Archive for the ‘selling online’ Category
Thursday, September 26th, 2013
Australians have spent $13.9 billion online in the past year, so that means if you’re a small or medium business owner or you have an idea that you think could fly online, now is the time to do it.
But don’t go in blindly, use these tips from the Sydney Morning Herald to help you.
Photo credit; SEOPlanter on Flickr
1. Look beyond eBay – Many online businesses start off on eBay because the auction site makes it easy to get your toes wet in the online marketplace. But if you’ve found that you have an aptitude for it, don’t just stay stagnant with eBay, push your products out into more places to try and reach as many potential customers as possible.
The best way to do this is by using multiple channels. You can get e-commerce management software to help you utilise a comprehensive range of channels, from Amazon, Trade Me and Facebook to comparison shopping engines like Shopbot.
2. Inventory management -If you are thinking about selling across multiple channels, you do need to maintain careful management of orders and inventory levels so that products are distributed on each channel effectively.
3. Information is king – You should spend the time and effort to publish as much information about your products or services as possible. Smaller retailers often struggle to do this. However, the more information you have and put forward, the easier it is for shoppers to find your product on Google, comparison shopping sites and eBay.
4. If in doubt, get advice - There are several options that retailers can take up to kick-start or grow their online business. Web agencies or independent developers can help retailers get up and running online; some also specialise in different vertical industries.
5. Invest in your own website – For more seasoned eBay sellers, it’s worth considering investing in your own webstore, which lets you ‘take back control’ of the customer experience and control your branding. You will also own the customer data and thus be able to harvest these customer details for marketing purposes.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: Australia, expansion, online business, Sydney Morning Herald, tips
Posted in Australia, business, E-mail & the internet, eBay, Facebook, internet usage, online business, Online Sales, online shopping, online stores, selling online | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 18th, 2013
Loveday fruit and vegetable growers Megan and Mark Whateley shut down their roadside produce stand in the Riverland region of South Australia and have opted instead to make sales online and deliver the produce directly to consumers’ front doors.
The convenience of online purchasing has proved popular for people in metropolitan areas.
Photo credit; Umstwit on Flickr
“We know it’s quite a popular thing in other country areas and in Adelaide, we’re not sure that anyone else has trialled something like this up here, so we’re going to give it a go,” Megan said.
The couple decided to start off slow with just a Facebook page but will soon launch a website to go along with it.
“Friends of ours would buy from us and we thought there was a bit of a need for it and we trialled it with a few people and it’s grown fast,” Megan said.
The service has appealed to the younger demographic including working families.
“It’s just the convenience, working people, busy families, mums, they can just have everything brought to their door,” Megan said.
“It’s what people are looking for, a lot of shopping is done from the comfort of your home, without leaving the house.”
The family grows primarily sweetcorn, broccoli and cabbage for South Australian and interstate markets.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: Australia, business, online, produce, Riverland, South Australia
Posted in Australia, business, E-mail & the internet, Facebook, internet usage, online business, Online Sales, online shopping, online stores, selling online, Success story | No Comments »
Thursday, September 12th, 2013
Businesses.com.au has recruited Managing Director of Cudo and Deals.com.au Adam Schwab to share his insight about dealing with daily deals sites with readers.
For the uninitiated, deal sites are ones like Groupon, LivingSocial, Spreets, Cudo and Scoopon. These sites sell products and services from another business to site visitors and their database of subscribers that they have created. The deal sites advertise their clients’ services or products and collect money for vouchers for buyers to present to a merchant. For products, the deal sites send cash and the address to send the goods to the business that pays a commission for the sales service.
They basically act as a middleman between business and consumer, but they can draw in a lot of business so can be worth it for businesses to deal with.
But merely putting your service on these sites isn’t always a good idea, as businesses.com.au shares the horror story of one salon owner who advertised on one of the daily deal sites only to find she was unable to handle the influx of business it brought her.
With avoiding that kind of pitfall in mind, businesses.com.au invited Schwab to offer a bit of a tutorial on using the deals sites and what to expect.
You can find Schwab’s insights into Australia’s daily deals industry here.
Tags: Australia, business, Cudo, daily deals, groupon, LivingSocial, online, Scoopon, Spreets
Posted in Australia, business, E-mail & the internet, internet usage, online business, Online Sales, online shopping, online stores, selling online | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 10th, 2013
A recent report shows that Australia now leads the world in the pace of online business start-ups. Internet start-ups have increased 200% from 2010 and 2012, four times the pace in the United States and Britain.
With so many new startups popping up, Dynamic Business has released a set of tips for Australians who want to get in on all the startup action:
Manage your time. Whether you’re an early riser or prefer burning the midnight oil, find what works best for you. Running a store can require a lot of time and energy, but it’s important to separate your stress. Don’t let the worries of one job impact another and develop (and stick to) a routine that maximises productivity.
Think easy. Great designs are nice, but if your online store isn’t intuitive for customers, all bets are off. Re-evaluate the functionality of your homepage and make sure customers can get to where they’re trying to go.
Focus on quality. Use high-resolution product images and take the time to write detailed product descriptions from a customer’s perspective. If you want customers to spend the time reading it, spend the time writing it!
Try new forms of marketing. One of the most critical aspects for any online store is marketing, but it can be costly. Content marketing, such as blogging, is a great, low-cost alternative and offers small businesses a big bang for your buck.
Find your inspiration. Ultimately, success often boils down to having the passion and drive to keep things running through the highs and lows. When the going gets tough, remember what inspired you to start your own business. If you’re doing something you love, your passion will shine through and motivate to push on.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: Australia, business, online, startup
Posted in Australia, business, E-mail & the internet, innovation, internet usage, online business, Online Sales, online shopping, online stores, selling online, social media, social networking, technology, Woo Plugins, WooCommerce, WooCommerce Extensions, WooCommerce Themes | No Comments »
Monday, September 9th, 2013
Oh Mabel, an organic bed linen brand and online shop, is run by Sarah Power in Canberra.
Established in 2011, Power aimed to start an online bed linen shop that would stock other brands of linens. When she found that other brands just weren’t up to her standards, she created her own line and hasn’t looked back since.
While the shop is on hiatus at the moment, it will be back up and running soon with a new line of Oh Mabel bed linens.
To read more about this story, click here.
Tags: Australia, bed, business, Canberra, linens, Oh Mabel, online
Posted in Australia, business, online business, Online Sales, online shopping, online stores, selling online, Success story | No Comments »
Friday, September 6th, 2013
Australian Mike Langford quit his IT job and started selling animal onesies online and has never been happier.
For the uninitiated, a onesie is a full body pajama (think what babies often wear) and an animal onesie is a onesie with an animal theme to it (why should babies have all the dress up fun?) By the way, these oneseies are for adults.
Langford started his site www.animalsuits.com.au in July 2012 using WooCommerce and it is now his full-time endeavor.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: animal onesies, Australia, business, online
Posted in Australia, business, internet usage, online business, Online Sales, online shopping, online stores, selling online, WooCommerce, WooCommerce Themes | No Comments »
Thursday, September 5th, 2013
Online clothing swapping site 99Dresses, founded by Nikki Durkin from New South Wales in 2010, has been growing since the day it launched.
The young entrepreneur said that it was a tough go launching the site, but once she got it up and running, she valued the experience and learned a lot from it.
“The most challenging thing is figuring out you’re going to run out of money before you’re going to take off. It’s frustrating; it’s a tough feeling. You feel like you’re drowning a bit, but I got very lucky,” Durkin says.
That luck was in the form of her decision to enter a $10,000 business competition, which she won, followed by her admission to Y Combinator — an organisation that provides seed funding to a select number of start-ups.
To read more on this story, click here or here.
Tags: 99Dresses, Australia, business, New South Wales, Nikki Durkin, online
Posted in Australia, business, innovation, internet usage, online business, Online Sales, online shopping, online stores, selling online, Success story | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 4th, 2013
Pamper Hamper Gifts, which won an Australian Small Business National Winner award in 2012, was established way back in 2004 by Bianca Kristallis.
Based in Sydney, Kristallis had the vision for her business after seeing that hampers were hampered by an inherent tackiness. Believing she could do better and bring the ‘wow factor’ back to hamper gifts, and Pamper Hamper Gifts was born and is still going strong today and winning business awards along the way.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: Australia, award, award winning, business, gifts, hampers, New South Wales, online, Pamper Hamper Gifts, small business award, Sydney
Posted in Australia, awards, business, gift guide, internet usage, online business, Online Sales, online shopping, online stores, selling online, Success story | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 3rd, 2013
Online store Wired and Wonderful, run by Christina Cridland in Perth, imports handmade African gifts, homewares and jewellery.
Established in 2011 after Cridland felt unsatisfied by her career as a journalist, the store has allowed her to spend more time at home with her young son.
Prior to starting her importing, Cridland visited the shop she was doing business with to ensure it was a fair trade workplace.
To read more on this story, click here.
Tags: African, Australia, business, jewelry, online, Perth, Western Australia, Wired and Wonderful
Posted in Australia, business, online business, Online Sales, online shopping, online stores, selling online, Success story | No Comments »
Monday, September 2nd, 2013
Naomi Simson, founder of online gift retailer RedBalloon, says people wanting to start their own business should be detailed and visionaries.
“I usually defer to businessman and entrepreneur Jack Cowin who puts it better than I ever could,” Simson says. “I saw Jack present at the EY Entrepreneurs workshop, where he opened with the quote ‘an entrepreneur needs to be a cross between a microbiologist and an astronomer’. He believes that true entrepreneurs are special in that they can be both detailed and visionary.”
Simson says great entrepreneurs are curious, persistent, are searching for better ways to do things, endlessly positive, focused and have exemplary people skills. While entrepreneurs can be born with these traits, she says some can also be learned.
“Curiosity and positivity are hard things to teach — you either have them or you don’t,” she says. “But characteristics like focus and persistence can be learned, and need to be — without them you’re unlikely to make it as an entrepreneur or business owner.”
Simson attributes the success of her own business to tenacity and hard work. “It was almost three months before RedBalloon made its first sale,” she says. “People used to ask me ‘when were you going to give up?’ but the thought never crossed my mind. I never, ever thought that it would not work and I never contemplated throwing in the towel.”
Simson also says that entrepreneurs don’t get discouraged by failure and, in fact, learn from it to make their next endeavor successful.
To read more on this story, click
here.
Tags: Australia, business, gifts, online, Red Balloon
Posted in Australia, business, internet usage, online business, Online Sales, online stores, selling online, Success story | No Comments »
