We get asked by many of our clients how best to sell our products either online or within their store; and at what prices can our products be sold to maximize profit margins.
As there is never any single "easy answer" to marketing any product; below we have given a few basic pointers to what you should look into before purchasing for your store or online business, and where you can find free and helpful marketing resources.
Selling In a Local Retail Store.
Local Retail Sales is a completely different area of marketing over Online Sales, with both commanding specific variables be satisfied before a product can more easily sell.
Local store sales are actually easier to make to a consumer but the prices you command will be down to the local market worth of products similar to those you plan to sell...
The general rule on retail pricing is that you should aim to make at least 100% profit over your delivered costs for the product. But more importantly you must be able to move the product in such numbers that you receive profit in such amounts that the profit you make pays your bills.
For Example:
It would be bad business to sell 6 products a month at 100% profit if the total profit per item is $6.00 as 6 x $6.00 = $36.00 total profit per month.
It would be better business to sell 600 products a month at 50% profit per item, as $3.00 x 600 = $1,800.00 per month.
Pricing A product in your Local Store:
If you plan to sell our products in your store, definitely check out the local "acceptable" Pricing on similar products that you wish to sell.
Window shop your local area's stores to see what similar products are selling for. These stores already know what prices work for what product types in that area so all your acceptable pricing information is out there on your local store shelf.
If you find that the absolute maximum a more natural skin cream product like ours sells for in your area is $6.95 you wouldn't be able to sell our pre-packaged retail type units, but you could still make sales and profit purchasing gallon sizes and re-packaging our bulk products into your own jars and bottles etc.
If you find that the absolute maximum a more natural skin care product like ours sells for in your area is $17.95 you Would be able to more easily sell our pre-packaged retail type units, or increase your profit by purchasing gallon sizes and re-packaging our bulk products into your own containers and selling at below fair market prices to sweep up the greater amount of customers ( a theory which has kept us in business for many years).
Selling Denham's Branded Products in Your Store.
You can actually sell our products under the Denham's Natural Brand for at least double your cost in your store (local market dependent of course) and very few people will go online to find out more information about us.
Dealing with Human Nature
A part of human nature is that when people cannot find something they need they will spend a great deal of effort in searching for it.
If (for example) certain products are not available locally to fill the customers needs, only then will the customer likely jump online to see what is available..
Think to yourself... Dawn Dish Soap.... We love the stuff. They got cute critters on the labels, do all kinds of good things for wildlife protection and their soap does cut through the grease. We all know of Dawn Dish Soap But How many can say that they have been online to look for Dawn Dish Soap... Very few; just because it is so readily available locally.
So getting back to human nature; Why would somebody, place an order online, pay shipping costs, wait a week to be able to hold the stuff in their hands if it is available in a local store? Normally, your customers wouldn't; and That is why most people will never go to the website of products available locally. Which is quite unfortunate as most offer coupons and all kinds of incentives to further boost sales..
But if you LOVE Dawn Dish Soap And it becomes unavailable in your local stores then of course you would go on the hunt for the product. You would pay shipping, and wait for the product to arrive just because you need something that is not available to you otherwise.
So selling our products under our brand name in your local store is possible as our products are comparable in quality to those priced 2-500% higher and sold under other brand names, and if anyone asks, You can point out that you are paying their shipping costs on that product..
However...
At risk of Our Brand Name Market Recognition, it is only fair to tell you that If you choose to custom label product, people would always come to you for products as they would be unaware that we even exist. Customers wouldn't shop down the street at Bert's Botanical Emporium, for the same product because Bert's Botanical Emporium does not sell "Your" named Product - unless you are supplying Bert with product that is..
This broadens the market worth of the product you are buying and selling. By selling under your own name you can sell to other stores "your product" for example; and This is the reason that 98% of all people re-selling our products do so under their own brand name.
Our clients much prefer to custom label our products or order without labels and use their own label, or just purchase products by the gallon and then repackage our products as their own. All for the simple reason that they can command Fair market prices (well over double their cost in most cases) with no questions asked.
Store Vs Internet Sales
It is easier to sell products within a local store for the reason of instant gratification... Somebody walks into your store, they can pick up a product, feel the product, smell the product and walk out of your store with the product.
Even though with proper pricing it is much easier to sell a product in a local store The downside to selling locally is that the product has to be priced right to sell properly and this price tends to be lower than the price you can command online.
Selling Online.
Selling online is much more difficult but the upsides are also much greater.
The first hurdle for a person trying to sell any product online is that - using your words - and how you present yourself and your product - the customer first needs to trust the store with their money. You are after all expecting the person placing their order to buy a product usually before trying it, to wait for a week for the product to be delivered, and if that isn't inconvenience enough we ask customers to pay shipping costs on that product.
A Tough Sell under the best of Circumstances. And so this means a little more work to sell the product...
But if you can satisfy all the prerequisites involved in online sales you can "normally" command higher pricing for the product and make more sales than in a retail store type setting with less overall effort.
Building Trust.
Over the years we have learned that when it comes to the internet - you can put marketing down to 3 things... If it Looks Good people will buy it... If it Is good people will buy it again and if you can strike a balance between price, presentation, and quality - you have got it made.
Learn about what you are selling, and put that information on the product and within your advertising without too much in the way exaggerated claims.
If you can present a clean looking product on a clean looking website, with clean - uncomplicated advertising. You will be able to sell a product online.
Keeping your product rooted in reality.
We see many companies pop-up only to disappear overnight due to the claims they make regarding their product's uses.
Making unreasonable claims is a very short sighted way of selling a product. People try the product and immediately want to return the product, or say bad things about the product. Soon you have no customers a bad reputation and you are out of business, PLUS you will have given back as much as you have earned.
It's a simple but true thing to say that Natural skin care products are just better than 99% of what else is out there - Natural Skin Care will sell itself based on facts stated about the ingredients properties alone. It's a Beautiful Thing...
If you keep things clean, Trust will come with time. Do not make claims online that your product cannot provide or your service cannot back-up. Move orders out quickly, provide good communication if you run into problems filling an order etc.. Make yourself available etc.. All This keeps people coming back and confident in your business practices and products.
Presentation.
If you are operating on the internet (a visual source of advertising) then your initial MUST Have is presentation.
How many times did your Mom tell you to brush your hair before going to school when you were a kid? Again Presentation - (Moms.. :o).. - You have to have good "clean and honest" presentation otherwise people will judge the product in the bottle or jar by the appearance of the bottle or jar And the setting it is sold within.
We have seen companies with wonderful products and bad presentation fail, just because the products they sold online looked "dingy".
We have also seen bad products with excellent presentation make millions - see local superstore.
So.. Get yourself a good camera (or borrow one) and get some "daylight" fluorescent-bulbs, and take pictures of your products with a nice clean backdrop - or if you can afford the luxuries in life - arrange time in a studio for professional photo shots. Taking time with presentation is the Big One as this gets people to initially try your products.
Need help with label design?
Go to your local Super Store or Shopping Mall. Look at the isles of name brand skin care products. Each company on those shelves has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on focus groups to perfect a "Saleable Presentation Package": And these "expensive" package designs are right there! On the shelf! For you to get ideas from... For Free! :o)
Cosmetic packaging should be light and minimalistic, with lots of white, greens and blues. See for yourself... Go to a store and look at the colors, and see what draws your eye to a product and try and incorporate what was drawing you to the product into your own label and packaging.
PROFIT! .. Markup and Pricing.
Some online stores that we are aware of are moving our creams which they are purchasing in 5 gallon pails at $25.00 per 4oz jar, and they are moving 25-50 gallons of this product per month, A Lot of profit (approx 3800.00 per 5 gallon pail). But Giving these companies their due; these companies have spent much time and effort in presentation and marketing of their products and they are still selling within fair market pricing for the types of products they are selling.
Generally you won't have Any problems making 100% profit per item selling our products online, but as We are online and so easily findable we strongly suggest selling our products under your name otherwise you would need to compete with our online manufacturer's pricing (which you can't if you purchase from us).
Marketing products online... What works.
Marketing your products online is tricky, but there are some short-cuts. You can pay for customers to come to your website using pay per click ads on Google, MSN, and Yahoo for example. We currently have over 5000 adds in rotation across these engines and have had so for many years. Pay per Click Works.
What doesn't work.
Most other online marketing strategies Including mass mailing (spam) and Paying Marketing companies for organic or Natural Rankings to advertise your website.
Organic Rankings Can work, but it takes a LOT of effort to do this right and the best you can expect most marketing companies to do for you is to Create pay per click ads for you which you can do yourself but much more cost effectively, and forward you a set of Meta tags which you can make for yourself for free.
Before Signing away your kids college fund to any marketing company (and they will approach you) make sure that All verbal descriptions of service are clearly set in writing and guaranteed against a full refund if those service descriptions have not been met in a certain amount of time, with no caveats... Anything other, and you will likely lose the money you invest with very little and sometimes absolutely no return in benefit.
Learn how the pay per click system works, how to properly target and bid for keywords, use meta tags in your pages, and learn how to target your ads and website to better generate sales conversions and improve natural rankings.
Marketing Advice Resources
If you need really detailed "how-to" information regarding market products online you need to go to the experts.
Marketing Tips.com has been around for Many years and their information products show you how to market practically any product on and off the web. Definitely worth checking out here.
Marketing Tips Free Newsletter archives contain a wealth of information - especially the earlier stuff and they can be found here.
You can also download an outdated though FREE marketing e-Book at SiteSell.com which will give you a good basis on the kinds of things you should be aware of before jumping into online and offline advertising. This FREE e-Book Can be found here.
Be Aware that the companies we mention above may otherwise sell products and services we do not endorse, but we have found that the marketing advice they offer is probably the best out there for beginners and may also offer new ideas to the more seasoned marketers.
Hope this has helped a little, if you have any questions or wish us to expand a little on this subject please feel free to contact us.
Take Care and Thanks For Your Visit
Mark & Lisa Denham
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