Buying Or Selling Unique Products Online: Sound Advice
Rick London
I doubt a day does not go by that I'm not asked, "Rick, why so many products, why so many stores? (We have 9 stores). There are a number of answers to that question, but I will start with the obvious.
I wish I could just say, "that's my income" and that would answer it. But a lot of people don't understand that cartooning is a business and it does not just mean, ink on pad sent to newspapers anymore. In fact, publishing does not hold a candle to the licensing of products. Even though I know from looking at competition, we price our products fairly, we sell a lot of different products, and, by pricing low and selling a lot, like Wal-mart, though admittedly not as big, we make more money than if we marked items way up. Word gets around if one carries quality products at reasonable prices...and fast.
Also, one day, and I hope it is in my lifetime, I would love for you, the Internet surfer to google cartoons or funny gifts and two full products of just my stores appeared on your screen. How very neat, eh? Arrogant, sure, but very neat. I am told that in any given year there are approximately 10,000 cartoons on the Internet and out of those 10k cartoons only about 5 or so last longer than a year. This is our tenth year and to be honest, we didn't even start to monetize the site with stores until 14 months ago; and even think about Google Adwords until a few years ago? Why? Because we really looked at the entire thing as a hobby and everyone was pitching in during our spare time. I remember around 2004 emails began pouring in from publishers worldwide wanting to buy permission rights for our cartoons. I hardly even remembered what that meant. Remember, it was all a hobby for me.
Our main site, Londons Times Cartoons remains free. We want to always keep it that way; as, with 8500 original cartoons, mostly in color, we look at it as a cyber-museum of sorts, and to make it a membership site, as we once thought about doing, to us, would dampen the spirit of the whole idea of it. Why pay for the opportunity to have a good laugh (we hope, anyway).
Learning what sells in a marketplace that is untapped is not the easiest thing in the world. Nobody really knows in the cartoon world except other cartoonists and their licensing people. So one has to run down to Barnes and Nobles and find out what is selling well. And it turns out it's not just t-shirts and coffee mugs anymore.
Reliable items that move rapidly include day planners, tank tops coasters, sweats, hoodies, aprons, clocks, infant wear, thongs, maternity dresses (yes, really), men's women's and kids tops and baseball jerseys, tote bags and even key chains and tote bags.
Testing the market on the Internet is a little different than testing it in real life. In the blink of an eye, a popular blog may recommend something or trash it and you never know if your store is included in the inferno. Best to have several just in case.
There are other reasons for operating out of more than one web store. Many shoppers don't want to go to a large department store, for instance, many shoppers know exactly what they are looking for and if they know the store that has it, they can click the mouse, find the product, and order. That is what has made the Internet so convenient for shoppers. It is fast and easy.
AThongInMyHeart.Com, our cartoon thong an boxer short store lures a large number of romantic shoppers who want something *really* different. Though they can get the same items at the same price at our mall stores, RickLondonCollection.com or Ricklondonwear.com simply because they don't have to wade through other items and can find exactly what they want click, buy, and have it at their door within a few days or overseas in about a few weeks. In any of the stores, they know they will get a good deal, and a funny quality product.
Whether it be aprons, greeting cards, or coffee mugs and other such online shopping store items in which we have narrowed it down to niche marketing, they know they can find it at one or all of our stores. We do not charge any more for products that are in those stores, that are also in our larger stores, we simply offer an alternative quicker convenient buying method for those who do not want to spend a lot of time on the net shopping.
Just because we do it this way, does not mean it is "the way" to do it. There are so many other ways to sell oneFs wares on the Internet, and money need not be the only motivator.
We get a kick out of watching the stastics from sites that measure rankings and such and see how each site is doing. Generally they remain popular and gain in popularity as the days go by (thanks to you) and it keeps us motivated to keep our creative juices flowing.
If you are an Internet shopper, and enjoy it (as I do) because it is so nice to find items that are difficult if not impossible to find in real shopping malls, you may enjoy comparison shopping channels like Shop.com, Bizrate, Shopzilla, etc. I enjoy using those for home entertainment, computer equipment etc. But they really are not made for the niche shopper looking for that one-of-a-kind product that can only be bought in one store (and its affiliate stores) all at the same price.
My tendency is to investigate products at Ebay, Shopping.com etc. regularly, to see if a particular online store has items featured there. I check their rankings on Ebay particularly if they are. For instance, 3drose, our manufacturer, sells our products on Ebay, Shop.com, Amazon.com and various other shopping channels. I check their ratings. We are fortunate with 3drose. They have a 99.4% positive feedback rating with almost 12,000 transactions, being one of Ebay's oldest and largest power-sellers. This helps with automatic quality-contol. The marketplace will give positive or negative feedback based on their experiences.
Cartoonist/Entrepreneur Rick London started as a cartoonist and it was "only a hobby. Now he has 9 e-stores of funny gifts including the award-winning Rick London Collection http://www.ricklondoncollection.com/ Rated Funniest Cartoon Gifts & T Shirts On The Net Rick London Collection
|
