Gift Rep Sandy

Archive for the ‘Wholesale Websites’ Category

Selling and servicing web customers is very different from servicing gift shows in your territory.  Since the potential for receiving orders or inquiries from buyers is outside your travel region, you may never meet some of these buyers and the only contact they have with you is via your website.  Developing a relationship with these buyers is a challenge to the way you have done business.

There are several points to consider when selling to web customers:

• Web customers, outside your customer base, most likely found your website via a search engine.  You need to qualify them as buyers, so the Buyers Registration and Password Request Form need to be linked and displayed prominently on your site.  If you set up your website correctly from the beginning, customer should find this form easily.

• Web customers are strangers – you have not met them nor have you been in their store.  Because of the unknown factor, I highly recommend you process all orders via a credit card.  Most web buyers are accustom to paying for their purchases with their credit card, so this requirement should not be an inconvenience.

• The best way to develop and maintain a web relationship is sending out monthly (or at least quarterly) e-newsletters.  Emailing periodic information on sales and new products remind your buyers of who you are and what you sell.

During the four or more years I have maintained my website, I have gotten numerous requests from stores inside and outside my sales travel route.  When possible, I always tried to visit those stores within my territory.  Most buyers appreciated my extra efforts in doing so and would ‘reward’ me by placing more orders at that time.  In theory, my site also increased my customer base within my territory.  My website became a very useful tool in locating new stores, gift basket companies, and gift buyers that I may not find through traveling to their towns.

With a website, you have the unique opportunity to market outside the territory you visit.  Since there are no boundaries or restrictions to the number and type of buyers you attract via a website, the opportunities to increase sales and customer base is endless.

Best way to market your website to customers beyond your territory is through search engine optimization.  Most search engines rank your site by “hits” from potential visitors who are using certain keywords when they search.  When you develop your site, your keywords (which are ‘peppered’ throughout your copy) should list your niche market and specialty products as described above.

With the work done to accumulate and invite buyers to your site through the password request process, you have already drive traffic to your site.  With this established framework, potential buyers outside your territory can find your site easier than if there was no traffic to your site at all.  If there are no visitors to your site, it is unlikely you will rank very high in the search engines.

To jump start this process, submit your website information to the major search engines such as yahoo, goggle, lycos or msn. Even if you don’t manually submit your information, often search engines can locate your site through their “spiders” who are combing the content of new sites to add to their index

Other web based venues to get your name and products noticed is to list your company with web directories.  Directories, which are different than search engines, list your site by category similar to a yellow page listing. Often a search engine compile a directory with separate submission forms or requirements.

Researching and adding your site to active web blogs, Facebook pages and industry listservs also generate traffic and buyers.  Anytime you post on any active blogs, facebook page or listservs, adding your web URL in your signature is a subtle advertisement for you website.

Another method for driving traffic to your site is advertising your website and/or product offerings in trade magazines and journals.  Trade magazines such as Country Business, Gourmet News, Home Décor etc. are read by your potential customers.  Having advertising or listing in these magazines give you a wide exposure to retail stores across the country.

Many trade magazines also have industry mailing lists you can purchase.  Many magazines or organizations offer snail mailing lists or email lists which contain qualified buyers within the gift industry.

If you attend a gift show, add your web URL to all the information listing your company and products.

There are many options you can use to market your website.  Since you visit most of your customers during your sales trips, you have a golden opportunity to build traffic by telling every buyer you know about your site.

Other ways to market your website to your current customers is to:

• Add your website URL to EVERY flyer, business card, literature or correspondence you have with a buyer
• Encourage every buyer to fill out a Password Request form when you are visiting their store
• Hand out Password Request forms at any shows where you are exhibiting
• If you mail a hard-copy newsletter to your customer, makes sure to give detailed instructions on how to access and request a password to your website
• When ever you receive a request for catalogs or flyers, refer your buyers first to your website
• Encourage your vendors to refer potential customers to your website
• Leave Password Request flyers with organizations or agencies that may work with potential buyers
• Tell everyone you know about your website!

With the Password Request system described above, you promote traffic to your site by emailing potential buyers a password.  Most buyers are interested in your site, and will view it after you send them a password.  This system is the beginning of your web traffic!  Rather than waiting for buyers to come to you, you are inviting them to your site.  As time goes on and more buyers are accessing your site via the passwords you issued them, the higher your ratings climb on the search engines.  And the higher your ratings on the search engines, the more buyers will access your site.

Developing up a wholesale-only website is very different than developing a retail website.  You have different pricing structures, different customer base, and different marketing strategies than a retail site — all very important points to consider when deciding how to set up and market your site.  Once again, I was exploring an “unknown” arena where little or no written information was available about wholesale websites. Following are tips and information I learned along the way while developing my own site:

1. Home or Welcome page outlining an overview of your website.  First place buyers look needs to explain that you are a wholesale site selling products as a sales rep to the companies you list on your site.
2. Password protected pages for wholesale pricing.  In order to eliminate the casual consumer from access wholesale pricing, pages can require a password before they are displayed.
3. Buyer’s registration/password request form.  In order to access the password protected pages, buyers need a registration form to provide information to qualify them as a legitimate retailer. 
   
4. Page listings by company rather than products. As a sales rep, you represent companies rather than individual products, so products on the site need listings by vendor or company.  Giving each company a landing or home page, gives you the opportunity to lists specific terms and product for each of the companies you represent.
5. Detailed FAQ page within the top level pages.  Since your wholesale site is very different from a typical retail website, you need to explain about different terms, shipping requirements, etc. per company.
6. Use keywords announcing your target audience and products throughout your copy.   Keywords are words search users enter to find what they’re looking for on the Internet. Obviously, these are the words you want to use to ensure that your website appears in search results page.
7. About My Company page creates a personal perspective to your website.  Telling a bit of history or background to your company changes your presence from an unknown faceless cyber entity into a real person on the web.
8.  Contact page listing all your contact information is very important.  List your mailing address, phone number or numbers, fax number and email. 
   

Although, retailers seem to be a bit behind the curve when it comes to technology, putting up a wholesale website with on-line ordering capacity has defined advantages:

• You have a complete catalog on-line that you can refer to your customers
• You will spend less time and expense handing out flyers
• You have added another venue for buyers to order
• You will attract buyers who are searching the web for wholesale products
• You will position yourself as the place (or rep firm) to buy certain niche products
• You automatically give extra credibility to your company when you have an on-line presence

In my case, I probably increased my sales 10-20% the first year after developing my wholesale website (and that was several years ago before the web was as popular as it is today!).  The amount is not easily measurable because many buyers would access the website, look at the products and then call or wait until I was in their store to place their orders.  Websites marketing in this manner is a bit like exhibiting in a gift show:  Many of the direct benefits are not immediate, but they are a long term potential venue for increased sales and customer service.