roydovaston

Hi,

One of our web sites is in the nursery trade and our current setup is to buy stock, store it and sell it via our online store... (baby shop co_uk). Quite a straight forward business and one which we consider has a big oppurtunity to grow. We've been trading since 2009.

Our predicament is the way in which the shop is quite seasonal in terms of sales and to a certain degree we do not feel we're monetising the site as well as maybe we could be in the sense we do not have any adverts or product feeds.

There are certain manufacturers who do not sell to us based on the fact we're an internet business, despite the fact we've got warehousing and offices and it's these brands we'd like to somehow bring onboard through affiliate marketing.

The next problem we have is we'd like to stick to what we know best and continue to work on the basis of stocking and selling the brands & products we currently sell, there's no need to change this because it's profitable! but we'd like to include some extra products through affiliation with virtually no affiliate experience or real affiliate knowledge. We do have an Affiliate Window account and would also be happy to open other accounts if necessary but we're struggling to work out how to incorporate this into the current site which is based on Interspire Shopping Cart.

Some advice at first would be appreicated but secondly if anyone has some real time and a sensible offer to get seriously involved we're open to suggestions...

Thanks

Roy

The Ferryman

Roy

Have you looked at dropshipping for the additional products?
This could probably be integrated with your existing setup, more easily than affiliate feeds.
Also Amazon may be worth investigating.

Regards

Bruce

wb

The only thing with adding affiliate links to your online store is that you run the risk of losing a potential/existing customer permanently to a competitor? I've seen price comparisons on online stores before, most recently on the product pages of KitchenScience.co.uk (although all the products I looked at were almost always cheapest with them), but not affiliate pages on their own.

How hard have you pushed the brands so far to let you get on board? I'm sure being an internet retailer won't be an obstacle as long as you can show that you're able to drive sales and add value to them (as an example, Kiddicare.com appear to have a lot of brands on board looking at their homepage).

Aiden Roberts

I am no expert but I would go with hand picking products from loads of suppliers in your field, the ones who won't supply you may let you sell via affiliate route. This way cuts down on stocking more products but expands your range.

The reason I said hand pick is because I think G has gotten wise to sites full of feeds, pick products, write your own review and reap the rewards with no further investment.

Good Luck

Aiden

__________________
New Domainers How I started in Domains including my success and failures.

The Ferryman

Is it not possible to stock these brands through a wholesaler? Then, after a while, go direct to the brand, show them how much business you are doing through the wholesaler, and see what they say?

Bruce

Aiden Roberts

Good Points

The Ferryman

How about approaching a local retailer and make an arrangement to buy some of your stock through them, for a markup? They could also benefit from the extra turnover, in the form of bigger discounts from suppliers.

Bruce

orchardapple

Hi Roy, in the same boat in this sector as yourself with regards to the major brands, wont stock as we are internet only so we've taken the approach over the past few years to only stock products from a small range of suppliers who will deal with us and focus on being knowledgable on those products rather than large ranges.

Silly question but didn't see you mention it but have you tried to obtain the distributors details of these brands? often far more sucess with those than the brands direct

The Ferryman

Roy

If you allocate a corner of your warehouse for local retail sales, does that make you an independent retailer?

Bruce

roydovaston

Hi,

Thanks for the input so far.

The problem we have with the really big brands is that they do not want to work with internet retailers. The shops that are acceptable to the largest brands are those that have real visitable, glass fronted shops which we do not. Kiddicare have a huge warehouse which is a real showroom opposed to a corner of our warehouse on an industrial estate. Kiddicare are not comparable to us really if i'm being honest as they're a lot larger than us.

Regarding distributors, we've spoken to them but they do tend to take the same stance and on the odd occasion where we've nearly convinced them they've said they'll take the risk for a return of a minimum order with a ridiculous value which we cannot afford.

Amazon's model does not suit due to the really poor interface and high commisions.

I also do not think trying to buy from another shop is the right move for us.

Really i was thinking about monetising the site in other ways, I did initially think affiliate product feeds because it means we can sell products we wouldn't usually have access to without the need to spend out on stock. But i do understand the counter arguement that we could lose the customer completely too.