Why wouldn't you buy from my website?

Russinating · 22 Jun 2011 at 13:44

POB said:
Because they are massively more expensive then say:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/VINTAGE-SCRAB...Men_s_Accessories_UK&var=&hash=item6672caf9b6

Plus I can buy a whole brand new box of scrabble for say £12.

She'd earn more working at McDonalds than selling them for £2.98 so *shrugs*. The majority of online shops retail them for £12-17, and the gift shop I've stocked have sold 38 pairs (and sold out of 8 letters) in 3 weeks and their RRP is £16.95.

Maccy said:
Just generally interested, you could be sitting on a gold mine that's all

Well if you have any ideas or just want help with a website or visa versa then drop me an email

. I've already planned for my mum to make the cufflinks if they take off/I get bored of super glue.

bigredshark said:
For what it's worth it would probably put me off, mobile looks too small, fly by night and not reputable. Harsh as it may be towards the people doing it, I want reputable and reliable when I'm buying online, if I was happy with part time and amateur (in the nicest way), I'd be looking on ebay or etsy or similar. That's just me of course, but from my standpoint mobile numbers are big no on commercial sites.

Hmmm. We currently have a Vonage line for our main business and I can add a virtual number to that, although I've never done it before. That'd give me a regional number (ie 0117 for Bristol) for £2.99 a month which hopefully I could forward to my mobile separately.

bigredshark · 22 Jun 2011 at 13:48

Russinating said:
She'd earn more working at McDonalds than selling them for £2.98 so *shrugs*. The majority of online shops retail them for £12-17, and the gift shop I've stocked have sold 38 pairs (and sold out of 8 letters) in 3 weeks and their RRP is £16.95.

Well if you have any ideas or just want help with a website or visa versa then drop me an email . I've already planned for my mum to make the cufflinks if they take off/I get bored of super glue.

Hmmm. We currently have a Vonage line for our main business and I can add a virtual number to that, although I've never done it before. That'd give me a regional number (ie 0117 for Bristol) for £2.99 a month which hopefully I could forward to my mobile separately.

I think it's a good option, I have my extra business numbers as skype in numbers, which is handy as it's £10 or so for 3 months and allows me to grab it on my laptop or phone skype clients or call forward to my mobile. Either way works though...

Russinating · 22 Jun 2011 at 13:53

Nevermind, Vonage's Virtual Numbers don't do what I want (you can't tell what number they've dialled or separate forwarding for each number etc).

How does Skype work, bearing in mind all I'll want to do is forward to my mobile and not take any calls on my PC?

CliffyBiro · 22 Jun 2011 at 13:59

Are these really that popular? :confused:

Russinating · 22 Jun 2011 at 14:32

Define popular. I wouldn't call ~300 searches a month popular, it's more of a niche (or a quirky impulse buy when it comes to the shop sales).

glenimp617 · 22 Jun 2011 at 14:43

ok, you NEED to get customers to your site who have never even heard of scrabble cufflinks. I haven't, but I have some new shirts which have been sitting in the wardrobe for months waiting on cufflinks. I'd simply google cufflinks and have a look around. If your site came up on the first page I'd definately go to it, and perhaps buy some (depending on price+postage).

If someone had heard of them and wanted to buy, searching 'scrabble cufflinks' needs to return your site at 1st or 2nd.

oh, and on the subject of small websites selling the unusual items, our ex neighbours simply paid a web designer to create them a site, contacted someone in India who ships them tatt! and by tatt I do mean tatt (were talking 50p pieces of rubbish). They sell these items for only a few pounds but after a couple of years running the site they have had to move into a HUGE house with double garage and outbuilding (which might I add is done with a small mortgage). It seems to work for some people. The key seems to be volume. Look at those power sellers on ebay with feedback over 50,000!

Russinating · 22 Jun 2011 at 15:07

You're not wrong!

I did try advertising on Facebook pre-Father's Day but their bid system is either a con or wildly inaccurate. I started getting impressions with bids of <.50ppc for the first couple of days (and a few clicks and 1 order I think) but this steadily rose until the required bid to get impressions was >1.50ppc within a few days. I've noticed this when using FB for other services as well. I don't know if they just favour new ads or what but it seems too hard to keep a track of or budget for (and I can't really justify spending £2/3 a click given that a large proportion of those won't buy).

The shops are good but I'm obviously only getting a tiny proportion of their RRP. I also have to stock them with 100 odd cufflinks upfront and it's not the easiest product to stock (certain letters sell out instantly, others will barely ever sell).

One of my other businesses is in weddings and a lot of the bulk orders online have been for groomsmen, so this seems like a natural route. I'm going to be at the two National Wedding Shows this autumn so I may well contact a few of the jewellery/stationary companies that are going to be there and ask if they fancy stocking them for the weekend, or at least taking orders and payments.

Thanks for everyone's input so far

.

nightmare99 · 22 Jun 2011 at 16:21

Nevermind, Vonage's Virtual Numbers don't do what I want (you can't tell what number they've dialled or separate forwarding for each number etc).

How does Skype work, bearing in mind all I'll want to do is forward to my mobile and not take any calls on my PC?

Have a look at voipfone you can have several incoming numbers with line presentation to see which one is ringing, also call logs in the control panel to see which numbers calls are coming in on.