail's a day, all wanting to tell me about a service or product and to thank me for my submission. If that was not enough, they kept thanking me and thanking me. . . for months with some more product suggestions. The major search engines now recognize a Link Farm for what it is and could actually penalize your site for their linkings to you.
- Nothing beats you, the store owner, taking an active role in marketing your web site.
- Marketing your web site is easier than it is for the "Big Guys!". They have to support dozens, if not hundreds of key words. While you only have to market those few key words specific to your niche. Your ability to focus your marketing will help with equalizing the playing field with the "Big Guy's" who are marketing without focus, nor have they the depth of products you have in your niche.
- Add your web site's address to your business cards, company stationary and as a digital signature at the bottom of all your outgoing e-mail's.
- If you advertise locally (real world radio, newspapers etc.), be sure and reference your web site.
- Cultivate reciprocal links with other web sites that have a logical relation to your product line. Not competitors, but community related organizations and trade associations.
- If your selling cat accessories get links with organizations such as the Association of Cat Lovers (if one exists) or advertise in the various "Cat Lovers" news groups and discussion boards and forums. These resources are relatively inexpensive to advertise in but do allow you to target people interested in your type of product and who are "Net Savvy," and can appreciate the resources at your web site.
- The narrower you make your niche the better you will turn up in the search engines. Your page will be designed specifically for that niche. Not a broad "net" trying to catch any web surfer you can. But just only those web surfers who have an interest in your products and the niche you are trying to fill. You do not want web surfers who are not interested in your product as they will only waste your time (and theirs) and your resources.
- Look for other "related" associations and organizations to establish relationships with.
- Consider "donating" a small percentage of each sale for those associations or organizations that will help promote your product.
- For more information about marketing your web site go here, where I share my thoughts on marketing in today's post DOT.com "Bust" period: The "Mature" Internet.
Lastly, and most important! Look at your venture as an investment in your future not a "get rich quick" scheme. Remember the successful web sites loose money for a year or more before they are able to get on top. Look at Amazon.com, it took them years before they had a profitable quarter. Yet few doubted they would be a success. You too can be a success if you approach the Internet as a long-term business opportunity.
Bottom Line: To succeed with an online storefront find and exploit a niche and consider your endeavor as a long term investment in both money and time, not a get rich quick scheme!
Sincerely,
Thurman "Ray" Plumlee
The Web Helper
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