Our store, Creators Paradise has had exactly 1 sale...Any suggestions on getting more sales? Is is better to have a fixed shipping price or to do request a quote? Open to suggestions -LegoGuy04
I know that for myself, I am an instant gratification person and rarely go through the process of requesting a quote unless it's a rare item I can't get elsewhere. On this site, ensuring you have your shipping rates preset and dimensions on all your parts (check your missing data link at your dashboard) allows instant checkout, which seems to be the lion's share of business on BO. For me, that is a store I would cheerfully buy from. :-)
You have quite a small selection available, so this is going to hurt your sales immensely. I would advise trying to get more inventory added as soon as possible and as Calibrick mentioned, make sure your shipping rates are set up, many people will be put off by having to wait for a quote.
> @Calibrick said: > I know that for myself, I am an instant gratification person and rarely go through the process of requesting a quote unless it's a rare item I can't get elsewhere. On this site, ensuring you have your shipping rates preset and dimensions on all your parts (check your missing data link at your dashboard) allows instant checkout, which seems to be the lion's share of business on BO. For me, that is a store I would cheerfully buy from. :-)
> @vegitt said: > You have quite a small selection available, so this is going to hurt your sales immensely. I would advise trying to get more inventory added as soon as possible and as Calibrick mentioned, make sure your shipping rates are set up, many people will be put off by having to wait for a quote.
This may sound a big discouraging, it's not meant that way.. I figure it's better than a continous feeling disappointment and frustration. By all means keep at it, don't give up, but I'd say tune down your expectations a bit. Your inventory is small, I will soon have a million parts but I too struggle to get orders. That's simply how it is, and that's ok. If you expect less and focus more on other parts of the Lego hobby it will be more of a fun surprise when you do get orders than a disappointment when you don't.
For myself 15-20% of my sales are international. This isn't a huge amount, but you may be turning away custom.
As others have said, just grow your range and quantity as you can. Even if you posted to the UK, your range doesn't tempt as there are not enough different parts, or parts in large enough quantity for it to be worth me putting together an order.
You have 208 parts in total. People are only going to buy an specific part if they need it badly and shipping is good. Since you don't ship outside of the USA, you have a lower chance to find that buyer that needs the part that you have, and he will find a 100 other stores with that part.
LegoGuy04, I took the liberty of looking at your store as others here have. While I'm not sure shipping outside the US will bring in a lot of new sales (out of 260 orders, I have had 1 order outside the US (Norway), though in fairness, my non-US shipping is somewhat high as I only ship in methods that are trackable for insurance purposes).
I think Veggitt and Brick_Top really nailed it - you need enough variety for someone to stumble across you from here or one of the affiliate sites (are you signed up for the affiliate programs?). Then, with great service and reasonable prices, they will stay and buy other items they need while getting that one item that they found you with in the first place. And with luck, they will come back again to you specifically because of the amazing service you provided! :-)
Teup also raised a great point - expectation management. I opened my first store here in early May with a tad over 100,000 items and over 11,000 lots (it took several years of gradual data entry to build it up). I assumed it would do pretty meh, since my prices are not all-that competitive. I ended up dropping them 1% after tinkering with them the first month or so.
My plan (which I strive to do every day) is to provide proactive, exemplary packaging and customer service, focusing on specific themes to try to stand out among all the other awesome sellers on here (e.g., I have a lot of Bionicle, Star Wars, Marvel, DC).
260 orders may not sound like a lot over three months, but it has blown away every expectation I have had, and I am incredibly grateful to the folks here at BO. I suspect it would do even better if I dropped my prices, but I'm content with the current order pace (and part of each order goes to charity) since this is all on top of working a normal full-time job.
I think this is all a loooooooooong way of saying: VARIETY. :-) You need more variety on the storefront. Have you considered buying bulk lots from yard sales, estate sales, reputable auction sites, etc.? Those are great low-cost investment ways to build up your inventory.
Comments
> I know that for myself, I am an instant gratification person and rarely go through the process of requesting a quote unless it's a rare item I can't get elsewhere. On this site, ensuring you have your shipping rates preset and dimensions on all your parts (check your missing data link at your dashboard) allows instant checkout, which seems to be the lion's share of business on BO. For me, that is a store I would cheerfully buy from. :-)
> @vegitt said:
> You have quite a small selection available, so this is going to hurt your sales immensely. I would advise trying to get more inventory added as soon as possible and as Calibrick mentioned, make sure your shipping rates are set up, many people will be put off by having to wait for a quote.
Thanks for the advice!
Also, you don't ship internationally ;)
For myself 15-20% of my sales are international. This isn't a huge amount, but you may be turning away custom.
As others have said, just grow your range and quantity as you can. Even if you posted to the UK, your range doesn't tempt as there are not enough different parts, or parts in large enough quantity for it to be worth me putting together an order.
I think Veggitt and Brick_Top really nailed it - you need enough variety for someone to stumble across you from here or one of the affiliate sites (are you signed up for the affiliate programs?). Then, with great service and reasonable prices, they will stay and buy other items they need while getting that one item that they found you with in the first place. And with luck, they will come back again to you specifically because of the amazing service you provided! :-)
Teup also raised a great point - expectation management. I opened my first store here in early May with a tad over 100,000 items and over 11,000 lots (it took several years of gradual data entry to build it up). I assumed it would do pretty meh, since my prices are not all-that competitive. I ended up dropping them 1% after tinkering with them the first month or so.
My plan (which I strive to do every day) is to provide proactive, exemplary packaging and customer service, focusing on specific themes to try to stand out among all the other awesome sellers on here (e.g., I have a lot of Bionicle, Star Wars, Marvel, DC).
260 orders may not sound like a lot over three months, but it has blown away every expectation I have had, and I am incredibly grateful to the folks here at BO. I suspect it would do even better if I dropped my prices, but I'm content with the current order pace (and part of each order goes to charity) since this is all on top of working a normal full-time job.
I think this is all a loooooooooong way of saying: VARIETY. :-) You need more variety on the storefront. Have you considered buying bulk lots from yard sales, estate sales, reputable auction sites, etc.? Those are great low-cost investment ways to build up your inventory.