Mar
5
How to Find Products Online
Filed Under Wholesale Suppliers
Your office phone rings. It’s a new customer, and she’s prepared to order a custom birthday basket. But there’s a problem. She’s asking for products you don’t have in stock.
How can you complete the sale to her satisfaction (and yours) without running around town as an unpaid personal shopper, retrieving the items she requests?
Here are two tips that help designers like you to keep as many sales as possible without going overboard on a shopping excursion.
1. Offer Alternatives. When a client asks for a product that is different from anything you normally stock, review your product list and suggest something else in its place. The alternative doesn’t have to be an exact match, but it should mirror the requested product’s theme or flavor.
Clients don’t know what you have until you tell them about your product selection. I bet that your customers aren’t so rigid that they would turn down every alternative.
The new Gift Basket Wholesale Supplies site lets you search your state to find specific products or research other states for everyday favorites. A search tool is available as well. Most states are online now, and all will be available by this weekend.
2. Create New Terms. If you wish to go the personal shopping route, inform the client that you’ll be happy to find the requested item — for a custom shopper’s fee.
Many designers post their personal shopping terms in their literature and on their Web sites. These prices start at $25 an hour to find specific products. When found, designers increase the retail price by 20-30 percent. Both costs (hourly and retail price increase) are passed on to the customer.
If the client agrees, then you’ve found a great customer who understands that your time comes with a price. If the client declines, go back to Option No. 1.
Making Money with Special Services uncovers more tips on making money with personal shopping.
Commit to the above tips, or years from now you’ll be looking at strange products in your inventory that no one requests for their baskets.
Technorati Tags: gift baskets business, gift basket products supplies
Comments
2 Responses to “How to Find Products Online”
Leave a Reply
Where was this blog a year ago? Great article (o Find Products Online : Gift Baskets Newsletter)! Can you believe I was searching for Baby gift wholesale when I fond this post Tuesday.
This blog is an offshoot of two other blogs:
http://www.GiftBasketBusiness.com/blog/nfblog
and
http://www.AskTheGiftBasketExpert.com/blog
Thanks for stopping by. Visit again.
Shirley