Berry Silverman on fri 9 oct 98
In trying to plan a website, I am wondering about the best way to
handle retail vs. wholesale customers. I primarily sell wholesale,
but I have had inquiries from individuals wishing to buy retail,
especially in areas where I do not have any shops carrying my pieces.
How do others deal with this? Is it best to just use the website as a
gallery, without posting prices, and then respond to email inquiries?
Or should retail prices be listed, asking wholesale buyers to email
their inquiries? Since wholesale is my bread and butter, I do not
really want to compete with my wholesale customers, but I would like
to capture the retail sales where I don't have local outlets. Does
anybody have experience with this problem?
==
Berry Silverman,
Berryware, Tucson, Arizona
berrysilverman@yahoo.com
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Don Jones on sun 11 oct 98
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>
>
>In trying to plan a website, I am wondering about the best way to
>handle retail vs. wholesale customers. I primarily sell wholesale,
>but I have had inquiries from individuals wishing to buy retail,
>especially in areas where I do not have any shops carrying my pieces.
>How do others deal with this? Is it best to just use the website as a
>gallery, without posting prices, and then respond to email inquiries?
>Or should retail prices be listed, asking wholesale buyers to email
>their inquiries? Since wholesale is my bread and butter, I do not
>really want to compete with my wholesale customers, but I would like
>to capture the retail sales where I don't have local outlets. Does
>anybody have experience with this problem?
>==
>Berry Silverman,
Berry,
I have a website that is seperate from my wholesale business. It isnot
even a commercial site. That way I know that all inquiries are retail and
I don't compete with my galleries. Often I tell them where a gallery is
near them. You will not have many sales anyway so don't get your hopes up
too high.
Don Jones
claysky@highfiber.com
:-) implied in all messages and replies
http://highfiber.com/~claysky
Tom Wirt on sun 11 oct 98
best way to
handle retail vs. wholesale customers. I primarily sell wholesale,
How do others deal with this? Is it best to just use the website as a
gallery, without posting prices, and then respond to email inquiries?
Berry
I've pondered this and I think, without getting into passwords, is to ask people
to call. Don't think you can post prices either way without getting someone out
of joint.
Anyone got a simple technological solution such as an easy way to get passwords?
Tom
John Hesselberth on mon 12 oct 98
Is it best to just use the website as a
>gallery, without posting prices, and then respond to email inquiries?
>Or should retail prices be listed, asking wholesale buyers to email
>their inquiries? Since wholesale is my bread and butter, I do not
>really want to compete with my wholesale customers, but I would like
>to capture the retail sales where I don't have local outlets. Does
>anybody have experience with this problem?
Berry, I have just a little expererienc, but I'm comfortable with the
way I handle it. I post only retail prices. I make it clear that I sell
to sell wholesale to galleries and invite their inquiries via Email. I
also devote a section of my site to the gallleries where my work is
available and invite people to visit them. I will sell retail from my
site if I get inquiries, but I don't get many. I think most retail
buyers want to hold a pot before they buy it.
John Hesselberth
Frog Pond Pottery
Pocopson, PA 19366 USA
EMail: john@frogpondpottery.com web site: http://www.frogpondpottery.com
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed, and
hence clamorous to be led to safety, by menacing it with an endless
series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." H.L. Mencken, 1925
chris Campbell on tue 1 jan 02
Happy New Year to All !!!
My 'Down to Business' column in the Fall 2001 issue of Pottery Making
Illustrated is centered on the topic of websites. It gives you some basic
information to consider before taking the leap. Keeping a personal website
fresh and interesting is a lot of work so get ready to commit some time and
effort.
There are not many potters who are reporting significant sales from a
personal website. Of course, a lot of you don't ask for sales so it is hard
to tell what would happen if you made it easy to buy. If you are having good
sales from your site, please let me know so I can visit and pass on the
information to others.
I get almost 100% of my sales from the Internet as a member of a group
wholesale site. This has been my solution to getting my work out of my
geographical area without the stress of road trips to shows. Once the
galleries are customers I can download images to them from my digital camera
to announce any new work. Nowdays with the viruses, you have to tell them
there are safe images coming ... otherwise they hit the trash.
I have done a lot of research in this area and would be glad to answer
any questions on or off list. I will also be glad to refer you to some of the
people who have helped me learn and know a ton more than I do.
Chris Campbell - in North Carolina - I am reading 'Word Freak' by Stefan
Fatsis ... it's about the world of competitive Scrabble. These pros prepare
as well as they can but survive by 'dealing with the draws' and not whining
about luck.
Stephani Stephenson on tue 1 jan 02
Kate wrote
If you have that
lovely digital camera and can put your new, available stuff up? DO any
of
you make appreciable sales that way?
Kate
Yes you can!
Everyone has a different approach.
I am a hack and a tightwad so I definitely opted for the do it yourself
route :)!
The process:
two weeks of being absolutely unapproachable and nearly inhuman while I
tried to teach myself how to build a website.
sign on office door "very bitchy greenhorn at work, interrupt on pain
of death"
Once the site was up then had to learn how to tune it up ,(reduce size
of pictures for quicker downloading). Then had to learn how to register
sites with search engines. (it is free and easy to do, but like
everything 'free and easy' it takes time and some research !)
Anyway, I felt less comfortable about turning it over to an anonymous
pro, when I knew absolutely nothing about it and didn't have a lot of
'free capital' to invest!!! So bootstrap it was. I used the online
instructions and did have a few calls to the Earthlink and Apple and
Netscape people. They were all most helpful.
I wanted to know If I could put together a site, no bells, no whistles,
just pics and info. Just to see what would happen. Mostly I thought the
site would be an information site only. I did not expect much in the
way of sales.
It takes work to maintain , but if you want to switch pics often , it
will still take work for SOMEONE to maintain, so the immediacy of being
able to do yourself may be appealing. Maybe as soon as I am filthy rich
I will hire someone else to do it.....:)
It has paid for itself every month so has never been a loser in that
way. after 6 months or so some sales started coming my way.
The site is not set up for credit cards so in this way is still quite a
'primitive' site. and in fact I need to touch it up with new pics and
prices. Oh gad put that on the list too!!!!
The site is for tile and sculpture so may differ from a site for
pottery, but what has surprised me the most is that in the last year
the sales have been quite nice. During the spring it was about
$400/week, just on gift tiles. Since then I have landed some large jobs,
for my own work and for Alchemie studio work. These are people with
great projects, who would have never come across the work in any other
way.
Two tips. #1. people will still ask for a 'catalog' or 'samples'. so
figure out your follow-up 'in print' response.
#2 you WILL engage in sometimes lengthy email or phone follow-ups to
requests.
I flubbed my very first order, sent off items before receiving payment,
never received payment or items. I let it go, thinking, well glad to get
THAT out of the way! Everyone since then has been great . The problems
I foresaw never happened. I was worried about representation of items
via small digital photo, thinking people might not be happy with the
real thing if it looked different than photo. That has never happened
and of course the real item is better than the photo.
It isn't exactly a model site or operation, so I am not holding it up as
an example to strive for; there are a million improvements needed, and
I do see some GORGEOUS sites out there. but even if you start small
you will learn something and be better informed and equipped to make
the next step. Sometimes all you can do is start with what you have and
go on from there. So don't be afraid to try. You have little to lose,
and will learn a lot, even if you learn you want to delegate the
project!!!
best wishes
Stephani Stephenson
carlsbad CA
http://www.alchemiestudio.com
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