Market Your Hair Bow Business
For Serious Hair Bow Business Entrepreneurs...
Where and How to Sell Your Hair Bows
Pros/Cons
The following is a list of various venues you can use to market/sell your
hair bows, and what I have learned through my experience as the pros
and cons of each:
What “Window” Will we See your bows In?
When window shopping, will it be a window to a store off of a sidewalk, or
a window on our computer screen? Will you sell your bows online via
auctions, in an actual store, or neither? Yes… I said neither. There are
many other ways to sell your bows rather than just through online
auctions. And, though auctions are a great, but competitive marketplace,
even better are those you can monopolize in your own town.
From my experience in the hair bow business, I have learned many pros
and cons to all the ways that I have marketed my bows. Where you
market your bows can make a big difference in how much money you
bring in. In this chapter I outline the pros and cons of each marketplace,
and then go into thorough detail about each type of market.
Ebay
Pros
Very low fees/free rent!!
Awesome traffic
Pretty easy set up
Open 24/7 with no employees to pay
Selling Manager
Less likely to get returns
Cons
Very competitive-many others listing same product
Shipping can be a big hassle
Sometimes people can be hard to deal with
Fees can sometimes sneak up on you
Must be computer literate
Bidders often looking to pay less than what its worth
Shipping sometimes discourages bidders
Online auctions are very popular and where you will find the most
exposure to your hair bows. When selling hair bows on eBay, you will
likely ship a bow to a customer in Hong Kong, China and Dallas, Texas
on the same day. The breadth of coverage is unimaginable.
You list your hair bows on eBay by setting up an auction and waiting for it
to end. People who like your hair bows, bid on them, or can even buy it
at a Buy It Now price from you instantly, and you receive an email stating
your item has sold. It’s a great feeling when you are receiving up to 20
emails like this daily. You get to sell your bows at prices that are
reasonable, and pay no booth/building rent or property taxes. And…the
auctions run twenty four hours a day and seven days a week,
automatically. There are no employees for you to pay. How incredible!
You’re making money, and have very little overhead. That is always
good for any business owner.
You may be wondering how to do all of this. Well… here’s your outline.
Register with eBay (this costs nothing)
Pick a userid that conveys something about your business
Open your store (optional) - this is not the only way to succeed with
eBay.
List your bows (eBay provides a very simple step-by-step process for
doing this.
About Ebay
Fees
EBay fees are minimal, but are subject to change so I do not want to give
actual figures in this book. However, I will tell you that the fees are very
low, and you are still capable of making a lot of profit off of either a set of
bows or just one individual bow even after paying eBay fees.
EBay charges a fee for listing the item. This is where you want to be
careful. This is where your fee can be hiked up the most if you do not do
things efficiently.
The best way to list your item without incurring too many fees is to:
Use an auction template (you can get many free templates at www.
auctiva.com) for your description. These allow you to place as many
photos of your item in the auction as you want, and not incur any
additional charges within your listing.
Give your listing a title that will be searched for. This means, when
people go to eBay search and they type in the search box what they are
looking for, what will they type? This needs to be what your title is
focused on. If your item is a princess bottle cap hair bow, don’t include
unnecessary words in your title. (Example: Beautiful, colorful, princess
hair bow) This will not help you get search results. When people go to
search for what they are looking for, they will not type in “beautiful,” or
“colorful.” Instead, if they are searching for a Cinderella princess bow for
their daughter’s Cinderella party, they will type in “Cinderella princess
hair bow.” You want to make sure your title includes as many words that
you can think of that your potential customers may type in the search
engine so they will be directed to your listing.
Be sure to include your one free picture in your listing. This will be the
picture that is displayed in the gallery.
In your item description, which you will do within your auction template,
you should be very specific about your item. You may want to include a
little information about your business (your mission,etc) and you will
share how your bows are made. Anything that will help sell your bow is
good (hand-sewn from quality ribbon, fray-checked, etc…)
DO check the gallery option. At the time this page was written, the
charge for this option is only 35 cents, and it is worth it.
All other listing upgrade options are completely optional, and I have
never found the need for them. They will only incur additional, and in my
opinion, unnecessary fees.
Ebay is an excellent place to market your bows. However, this mega
exposure and automated selling machine is not offered to you for free.
There are costs, but they are minimal. Dealing with trips to the post
office, and the competition may make you think about checking out my
other ideas on where to sell your hair bows.
updated links coming soon... please check back - pages updated DAILY!
Here they are:
Local Catalogue Sales
Hair Bow Parties
Fundraising
School Cheerleading Teams
Youth Soccer/Softball Vendor
Craft Shows/Trade Days
