Posts Tagged ‘trends’
Hot Trends: Halloween 2008 for Wholesalers
Monday, September 15th, 2008
Did you know Halloween is the second most popular holiday (after Christmas) in terms of decorating and celebrating? With so many Halloween enthusiasts young and old alike, the year long anticipation for the holiday culminates in an excellent opportunity to increase revenue through costume and party item sales.
Using statistical information, recent surveys and targeted polling as resources, Halloween-News.com predicts the following Halloween trends for 2008:
Adult Costumes
This years movie to watch for will include Batman: the Dark Night, Indiana Jones and The Terminator. Jack and Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas are always present. You’ll still see a surge of pirate costumes since Capt. Jack Sparrow is still popular. Couples costumes will be big again this year, take a look at some of them at http://www.adulthalloweencostumes.com . The usual horror film bad guys such as the new Michael Meyers costume and mask, Jason from the Friday the 13th series and Freddy from Nightmare on Elm Street are all still popular. Classic movie villains such as Dracula, the Wolfman and the Mummy are always good choices. There is a strong resurgence towards the traditional, macabre, dark and sexy. Theater quality Vampire and Witch costumes, particularly sexy ones will be to die for this year. Elvira style costumes will also be in great demand. Gothic, ghostly apparitions as couples costumes will also make an appearance.
Decorating
People are decorating for Halloween like never before! The focus is on realism for adult parties, dark and spooky with lots of realism. With the availability of low cost consumer-based fog machines, more will be sold this Halloween due to the three day week-end with Halloween falling on a Friday this year. You’ll also see more elaborate yard haunts pop-up on this special night, complete with graveyards, skeletons, ghosts and special effects.
Halloween Parties
Halloween falls on a Friday this year and that means a week-end of partying! That gives us an extended two days to celebrate and throw week-end parties, also allowing for longer times running haunted houses and Halloween charity parties. Whether its a Pack of Pirates, Den of Vampires, Zombies, or Ghostly Apparitions, theme based parties are definitely in! And those that hold these parties will pull-out all the stops when it comes to decorating and the libation.
Tags: adult costumes, adulthalloweencostumes.com, halloween, halloween-news.com, holiday, Hot Trends, party decorations, Product Sourcing, Rebecca Button, seasonal, source, trends
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Hula Girls - The Original Organic Fashionistas
Tuesday, April 15th, 2008
Grab your coconut bras and grass skirts and jump on the organic textiles bandwagon! More and more retailers are beginning to cater to green fashion and it would appear that it’s more than just a fad.
The reason for this? One day not long ago some forward thinking entrepreneurs realized that people will spend bucket loads of money on fashion…so why wouldn’t people do the same for organic clothing as well? They looked around and said to themselves "the only organic clothes available look like burlap sacks!" "Ces’t tres horrible! " they gasped in unison, aghast at the utter disaster of the whole situation. And thus the organic fashion revolution began. (and this obviously happened in France because that’s where the best revolutions take place…at least in fashion, right? and I think Al Gore was there too…)
**note the above story is purely hypothetical in nature and should be regarded as mere imagination on my part as to how this whole thing began…but however it happened, it’s here.
Now companies such as Linda Loudermilk and Figleaves.com are selling$230 bamboo jeans and100% organic cotton undies for $28. While the prices may seem steep there appears to be a market for these items…and it’s growing.
So if you are a would-be entrepreneur looking for an idea, use this as a starting place. The market has scarcely been tapped and if you play your cards right you might just get in on the ground level of a phenomenal retail trend. Plus, with more and more people becoming interested in this niche, someone’s bound to come up with a new way to manufacture these goods for the masses…will it be you?
Tags: eco-fashion, fashion, going green, news, organic, Rebecca Button, retail, Starting a Business, trends
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How to Track Market Tends in Order to Spot New Products Early
Friday, April 4th, 2008
Whether you own a brick-and-mortar store or a website, continuously finding new and interesting products is crucial for any store’s success. Having a fresh line of products helps bring new customers in and keeps current customers coming back. What would be the point of returning to a store if they always carried the same thirty items? If you didn’t like anything the first time, why bother going back? With so much competition it the retail arena, it’s important that product sourcing is thought of as ongoing process, rather than something that is done just a couple times a year.
The key to effective buying is knowing and understanding your store’s industry and its target market. Staying on top of industry trends and the newest products requires time and effort but, as a bonus, it can be fun too!
How to spot new products early
Years ago, before the age of the internet, retailers had a heck of a time finding the latest and greatest products, and relied heavily on distributors and manufacturer’s reps to do the product sourcing for them. Luckily, today things are different. With the internet, you can find everything you need to keep your store stocked with the newest and most innovative items industry manufacturers have to offer.
Industry blogs - One of the best ways to find new products is by checking blog postings related to your industry. Popular bloggers constantly get new product submissions and then sift through them to highlight the ones they think are the most unique. If your product selection tends to be broad like “gadgets”, you will find that there are a ton of popular blogs in this category and the bloggers love to be the first to find new products - making your work even easier. Once you have found several blogs that you like, subscribe to them and make it a daily or weekly habit to skim through the postings - this will be easy as most bloggers usually add a picture of any new product they’re writing about.
Trade shows - Perusing the isles of an industry trade show gives you the opportunity sift through thousands of products in just one or two days. Many smaller manufacturers have booths at trade shows, giving you the chance to carry some unique and hard-to-find merchandise. Finding trade shows to attend is easy; there are plenty of websites, like BizTradeShows.com that let you search trade shows by both industry and location. You’ll be surprised how many trade shows are going on within your industry!
Online searches - Of course, one of the easiest ways to find new products is by searching on Google, Yahoo! or MSN. Take a few minutes to brainstorm a list of possible product searches, like “newest dog toys”, “hottest remote control cars”, etc. and then begin your search. This method often takes a while, as you will be sifting through other retailer sites, press releases, etc. Be sure to keep in mind that a product you see may be new to you but might be years old and at the end of its product life cycle.
Trade websites and publications - Many manufacturers tend to advertise on websites and in publications within their industry. Do some searches for “your industry” and “trade industry” or “your industry” and “trade publications”. Then, take a look at the classifieds and new product listings and take note of any new and interesting products.
Once you get on a regular product sourcing cycle, you’ll find that finding new products gets much easier. You’ll know what types of search terms work, what blogs seem dedicated to introducing new products and what trade magazines are rich with new product advertisements.
Tags: biztradeshos.com, Carrie Hinkel, Product Sourcing, source, sourcing products, spotting trends, tracking market trends, trends
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Anti-Valentine’s Day - Trend Alert
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008
There’s a tradition in my family that for any occasion that warrants a card, especially birthdays, the meaner the card is the better. We often try to out do the other contenders and the result is often big laughs. The more insulting the card, the more you’re loved–we have an understanding.
We’re not the only people who share this fun, albeit unusual, tradition and with Valentine’s Day upon us, it appears that businesses are beginning to cash in on this quirky trend. For example, American Greetings Corp. has an entire category of "Anti-Valentine’s Day" cards.
And they’re not the only ones capitalizing on the anti-Valentine’s Day theme. Other businesses are coming up with unique ways to promote their businesses such as a bowling alley in Cleveland hosting a "Love…Spare Me!" event and clothing and merchandise stores selling t-shirts and stickers promoting "single awareness."
So the next time a popular holiday rolls around, try a variation on the theme…you might even start a new trend!
Tags: Generating More Sales, holiday shopping, Marketing Your Business, Rebecca Button, retail trends, seasonal, trends, valentine's day
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Top Ten Trends Shaping Small Business
Thursday, January 17th, 2008
Last week, I began my annual look at the top ten trends shaping small business. We wrap it up this week with a look at the Top 5.
No. 5: The China syndrome: It has often been said that the 20th Century was the American Century and that the 21st looks to be the Chinese Century. If the past eight years are any indication, that may indeed prove to be true, but whether it is or not, there is no doubt that what is going on half-way around the globe is having, and will continue to have, a profound effect on you and your small business.
Growing at a rate of about 10% per year over the past quarter-century, with a population well over 1 billion and about 20% of the world’s population, China’s capitalist revoltion touches everything:
* High gas prices negatively affecting your business? Blame China. The country’s thirst for oil to fuel its economic expansion means that you should never expect to see gas below $3 a gallon again, ever.
* Worried about global warming? China is no small reason. "China’s pollution problem, like the speed and scale of its rise as an economic power, has shattered all precedents." (NY Times, August 25, 2007.)
* Concerned that your best customers may outsource what you do for them to a cheaper source? Bingo, China. According to the Asia Times last year, "After becoming the world’s workshop for mostly labor-intensive products, China has unveiled a plan to… [challenge india and] create 1,000 large-scale international service-outsourcing enterprises."
Not just governments, the China Factor is something we all we have to learn to deal with.
No. 4: It’s the economy, stupid, part deux: 2008 looks to be a year dominated by the ripple effects of the sub-prime mortgage crisis: A sluggish economy and probably a recession. For the small business, the effects are substantial:
* Falling housing prices, rising interest rates, and increased mortgage defaults means that it will be significantly more difficult for small businesses to tap home equity to fuel startups, growth, or bailouts.
* This credit squeeze also means that getting a regular business loan will be tougher.
* And the overall belt-tightening means that business all around will be more of a challenge.
The good news is that because this is an election year, we just may see Washington try to prop up the economy and lessen the effects of the forces above.
No. 3: Green is the new black: Whether it was Al Gore winning an Oscar and the Nobel Peace Prize or the melting of the polar ice caps, there is no doubt that climate change is a trend not to be ignored. That it holds opportunities for small business is not incidental either.
According to Time Magazine, "Green investment by American venture-capital firms reached $2.6 billion in the first three quarters of 2007, the highest level ever recorded and nearly 50% more than the total for the whole of 2006."
As such, whether you are looking for a hot sector for a new startup, want to do right by the planet, or just want to make employees and customers happy, going is smart business.
No. 2: Working smarter, not harder: Coming in at No. 2 on this list again this year is the changing way in which we work. Increased computer mobility equals increased business mobility.
This also means that there are many new ways to work that are far more viable today than even a few years ago: Flex-time, job-sharing, outsourcing, working from home, working on the road, virtual offices, virtual companies - the options seem to grow with every innovation. IBM now has 73,000 employees in India - up 40% from last year.
In his interesting book, The 4 Hour Work Week, entrepreneur and author Timothy Ferris takes this phenomenon to a whole new level, outsourcing much of his mundane tasks to virtual assistants.
And the No. 1 small business trend for 2008 is …
Networking 2.0: Networking used to be that thing you had to do: Trudging off to the local business mixer in order to exchange business cards and boring chit-chat with people you didn’t know but hoped needed your services anyway.
Welcome to the new world.
Networking 2.0 is altogether, 180 degrees, 100% different. Networking in this new wired world means locating compadres online via a vast network of shared colleagues using sites like LinkedIn, or getting the word out using Facebook, MySpace, or YouTube. Networking today means harnessing the power of the Net to expand your profile e-xponentially.
And that’s this year’s list. Like it? Disagree? Whatever the case, shoot me an email at sstrauss@MrAllBiz.com .
Steven D. Strauss is one of the world’s leading small business experts. His latest book is the Small Business Bible . A lawyer, author, and public speaker, Steve has spoken around the world about entrepreneurship, including at the United Nations, and he has been on CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, The O’Reilly Factor, and many other television and radio shows. If you would like Steve to speak to your group, help your business grow, or if you would like to sign up for his free newsletter, "Small Business Success Secrets!" please visit his website � www.MrAllBiz.com .
Tags: expert advice, Growing Your Business, MrAllBiz.com, small business expert, Steve Strauss, trends
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Premiumization: The Big Trend for 2008
Tuesday, January 8th, 2008
Want bling on your bottled water? This year you will get that and much more, as water makes its market move to premiumization.
When common products proliferate and saturate the market (think tea, coffee and even diamonds) it’s time to come with something new that will make your product stand out again. The answer is premiumization, making the product even more exclusive and desirable. In the case of water, there’s not a lot you can do that hasn’t already been done - from flavorings to rethinking the container, but you can make it posh. Very posh.
That’s what premiumization is all about. The premium version makes your product (or more usually the container) a premium exclusive product. Take Bling H20 - it’s water, yes, but it is also water available in premium bottles studded with Swarovski crystals. It’s a fashion accessory that the beautiful people with more money than cell phones will not pass up.
Water is one of the main products to be premiumized in 2008. Exclusive designer bottles and packaging will be pumped out at a price that will make some of us wonder if the water was gathered by Vestal Virgins in pristine rainforests.
Oh - is that what you really want? Well, we make no promises about the Vestal Virgins, but you will be able to buy water that has never touched the ground in 2008. That’s right, Tasmanian Rain, a new product from down under, is claimed to be collected as it falls. If it’s virgin water you want, trust the Australians to catch it for you.
Premiumization isn’t new, but it is becoming the biggest new thing. Chocolate, coffee and tea have all been premiumized in to fashionable boutique products - think hand made chocolates, flavored teas and coffee and "art house" branding.
You can premiumize anything, goes the new business wisdom - even toilet paper. How? Make it a designer product, move on from the plain white and pastel pretties that most bathrooms display. Toilet paper can be any color at all, from anywhere on the spectrum. If you have shelled out for an exclusive apartment with an even more exclusive bathroom, you will want toilet paper that matches the ambience, won’t you? So you can have black toilet paper if you want it, or any color you fancy. You’ll just have to pay more for it.
How can premiumization help you and your small business? Well, the thing to remember is that you may already be producing a premium product, if you make it yourself in limited numbers. But like bottled water, you can premiumize the packaging - your jewelry in individual origami boxes made from handmade Japanese paper; or on the content - tracking down an exclusive source for one of your ingredients, like Tasmanian Rain.
The trick is to upscale your product in a way that makes it more desirable to those with the money to spend on such items. You want to catch the eyes, hearts and wallets of jaded consumers who have seen it all in one circuit of the local mall.
One new spin on premiumization that looks like it will take off like wildfire is the element of surprise, introduced by a Singapore soft drinks company with its products Anything and Whatever. This clever marketing ploy doesn’t introduce new flavors. It just makes buying a soft drink a bit of an adventure. Prompted by jaded young consumers who say "oh, anything," or "whatever" when asked what flavor they want, the company packaged a variety of soft drinks in cans labeled Anything and Whatever. Consumers don’t actually know what flavor they have until they open the can and take a sip.
It’s the old lucky dip ploy again, but reborn for a new generation that never plunged its collective hand into a bran barrel to pull out a surprise parcel. As this soft drink company proved, the element of surprise can still be a great marketing tool. Could this work with products such as hand made chocolates and other small business products? Why not try it and see.
Brainstorm this idea and see what you can come up with - perhaps a "lucky dip" jewelry buy? The consumer may well enjoy entering into this game with you, and it may be a way to attract the terminally bored and/or those who just can’t decide.
Tags: advice, boosting sales, making products desirable, Marketing, Marketing Your Business, premiumization, Rebecca Button, tips, trends
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Product Life Cycles: How to Keep Picking the Winners
Tuesday, December 4th, 2007
You have your business concept, the product you are selling, suppliers are lined up and you know how you are heading to market. All you have to do now is sell right? While this is the approach of many small and large companies this vision can be a bit short sighted and lead to difficult times down the road. To be competitive and ensure your company is well positioned in the market, you have to know what products your customers want and how that demand changes.
Without ongoing market research and product sourcing, your business will begin to decline. No matter how hot a product is at a given time, it still has a limited life span. Video games are an excellent example of this - what sells at a premium today, may not be worth hardly anything tomorrow. That’s why you need to continually analyze your products and where they are at in their life cycles.
Track how products are performing
In the beginning phases of a product’s life, demand is through the roof while supply is low, so prices are high. It will be difficult for you to get these products in this phase as this is the competition phase where most sellers make their money. Once the competition begins and the supply rises, usually the demand stays the same and prices begin to wane slightly. As demand begins to fade, the prices will fall and the product is in a declining stage. The steepness of the declining stage depends mostly on the product. Demand can rise and fall off for many reasons - a product may be going out of style or out of season, or the competition may overproduce the product and flood the market, driving prices down so low that you can’t compete without a loss. When you observe products moving into the declining stage, you know it’s time to close out with that product and offer something else.
Keep both eyes on the data
Controlling your product offering begins with market research. If you are going to provide a product or service to people or businesses, you have to know what they want. We have all heard the saying about selling freezers to Eskimos and while that is a great story about sales, but what does it say about the market research of the company he or she sold freezers for? What does it say about the business that sent a freezer salesman to the frozen tundra?
Monitor product demand
To understand a product’s demand, you need to analyze the number of people searching for that product, the number of sales it have in a given period of time, and how much it is selling for. In other words, find out the average selling price. Research resources like Hammertap, KeywordDiscovery, Google’s Keyword Tool, or eBay’s Pulse and Marketplace Research can help you find the data you’re looking for and help you evaluate just what all the different numbers mean.
Determine where the demand direction is heading
Understanding the direction a product’s demand is going will enable you to identify where it is in its life cycle. It is critical you stay ahead of this part of the game. You don’t want to be sourcing inventory on a product that is seeing demand and pricing drop off. Make sure you are watching your numbers over time, longer than a month. Track the trend data as long as you can and for products you have seen through a life cycle, then study the life cycle post mortem and utilize the data on similar products you are currently offering. While they may not behave exactly the same, at least you will have some sort of a benchmark to base your offering and your sourcing strategy.
Keeping a close eye or two on your product life cycle and understanding where each product is at on that life line will help you keep your business profitable. While you may be selling so well you could move freezers in the frozen tundra, even that market will change over time. Staying ahead of the market, or at least current with the market, is the key to profitability and success.
Tags: Generating More Sales, larry Slusser, product life cycles, Product Sourcing, retail trends, Sales, shopping trends, source, trends
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When You’re Hot You’re Hot - Knowing What To Sell
Friday, November 9th, 2007
Part of being successful in business is knowing when to listen for the knock of opportunity. The savviest, and most successful, business owners will be able to detect that knocking even when it is faintest. This means being aware of products that will sell well before others, or at least before the market becomes saturated.
Let’s take a look at how you can figure out which products will be hot or are currently hot in order to take advantage of your chance to sell them.
Research Different Locales
Generally speaking, a product will hit hard in an area with a large population and concentration - and then make its way out to less densely populated areas. For brick and mortar businesses located in the central areas of the country, this means paying attention to which products are selling well in New York, LA, and so on.
Business owners who like to court a certain amount of risk may even want to see what is selling in other countries; traditionally, products and services that sell well in the UK, for example, also do well in North America.
Online Trending Tools
If online selling is part of your game, then the good news is that there are a lot of people who want you to succeed, in order to keep using their services. The Pay Per Click strategies employed by so many businesses today are huge money for the search engines, and that means that they are more than willing to develop and supply tools which can help business owners predict what direction to take.
Google’s Trends Tools is one example; it lets you compare and track the success of almost any product that you could imagine, broken down into any category you might wish. Thinking of starting a website to target consumers in France? Well, you can use the Google Trends tool to see what they will be likely to buy!
Be careful though - because sometimes these tools can be a bit distracting.
eBay Seller Tools
Another company that wants to keep their customers coming back, eBay, is making it easier and easier to figure out what products are likely to lead to your success. They have several tools that you can consult to see what has been selling well according to time parameters that you set; week, month, year and so on.
Once you get started on eBay, you will be able to see which products were selling at the best rate at different times of year; very handy when it comes to high-purchase seasons like Christmas!
Keep Your Ear to the Ground
Sometimes something happens in society that just makes it too easy to predict a hot seller. The SARS outbreak in Toronto, Canada, a few years ago led to a massive increase in the purchases of all types of masks. A major movie release, such as The Transformers, will mean a huge increase in sales on certain toys which may not have had much success in previous years.
Smart business owners keep an eye on the developments around them, always thinking about what a news story might lead to in terms of selling opportunities.
It really isn’t very hard to determine what it is that people will buy from you. Products that are selling at a good rate will likely continue to do so, although the time period will depend on the nature of the product (recurring, a one time purchase, and so on).
Staying with the trends means you will be successful in business!
Tags: ebay, Generating More Sales, google trends tools, Leeia Ladipoh, online auctions, product trends, source, trends, what to sell
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Selling Trends: Top Products of 2007
Wednesday, October 17th, 2007
As 2007 comes to a close, people are scouring the stores, the Internet, and their crazy friend’s craft shop for that perfect Christmas gift. This is the time of the year when sellers become psychically tuned to the state of the world and decide what the hot ticket item is for the year. Filling the requests of millions of holiday shoppers is a big task, but if anybody is capable of making consumers happy, resellers can.
What are the most popular products for the 2007 holiday season? Technology seems to be the key.
If it doesn’t plug up, use batteries or have a remote, it’s not worth the time. The most popular products include the following:
1. Apple iPod touch: This has been advertised heavily since it came out. Its “touch-does-everything” process attracts people from every age group. As Christmas approaches, sales and profits come easily. One selling point with the iPod touch is a built-in Safari web browser with built-in wireless access to the web. And since including music is a must for any new technology, another point of sale is immediate access to the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, where consumers can browse and buy the hottest music with a simple tap.
2. Nintendo Wii: People have to have their games. The proliferation of game sites such as Pogo and YahooGames has made that apparent. The Nintendo Wii is both one of the newest and most interactive video game systems available. Selling games along with the system can add hundreds of dollars profit to the mix. What makes the Wii so popular isn’t the advertising that the company spent millions of dollars to produce, but the interactive quality of this system. With a combination of infrared detection and accelerometers, the game controller senses where in space it is, which means that a simple hand gesture can control the game. A cool aspect to add to sales would be the introduction to PlayStation Home, an online community that can take gamers completely out of the real world and stick them in a virtual apartment.
3. Digital camera: The digital camera is facing stiff competition from cell phones, which has only forced camera developers to come up with more things to add to the package. Now they’ve added more storage and movie capabilities, which can almost turn it into a cheaper version of the camcorder. For the family set, there’s a kids’ version that has become a popular gift since it came out last Christmas, the Fisher Price tough digital camera. This camera, which sells at around $60, boasts the same picture quality and storage capacity as the adult version, but includes an impossible-to-break outer shell.
4. Flat-screen HDTV: No one really knows why they want it or how to use it, but they all have to have HDTV, and not just any HDTV, but a flat screen version. For those who don’t like the clunky picture-tube televisions, this is the first alternative. Expect HDTV sales to increase as cable stations across the country switch completely from analog to digital service by 2009.
5. Laptop: Laptops have been around forever, but they are only now becoming affordable enough for the average consumer to consider purchasing. They have the same (and sometimes better!) storage capacity as the larger desktop versions; but with the added benefit of portability, laptops have come into their own. Add to that the fact that many areas now offer free or low-price Wi-Fi Internet access, and it’s easy to convince buyers to go mobile.
6. GPS navigation unit for the car: Getting to a destination has always been half the trouble, especially for stubborn men who don’t want to admit they’re lost. Now, GPS units are included in most luxury cars. But with more exposure are more features and a lower price, the perfect combination for sellers. Now they are becoming more and more portable, with which consumers will be thrilled. At a retail price of $500-$600, even a small markup means big profits.
7. Blu-ray or HD-DVD player: The potential replacement for the DVD player, Blu-ray discs have a lot more storage and a lot more strength. Whether they will stay in the limelight for long depends on what happens over the next few months; but for now, they are in high demand. Movie production companies have already converted some 300 movies to Blu-ray format, and if the trend continues, there will be plenty of selling opportunities for years to come.
8. Disney merchandise: This is really a combination of products, but if you can get the license to sell it, there is no limit to potential profit. The High School Musical movies and Hannah Montana series are both very popular with kids, and the stores are showing that with posters, dolls and games.
9. Cell phones: Everyone has to have a cell phone, and now there’s no reason not to have one. The age of cell phone contracts is long gone. Now that there’s the prepaid option, even those with the worst credit can get a phone (and in many cases a rather nice one at that). The style and price of cell phones varies so much that resellers are free to focus on finding the right phone for the right person.
10. LeapFrog Fly Fusion Pentop Computer: This may be geared for the student, but quite a few adults could get some use out of this newcomer. This pen “translates” handwriting into digital words on the computer. It also has games, translating ability, an MP3 player and some special little surprises. A double market for the same product - can’t beat that!
Tags: Generating More Sales, jennifer ratliff, product trends, Sales, shopping trends, top products of 2007, trends
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Product Sourcing for the Seasons
Friday, September 21st, 2007
Product sourcing is one of the most difficult aspects of running a wholesale business. In order to maximize profit, wholesalers have to provide their customers value and convenience. For seasonal merchandise, this can be a challenge. Demand for it is variable, even with increased interest in holiday memorabilia.
Wholesalers are finding that in order to properly compete with e-commerce sites and online specialty shops, they have to source their products much earlier than in the past. It is true that Christmas comes in July–at least to the wholesaler. It is not uncommon to plan four or five months ahead of the holiday season. Of course, this doesn’t mean that buyers should only buy product during the pre-season window. In fact, merchandise is traditionally cheaper within the first thirty to sixty days after the holiday has passed, so for wholesalers looking for Christmas product, the best time to purchase might just be in January and February, when supplies are being clearanced. Some suppliers offer seasonal merchandise at a discount when purchased out-of-season, so it is best for companies to research that possibility before committing to a full-price purchase.
The worst time to source seasonal products is the thirty days before a holiday. As an example, if a company has not purchased its Halloween supplies before October 1, they will pay twice its intrinsic value. Bricks and mortar stores like Wal-Mart take advantage of this window to raise the price of their seasonal goods.
If sourcing products was as simple as studying the calendar, all wholesalers would meet with the same success selling seasonal merchandise. As it is, buyers must consider seasonal trends. What might be popular one year can fizzle out by the following season, leaving unsold merchandise all but worthless. Wholesalers have to play clairvoyant when trying to determine what, of all the products they can purchase, will be the most popular during the coming season. The goal is to purchase more of the popular product and less of those that have uncertain future. Fortunately, the clairvoyant has some help.
Online marketing firms such as Oneupweb conduct research that is useful to wholesalers and other sellers. Through the holiday season, Oneupweb keeps track of conversion rates, sales and web site traffic. By using Yahoo, MSN or Google, the firm can predict what is currently selling and what might be selling in the future. Sites such as Clickbank can also help wholesalers, because it provides buyers with information on a product’s popularity with other wholesalers, retail sellers or resellers. If others are making a profit from a certain product, chances are that there are still pieces of the profit pie available.
The Internet is a wholesaler’s best friend, not just because many of their sales are generated from e-commerce sites and through product web pages. The Internet helps generate sales for wholesalers in other ways:
* Through pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, which generate impulse buys
* By giving wholesalers a chance to evaluate online catalogs for an idea of what is selling
* By allowing access to Google and Yahoo page rankings, in order to see what sites are making the most in sales
* Through researching email marketing campaigns. By studying the subject of bulk messages, wholesalers can determine what products garner the marketing attention, and thus the largest probability of success.
* By providing resource web pages such as Quantcast , which can track traffic on a company’s website, and simple resources such as search engine rankings, which can show wholesalers what companies have the largest audience.
Tracking seasonal trends doesn’t guarantee a wholesale company vast riches, but by studying the market and sourcing products at the right time, wholesalers have a chance to capitalize on a consumer-market.
Tags: advice, jennifer ratliff, oneupweb, Product Sourcing, product trends, quantcast, seasonal, seasonal trends, source, tips, trends
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