Topic: Member Workshop: 8 Ways to Differentiate Your Niche Business
Host: whatdoisell Date: Tuesday 05/20 Time: 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Pacific time Location:Workshop Board
Description: Selling in a niche is the best way to carve out your profitable piece of the e-commerce pie. But just selling in a niche is not enough! You must learn how to differentiate your business from your competitors and then communicate that difference to your customers. Please join Lisa Suttora, Founder/CEO of eBay Certified Provider WhatDoISell.com as she discusses how nichepreneurs can design a business with a USP (Unique Selling Position) that will speak directly to the customers in your niche.
My name is Lisa Suttora and I’m the Founder and CEO of WhatDoISell.com™.
Selling in a niche is the best way to carve out your profitable piece of the e-commerce pie.
But just selling in a niche is not enough! You must learn how to differentiate your business from your competitors and then communicate that difference to your customers. And that's what we're here to talk about today!
The workshop content is directly below. After you’ve read through today’s workshop, I’m here to answer your questions about your business on eBay.
You’ve found a niche to sell in. Assessed market demand. Sourced your products. And you’re ready to make your mark online.
But how do you set your business and your product offerings apart from the competition?
And do you need to do so?
Robert Gozuieta, former CEO of Coca-Cola once said, "In real estate, it´s location, location, location. In business, it´s differentiate, differentiate, differentiate."
On any given day, eBay hosts approximately 12-15 million listings. So how do make YOUR business stand out in a sea of millions?
Well the good news is you don’t have to be ‘King of 15 million listing hill’.
You only have to stand out in your ‘neighborhood’!
A neighborhood made up of your hungry, targeted, buyers looking for exactly what you sell.
It’s HOW you sell it to them that will make your business stand out.
The biggest mistake any online seller can make is to aim for mass appeal. Trying to be everything to everybody.
Make it your goal to go for “Massive Appeal”. Appeal so irresistible that shoppers buy from you simply because they like YOU and the buying experience.
Your online store MUST appeal to the buyers in your niche.
If there is nothing appealing about your store. If you don’t have a spin, a twist, or a sprinkle of spice, you’ll always end up competing in the commodities market.
People love stories. When personality or an experience are woven into the description of the item you are selling, it instantly sets your product apart from your competitor’s.
Even if your stories are only one or two brief sentences, you can capture the imagination and curiosity of the buyer.
For example,
“A vintage, blue, porcelain vase with no cracks” is an accurate description of the product to be sure, but it doesn’t tell the story.
“A vintage, blue, porcelain vase that was given to my grandparents for a wedding gift and brought carefully to the United States from Denmark” immediately raises the perceived value of the piece.
It adds a sense of history, uniqueness, and personality to the piece. Qualities that people are willing to pay more for.
If your product does not have a specific story, what can you research about where the product was made? Some interesting trivia? A fun or popular fact about the materials it was made with.
Yes, it is more work upfront. But ask yourself this - would you rather sell fewer, but more quality products with higher profit margin?
One of the fastest ways to get ideas for ways to set your niche business apart is to get involved with the online community of people who buy your product.
If you sell golf clubs, you should be frequenting online forums and discussion groups for golfers.
Read the posts. Listen in on what they are talking about.
You’ll be able to pick up clues about get great ideas for concepts that can make your business unique.
Yahoo, Google, and MSN all have online discussion groups.
Simply do a search for your niche market and tack on the keywords “discussion” or “discussion group”.
You’ll be amazed to find out how many people are talking about what you sell!
When you ship a package to your customer, the last memory they have of their transaction is when they open the box to see their merchandise.
This is your chance to provide a big “WOW”.
There is nothing more powerful for a customer than opening a package and FIRST seeing a small gift, a creative thank you note, a colorful coupon or some other personalized touch.
In fact, the positive feelings generated by that initial, unique, gift or thank-you will carry over into their feelings about the product they’ve just received.
Your customer’s mood has already been preset to positive by your package insert.
This doesn’t mean you have to hand-craft something for every package. Quite the opposite. You need to 'systematize your personalization'.
If you sell linens and want to include a small potpourri gift in the box, have those pre-made ahead of time (this is a great way to bring kids or other family or friends into the business.)
One creative eBay seller of children’s products I coached had her kids hand paint thank you cards inserts and included them with each package she shipped.
Her customers we’re delighted to receive a child designed “thank you” and many of her customers posted those thank you inserts right on the fridge next to their own children’s art work.
Guess the first place those customers shopped when they thought of buying kids toys...
The #1 thing that causes your business on eBay to blend into the woodwork is being generic.
… Or being a “me too” kind of store.
Generic looking listing templates, plain “stock” stores, bland, boring listings, no logo, etc. all contribute to you becoming “invisible” in the eyes of potential customers.
‘Basic’ is the enemy of good sales.
You never want to be ‘basic’. People don’t pay extra money for basic. People put a premium on a shopping experience that has a unique feel to it.
They’ll pay for the experience as much (or even more than) they’ll pay for the product.
There’s a restaurant called Rainforest Café’. The food at best is mediocre. But the experience… jungle themed, jungle sounds, big aquarium, store within a restaurant brings millions of people through the door each year.
If the Rainforest Café’ had decided to be just another hamburger place, they probably wouldn’t be in business right now.
It’s the branding and the experience that brings people back and gets people talking.
For a while, the trend on eBay was to set yourself up to look like a big business. The thinking behind this was that it would foster more customer trust.
But buyers who want to purchase from corporations will go to Walmart.com or Target.com.
Buyers who want to purchase from people come to eBay.
And there are millions of them.
Recently, eBay has spoken about making the site a more retail like environment. Even if you sell unique one of a kind items, a retail environment can work for you.
But think “boutique” not mass retailer.
If you sell products for horse enthusiasts, your strength is not in being “Horses R Us” – your strength is in fostering a small, personal, boutique-like experience for buyers who are looking for a non-generic shopping experience.
Lisa, thanks so much for this workshop and the (always) valuable information you have already given. So far, no questions, I look forward to even being a lurker today. Maybe questions later!
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Hello! I have been reading the preliminary information and have found it very helpful already. Thanks for doing this workshop. How can I dress up and customize my store in Ebay, to get away from that generic look? Thanks.
Hi Deirdre, Lots of great information that you have posted. I have found my niche as you put it and that is for the most part selling vintage to antique jewelry. You are right that it is not enough. I just want to grow my business more, and wonder if I should add other product lines. Also, I have put personal information in my My world or About me page. Do you think that helps when people know who you are, and does it help to add a photo, so people can see who they are buying from? Just a few questions off the top of my head. Thanks, Cynthia
Good info, Lisa! My main niche is different from most sellers on eBay - I market to my fellow sellers. Of course, I have competitors off & on eBay who also design eBay pages & templates, but I find most of us don't do much more than list our services. How else do I (and my fellow service sellers) let our target market know we're here? (I do get on the boards & am fairly well-known in the eBay community, but Joe NewSeller isn't aware of me nor that such a service is even available.)
eBay Certified Stores Designer. See my ME page for links to Blackthorne Pro help & FREE templates. See Tippy Kal comic on my blog!
Hi georgiana*gem, You have a great assortment of RL products! Now it is time to take your niche and branding one step further and start building the experience for your customer of creating a beautiful home with your products.
For example, your USP could be something like "Creating a beautiful home with name brand designer products".
Or if you are specifically going to sell RL products, you can focus on developing your store around the history of RL, the American aspect etc.
The one thing that I did find distracting to your niche and your branding is your eBay template.
I love the look of your template in and of iteself! But it is competing in color, style, and theme with the type of products you sell.
(At least with the ones I saw).
Your listing template should enhance your products and showcase them. Think of a department store where there is all the right lighting and carpet to make the furniture look great.
That's what your listing template needs to do as well.
Also, if you stay in the home decor niche, it's time to change your store name to something that relates to that niche.
So people know that they will find items related to beautiful homes the minute they land on your store page.
This has gotten some of the mental juices flowing. I have defined a niche at well that is smaller than some (family friendly and faith based games). My store has been up a couple of months and even though I usually have a successful auction or two a week (on a three week no sale skid right now) I don't see much traffic to the store. Games not being a regular purchase item how can I better keep from having to find new customers every week. (I have newsletter but no subscribers)
Your workshop was extremely valuable to me. I have been lurking because I am planning to start my own Ebay store and am gathering research and stats right now on this sort of business as my partner and I want to open a store when we bundle other services with the ebay experience for our customers. Any ideas of where to gather information that we could put into a business plan?
Hi mrsmulberry, The best investment you can make in your eBay store is to create a custom template and logo that showcases and enhances what you are selling.
That's the place to start.
Here's why -
A logo and custom template immediately brand your business when a customer arrives in your store. It also provides consistency and buyers (consciously and subconsciously) love consistency when they are buying from a seller.
You don't have to spend thousands though! Look on eBay and find some designers who will do a custom store template for you.
Look at their portfolio. It's often good to work with two designer.
You can probably get a template for about $50 - $200.
Especially when you are just starting out - don't break the bank.
But this will immediately brand your business and give everything you sell a more polished and professional look!
Templates... Hhhhmmmmm.. ok, I'm new to E-Bay, and going thru the Seller On-Ramp training. I want to do it right. My question... I'm using Auctiva, any suggestions or comments on their templates?
Oh, and thanks so much for the workshop.. this is a great way to learn and communicate with others. Better To Have Tried And Failed, Then To Have Never Tried At All.
We haven't gone away - as you can see from the responses, they are quite long...please be patient, we're trying to respond to your questions as quickly as possible.
Deirdre, I am sorry I do not see how my question on store templates is not related? Lisa did a whole response on me getting a good template and customizing my store. Please explain?? K
Hi vintage_american, I took a look at your listings. Very nice photos! I did not see an About Me page listed for this ID though.
It is very important to have a good About Me page when selling on eBay (or anywhere on the Internet) because that is the place that most people go first.
To see who they are buying from. To get a feel for who you are and establish that initial trust.
You have a great product line, but as a customer, I'd like to know more about you and about your business.
For example: Who are you? Why did you open a vintage jewelry shop? How do you source your inventory? (i.e. "I travel 3 states each month to bring you the best vintage jewelry around). Maybe a photo of you or your home state.
Or even a photo of a collection of jewelry.
Something that "lets me into" your life and catches me up into the excitement of the product you sell.
You'll also want customer testimonials on your About Me page.
The other thing I noticed is that you don't have a store.
It's really hard to brand yourself in auctions only. With a store your customers have a place to find you 7x24.
With a listings only strategy they'll find you only when you have active listings.
An eBay store is actually a website with product pages and 5 custom pages that you can use to market your business.
For example, as a vintage jewelry seller I would use one of those custom pages to do a tutorial on how to care for your vintage jewelry, where to store it etc.
As you can see, all of a sudden you become a destination site for vintage jewelry.
Regarding adding additional product lines.
Yes, that is a good idea -but make sure they would appeal to your EXISTING customer base.
thank you Lisa for the info! in your opinion would it be best to keep the same template for all my store listings (maybe a nice black&white scroll look). Or have various templates to match my bedding products.
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