Thread: Competitors

Originally Posted by 5starpix

I hate it when that happens. A friend of mine has a textile business here in Canada. His competitor who is located 15 minutes away had a sale where prices were a tad more than the wholesale price. My friend sold his products a bit lower than the wholesale prices. He lost about $500, but he stole his competitors clients. He was able to give up 500 where as the competitor was not.

This is something people usually don't do. I don't recommend it, but if your goal is to steal your competitors customers, it sometimes works.

I guess it cannot be worse than internet.

Originally Posted by Will.Spencer

Pretty much all you can do is find something new to sell.

I use to sell enterprise software and the manufacturer was giving deeper discounts to our competitors than they were giving to us. We weren't able to compete for sales.

And the manufacturer still complained to us that we weren't selling enough of their software.

That's hell on Earth. When your wholesalers are competing with you for end-customers, you really need to find something new to sell.

Finding something new involve a pretty same risks. I don't compete directly with the manufacturers, we are trying to target different keywords, so there is room for everyone.

I found pretty stupid that some retailers try to compete with their own manufacturers and they sell at a lost. Most of the time companies like that don't go far but they destroy the market the time they are up and confuse the customers.

At the end everybody lose.

Adding new products is important. How about Alaska Glacier Soap. It's natural and Alaska and Hawaii are both new States.

Originally Posted by bogart

Adding new products is important. How about Alaska Glacier Soap. It's natural and Alaska and Hawaii are both new States.

Thanks Bogart

We tried to sell different tropical soaps a few years ago, soaps were hard to sell on site. The only soaps we are selling pretty well are the scented coconut soaps.

I have a few line of products to add in mind, but you can have the best products on your online store, if people don't want to buy like they use to do, it will not help and increase the risks.

Originally Posted by Natural Elements

We tried to sell different tropical soaps a few years ago, soaps were hard to sell on site. The only soaps we are selling pretty well are the scented coconut soaps.

That's really interesting and I guess must be challenging to sell online. When in a shop, I guess most people like to smell the scent before buying it, something obviously missing when buying online. How different must it be compared to selling perfumes online where people are familiar with brands etc.

Originally Posted by Loko

That's really interesting and I guess must be challenging to sell online. When in a shop, I guess most people like to smell the scent before buying it, something obviously missing when buying online. How different must it be compared to selling perfumes online where people are familiar with brands etc.

Yes it is very challenging to sell online. We all like to smell the scent before, and it is our job through our articles or descriptions help the people buying.

Our main customers are people who visited the Hawaiian Islands, come back home and looking for the same products they bought from their vacation. So they already know about the scents.

Some customers try us, because in their states there is no physical store selling these kind of products, and some other just try our products.

After that you have our customers recommending our products to their friends, co-workers, families, etc

Honestly it is very interesting from every steps to run an online business like ours.

Originally Posted by Natural Elements

Thanks Bogart

We tried to sell different tropical soaps a few years ago, soaps were hard to sell on site. The only soaps we are selling pretty well are the scented coconut soaps.

I have a few line of products to add in mind, but you can have the best products on your online store, if people don't want to buy like they use to do, it will not help and increase the risks.

The new products are important. But there's always the risk that they won't sell. So you have a lot of money tied up in inventory that could be better used elsewhere in the business.

I know a guy that was running a stand in a mall that was selling stuff like baja jackets and other hipee stuff from Mexico like bags, belts, and tie-died tee-shirts. This was back during the 91-92 Recession. He decided to open a store and the owner of the stand agreed to wholesale to him. The owner of the stand agreed to wholesale the products and set him up as a affliate. Anyway my friend was able to rent a store cheap in a mall out in Springfield Mass. The baja jackets were selling well. I think he was selling 6 bales a week plus the other hippe stuff.

I was telling him that he needed to get some new products. Because he was going to reach market saturation with the baja jackets. I suggested that he pound the hound and go down to Oaxaca to find some new products like serape pounchos, Oaxacan blouses and blankets etc. He was kind of complacent. Eventually when he decided to find new products, it was too little too late.

Actually a couple problems were the nails in the coffin. His supplier started getting Peruvian sweaters and he tried a few bales which sold fast. The sweaters were so good that his supplier refused to give him any more as he was able to sell them in his network of stands like hot cakes. The straw that broke the camels back was the mall policy. My friend added Indian copper jewlery that was selling well. But the mall made him stop as it was a violation of his lease.

I fully understand Bogart.

My policy is offering products from different manufacturers, but and this is very important for us and perhaps for them: We never sell products from one manufacturer that compete with another manufacturer. I was approched by many manufacturers selling the same kind of products and I refused to work with them. I am loyal to my manufacturers and we have an excellent relationship with them.

Another important part in our field is all products are renewable, that mean people who like our products will most of the time buy again the same one later and try some other products in our online store.

Each new line of products is a risk to take and everything else that involve SEO, articles, link building, etc The time it takes to get ranked well and to start producing sales could take 3 months. So we have to be sure it will work.

Speaking of which, have you see what Walmart is doing? Dumped! Brand names fight to stay in stores
Product overload: Stores are threatening to dump brands - Feb. 15, 2010

The trend is dropping all the products that do not sell or are low selling. That's another problem for retailers and particularely for perishable products containing water like lotions and body washes.

We sell and focus our effort to promote and do more SEO work on the products that are perishable, and fortunately the turnover is fast. That's why we don't carry a lot of stock and provide to our customers fresh products.

The last important thing to know is when it is the season to sell some particular products, but many of our products can be used all seasons.