As ecommerce competition heats up, great product sourcing skills are the name of the game for online success.

While Marketing skills and knowing how to sell your products online are also of paramount importance, without in-demand products to sell,your business won’t get off the ground or thrive.

The best marketing in the world won’t sell a product that people don’t want.

Fortunately, there are millions of products to sell online, with new products coming into the marketplace every day.

Product innovation is moving at a more rapid pace than ever before in history. And global reach has opened up untapped pools of buyers hungry for products in marketplaces that are saturated here in the U.S.

In this three-part series, I’m going to explain how Amazon customers shop, give you tips and strategies for sourcing great products to sell on Amazon and options for places to source them.

In part-one we’ll look at “Understanding the Amazon Customer”.

Understanding the Amazon Customer

With 44% year-over-year retail growth, Amazon is known for attracting the web’s best customers.  Amazon’s customers tend to have a higher household income and more education than eBay or Walmart customers.

Amazon’s Prime customers (as stated by Amazon) are their best shoppers, coming back to shop at least once a month. (See chart below.)

Quantcast Data on Amazon shoppers also reveals that:

• 29% earn between $60-$100K per year
• 31% make over 100K per year
• 63% have no children
• 16% are “Amazon Addicts”

Amazon Traffic Frquency

In fact, a  recent report from CBS Money Watch explains the impact that demographics have on buying habits. Shoppers under age 34 make up half Walmart’s customer base.

Fewer Walmart buyers went to college or earn over $100,000 per year compared with Amazon’s customers. 48% of Walmart’s young customer base have children. (Kid costs take a bite out of your discretionary spending.  I know, because I’m raising two. )

These are all factors that play into c0nsumer’s disposable income and the need to find a bargain.

Are You Sourcing for the Amazon Buyer?

Once you understand who your Amazon buyer is, you’ll be in a position to figure out what they want to buy.

The specific products they’ll buy in each category are different. But there are common traits that apply to the products that Amazon buyers want to  buy.

Amazon buyers don’t want cheap, low quality products. They are looking for quality products and are willing to pay for it.

They are not looking for rock bottom prices. Amazon buyers, especially prime customers are willing to pay more for quality as well as  the trust, safety and confidence that comes with buying from Amazon

Amazon buyers are looking for the “best in category.” When a buyer goes to Amazon, they aren’t looking for the cheapest price.  They’re expecting to find high-quality products including those that are the best in their category. The high-end, higher-ticket items.

Amazon buyers are early adopters. They buy leading-edge products. High-income, well-read consumers with disposable income know what’s new, what’s the best, what’s up and coming in the market.

They replay their existing products with more frequency. This type of buyer is more likely to replace their cameras with the latest and greatest, buy the “it” toys for their kids, and shop for the latest fashions. They come to Amazon expecting to see the latest models, styles and colors.

What this means is that the products you source to sell on Amazon must appeal to the Amazon buyer.

To summarize, what are Amazon buyers looking for?

• Quality
• Selection
• Leading-edge
• Better products

So how do you identify these  in-demand products that Amazon buyers are shopping for? We’ll talk about that in my next blog post…

There is one other aspect of world-class sourcing that we need to talk about here.

And that’s the age-old struggle for successful retailers. It’s understanding that you are not your customer.

You both have different wants, needs, values and very possibly, different bank accounts.

Source for Your Customer, not for Yourself

In the light of our recent recession, most everyone has felt a financial pinch.

According to the financial reports, the only group that didn’t feel the pinch quite so much are those with incomes of 100K+ per year. Their spending stayed about the same, and they were the first to start spending more after as soon as the recession started to ease up.

If you’re a small business owner, you’ve likely felt the financial pinch as well.  And your own disposable income may have taken a hit.

But even if your income has taken a hit, you still have to get into the Product Sourcing Mindset and source for the Amazon customer.

Don’t get into the “I must find cheap products to bring to the Amazon marketplace and price them as low as possible.” mentality.

eBay’s John Donohoe recently said that all buyers care about is price. Nothing could be further from the truth.

If that was the case, Amazon.com, Nordstrom, and Apple would all be out of business. Instead their sales are surging.

The money is still there. And it’s being spent on Amazon.

But to grab that customer spend, you have to supply the Amazon marketplace with they type of products their customers are looking for…

So take a look at your “Product Sourcing Mindset”r.  If things have been less than rosey for your business  these past couple years.  Maybe you’ve been selling in another marketplace where low prices are the name of the game…

You can’t bring that mentality into your Amazon sourcing. It will only hurt  your sales and your profits in the long run.

Give it some thought until my next blog post this week!

-Lisa

Are YOU Ready to Join the Amazon Revolution?

If you haven’t yet integrated Amazon into your business model, now is the time.

Learn  about the revolution that’s happening on Amazon…

Think Halloween products only sell in the month’s before October 31st? Not if you sell online!

In the online world, Halloween themed products sell all year long.

Whether for kid’s dress-up play, a themed costume party, a local school drama club production or the Halloween collectibles shopper, the only place you can off-season Halloween products is online.

Seasonal Halloween sales are a $7 billion dollar industry, reports  the National Retail Federation.

But off-season sales are strong all year long.

According to Terapeak Research, more than $2 million dollars worth of Halloween products were sold on eBay between Nov 1, 2010 and January 31, 2011.

Another 1.9 million in Halloween product sales happened on eBay between Feb 1, 2011 and April 30th.

And because most people don’t think about selling Halloween themed products throughout the year, if you’re one of the lucky sellers in this niche, you can have a strong foothold in this market.

Sourcing Halloween Products at Rock Bottom Prices

So what’s the best way to source great inventory for this multi-billion dollar niche?

Get started on Halloween of course!

October 31st (and often before) marks the date that offline retailers start taking deep discounts on their Halloween products. Unlike online merchants, brick-and-mortar stores can’t display Halloween merchandise all year long.

Beginning the week before Halloween and continuing until the last scary pumpkin is sold off the shelf, scour your local stores for great deals on Halloween products.

Here is a list of products to look for:

• Kids costumes
• Adult costumes
• Face makeup
• Wigs
• Dept 56 and other collectible Halloween houses

• Halloween nutcrackers
• Halloween candy
• Pet costumes
• Large/life sized Halloween decor (used for drama productions, set designs, themed parties)

Even Halloween candy! Already bags of Autumn Mix candy are selling on eBay for up to six times what you can buy them  for at local stores.  (One bag sold for $45!)

And don’t forget:

• Limited edition Halloween themed items

• Halloween themed jewelry

• Halloween bedding and towels

• Halloween colored light bulbs

• Halloween CDs and DVDs

Even Halloween board games!

If you’re looking for ideas about what to source, head over to eBay or Amazon and using the keyword “halloween” do some research and see what’s selling!  You’ll be surprised at the plethora of different products that make up this $7 billion dollar niche.

Then, armed with Terapeak for eBay and FBAScout for Amazon, head to your local store and scout the deals, looking for items that are selling for pennies on the dollar.  Don’t delay though, the best deals sell out early… so get some sourcing time in today.

And don’t forget about wholesale suppliers, if you find this is a niche you like, go to a trade show or do locate a wholesale supplier so that you can source and sell Halloween themed inventory all year long!

PS: Looking for a hot niche? Think Zombies.  This new MSNBC article reveals that Zombie related product sales are worth over $5 billion dollars to the economy.

So don’t less this multi-billion dollar opportunity pass you by! The products make be scary, but the profits are a treat!

Happy Halloween!

-Lisa

PS: Just two days left on the 3-pay option for my brand new series “How to Integrate Amazon Into Your Business Model”.  If you haven’t yet joined the Amazon Revolution, find out why you should today.

Recently I attended (and spoke at) the Amazon Seller’s Conference (SCOE) here in Seattle, WA.

During the 4-day event, I had the opportunity attend “Amazon Day”, a full day of sessions led by Amazon team members.

What I heard and saw in these session will have a major impact on ecommerce and for online sellers moving forward -

Amazon has long offered opportunities for 3rd party online sellers, but to say they are taking it up a level (or 3) would be an understatement.

Amazon already offers 3rd party online sellers a distinct selling advantage in its represented categories over many marketplaces (including FBA (the option to have Amazon handle your shipping and customer service) as well as  access to their best “Prime” customers.

And with the announcements of their new global selling systems, along with focus on helping even the smallest of businesses scale… paired with expansion goals for 3rd party merchants, there is no doubt that the opportunities are huge…

It’s Not About the “Next Hot Thing” It’s About Business

Recently, I detailed 7 Ways to Build Your Online Empire with Amazon.  Seven ways that online businesses can  leverage the massive growth of Amazon to build their own online businesses. In my post, I said that I was only scratching the surface of what lies ahead for your business and integration with Amazon.com…

Last week, these opportunities became bigger and more far reaching.

In fact,  if your business doesn’t have some kind of a  presence on Amazon.com, you’ll soon be at a distinct disadvantage.

I say this not because Amazon is “hot and cool” or because it’s the latest and greatest “sexy” place to sell.

But because as an ecommerce business strategist, I’m constantly scouting the next channels of growth.

For online sellers, Amazon is that channel.

Amazon Reveals Opportunities for 3rd Party Merchants at their Yearly Conference

While attending the 2011 Amazon Sellers Conference (SCOE)  here in Seattle. I was thrilled to speak to a standing room only crowd on the topic of  “How to Find Hot Product Trends and Sell the Products Amazon Buyers Want”.

Day 1 of the conference however, was “Amazon Day” – a full day of Amazon led sessions that revealed a tremendous amount about where the company stands in relation to 3rd party merchants, global sales expansion and selling digital content.

Much of what you’re about to read came directly from my conversations with the Amazon team members at the conference.  This is hot off the presses – news that you wont’ find anywhere else!

6 Powerful Reasons to Integrate Amazon into Your Business Model

Amazon’s goal is to be the place where customers can find, discover and buy anything online. And they have the systems and infrastructure in place to accomplish this. According to Amazon, currently 1/3 of all  product sales are driven by 3rd party merchants. And that number will only increase.

Amazon is looking to 3rd party merchants to bring variety and selection to the marketplace.

Scale with Amazon’s technology and systems. Amazon offers technologies, systems and automation to help small sellers scale their business. One of the biggest pain points for small business owners trying to scale their business  is handling the operations of running the business. Inventory storage, shipping and customer service all take a big bite out of an online business owner’s most precious asset… time.

Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) removes this barrier. Even smaller sellers with limited inventory can easily an inexpensively ramp up their inventory by having Amazon store and ship their products and provide world class customer service on their behalf.

In fact at the recent Amazon Seller’s Conference, the majority of Amazon/eBay sellers were using Amazon FBA to fulfill both their Amazon and eBay shipments.

Automated global commerce for 3rd party merchants. Even Amazon’s focus on global commerce includes 3rd party sellers and makes it easy for them to transact commerce in the soon-to-be trillion dollar global commerce marketplace.

Amazon just announced that 3rd party FBA sellers can now list, sell, and manage orders on all of Amazon’s European Marketplaces (UK, Germany, France and Italy)  through one central seller dashboard. And the biggest benefit? The orders can now be fulfilled in Europe through Amazon’s European Fulfillment Network (EFN).

Amazon stated in the global selling session that they are dedicated to solving the cross border challenges for sellers and customers.

This is huge because it now means that small-medium sized businesses can sell into the lucrative and rapidly growing European marketplace without having to ship each order individually.

Yet, another example of the way Amazon is  putting into place systems and technologies that will serve to grow the businesses of 3rd party sellers.

Access to high-quality customers you won’t find elsewhere. Amazon customers are some of the best in the world. Amazon’s Prime customers come back to shop at least once a month. And while there is a subsection of customers who shop on Amazon, eBay and the Internet, there are millions of customers who turn only to Amazon.com for their online purchases.  Without a presence there, you’ll miss out on a substantial part of the buying public.

Opportunities to branch into new markets. As ecommerce gets more competitive, the profits go to sellers who are knowledgeable in their categories.  Amazon category managers are looking for new products to offer their customers. With shipping, storing and customer service off you plate (when using FBA) you can focus more of your energy on sourcing products in new markets. A win/win situation for your business!

Because of the way business runs on Amazon, you can move in and out of products and categories quickly and easily.

And all the knowledge you acquire in your category can also be applied across other sales channels!

Make more money with existing inventory. If you have a good thing going on eBay and/or your own website, by bringing that inventory to the Amazon marketplace, you’ll make more because of Amazon’s rapid ecommerce growth.

When you sell in-demand products on Amazon, you have the potential to turn it over quickly, increasing your sales volumes and profits.  Some of the clients I work with sell up to 10 times more on Amazon than they do from their own website or in other marketplaces.

From a strategic profits standpoint, you can clearly see why you want to have a presence on Amazon.

Amazon has the systems, infrastructure, and a sales channel to benefit 3rd party merchants in place right now.  They are not in the planning stages, this is not ‘vaporware’ (as we say in the software industry).

And even with 46% year-over-year growth, Amazon states that their projected growth is still in its infancy. The time to ride a wave is from the beginning.

You want to get a firm hold in the Amazon marketplace now. (Not when the rest of the world wakes up and sees the opportunity.)

Seeing Value in the Opportunity

One of the reasons that online businesses don’t thrive is that people fail to see the value in the opportunities when they appear.

As loyal readers of my blog, I want to be clear – this is your opportunity.  But the time to act is now.  Don’t wait.

You can get started on Amazon today with one product and list it for free.

Just like Amazon founder Jeff Bezos who started the company with a box of books in the basement of his Seattle home, you too can start with one product and expand/build your online empire with Amazon.

Watch me spot and research a hot niche market in under 10 minutes.

The clues that lead to finding a profitable niche market for your physical product, info product or affiliate marketing business are everywhere!

You can repeat this simple process and find new, profitable niche markets on a regular basis!

If you’re new to ecommerce and online business, you might know Amazon.com to be the ‘ecommerce darling’ of the moment.

But Amazon is one of the oldest and largest companies on the internet and has built an empire that offers multiple opportunities for entrepreneurial businesses to make money online.

Whether you sell physical products, digital products, are an affiliate marketer, an author, speaker, consultant or expert in your field, Amazon has several avenues for you to market your products.

It also offers an unparalleled opportunity for you to use the site to gain visibility for your business.

In fact done the right way, you can use the site to build your own “Amazon Empire”.

To have a  vision of what Amazon can do for your business, you’ll want to start right with the slide presentation below.

Consulting firm faberNovel recently put together a slide show on Amazon’s business model and strategy that will shock, surprise and amaze you.

Filled with insights that you can apply to your own business the “Amazon’s Hidden Empire” preso is a must-watch for all smart, savvy entrepreneurs.

So how can you build your own Amazon Empire?

By implementing multiple streams of Amazon income, including:

Generate physical products sales through the Amazon Marketplace, Amazon Pro-Merchant Account or through an Amazon Web-Store

Create and sell Print-on-Demand books and DVDs  using Amazon Create Space. Publish a book to establish credibility in your niche. Create a “How-To” DVD to merchandise with your products.

Leverage the 300%+ growth in digital product sales projected by 2015 by publishing through Amazon Kindle Publishing

Harness the power of affiliate sales of millions of products with the Amazon Associates Program

Host your webinars, teleseminars and digital courses in the Amazon Cloud (and saving hundreds or thousands a year in traditional hosting/bandwidth fees in the process)

Tap into Amazon’s massive database of customers, including their best “Prime” customers who come back to shop on Amazon at least once a month. You’ll have access to customers you couldn’t get any other way

Give your business visibility on one of the highest trafficked, most respected sites on the web. A place where people come ready to buy products and information

What makes Amazon unique is that it’s the ONLY online marketplace of its caliber that offers opportunities to such a broad spectrum of business owners.

Whether you’re an author, information marketer or physical product seller (or all three!) Amazon has a program that you can use to build your online empire!

What are your questions about building your empire on Amazon?

Tell me below!

Let’s get this week off to a great start!

Today I’m going to share with you how I achieved a PAGE 1 Google ranking over a weekend…

(Actually, it’s TWO “Page 1′s”, but I’ll get to that in a moment.)

Is it really possible to drive targeted traffic to your store or website by creating a simple video that ties into a CURRENT event?

The answer is yes!

I recently posted an article at my blog explaining how to capitalize on increased Earth Day Traffic and use it to drive traffic to eco-friendly products in your store.

Last week I decided to take that exact SAME principle and apply it to another big current event – The Royal Wedding.

Because Kate Middleton’s parents run a successful ecommerce website, I went to their e-tail site and  created a 13 minute educational video critique of their site.

The results from that video have been nothing less than SPECTACULAR.

And I wanted to share them with you… because YOU can apply this same method to your business!

How I Achieved TWO Page 1 Rankings with One Video… (and a whole lot more)!

On Friday morning 4/29/2011 I created an exclusive video titled:

“Kate Middleton Family Business Party Pieces Ecommerce Website Review“

I posted the video on YouTube on Friday afternoon 4/29/2011.

If you haven’t viewed the video yet, you won’t want to miss it!  Watch it here.

By Sunday afternoon 5/1, a mere 48 HOURS later, these are the results I’d achieved from posting ONE video:

1. The video has a PAGE 1 ranking on Google (search terms: middleton family business) in the 8th spot
2. The video has received over 1400 views on my YouTube channel
3. I received a private invitation from YouTube to submit this video to their “Individual Video Partnership” program for ad revenue share
4. Traffic from YouTube to my website was up 236%
5. I’ve added 321 new subscribers to my newsletter (Welcome!)
6. It is the #1 RANKED video on YouTube for the keywords “middleton family business”.

… ABOVE the CNN Money video on the Middleton family business

… ABOVE the Fox News video on their family business

Not bad for 48 hours, eh?

Two Page 1 Rankings for a High-Quality Content Video Tied to a Current Event

According to the YouTube Individual Video Partnership program documentation, it can take up to two weeks for a video to be reviewed and accepted into the program.

So I was very pleased on Monday morning to see that my video had been accepted into the program less than 16 hours later and Google Ads are being displayed on both the Kate Middleton Family Business Video and on my YouTube Channel on the right hand side of the video.

Curious to see the stats on my Adsense account, I found that in just a few hours the Google Adsense ads had received:

• 502 impressions
• Had a .80% click-through rate
• And I’ve made $5.40 in rev share from this video in about 3 hours.

As a side note, I’ve not used Adsense before, so I first needed to get my Adsense account approved.  I applied and was approved on Sunday.

Before I applied for both the YouTube Individual Video Partnership and Adsense, I spent about 2 hours researching the YouTube & Google Help docs as well as the forums to make sure that I knew exactly how to apply to the programs correctly.

I spent time reading through the case studies and questions other people had posted, so that everything was in order when I applied. (Even then, the application and approval process was a bit confusing.)

Putting in the time upfront to do your research and due diligence pays off.

There’s a lot more to share about what my thought process was behind making this video and how you can apply the same approach to your business.

I’m considering doing an upcoming teleseminar on it to share what I did.

But for now, check out the Party Pieces website critique video to see how I put  it together.

And in addition to learning how to market via YouTube, you’ll also learn 18 tips on how to better sell your products online.

It’s  an excellent 13 minute video chock full of tips and insights into what needs to go on a successful ecommerce website (or eBay listing for that matter).
Yours in Success,
Lisa

Lisa Suttora
Marketing. Strategy. Mindset.
Your success is the sum of the actions you take daily.®

One of the best ways to market a product or service is to build a promotion around a holiday, day of observation or current event!

Promotions tied to an event or holiday generate buzz, provide great search engine content by tapping into existing media articles about the holiday/event and give you the opportunity to get your creative marketing juices flowing!

You might only think that there are a few of the ‘big name’  holidays to tap into – Back-to-School, Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day… and that “little” upcoming event on December 25th, Christmas.

But in fact there are hundreds of holidays, events and observations that happen each year that you can build a promotion around – events that you may not know exist (or have never thought of building a promotion around).

Did You Know?

In October 2010, the world was flooded with a plethora of promotions for 10/10/10  (October 10, 2010) – a date that happens once every 100 years.

But in addition to that centennial event, October is the month that boasts such holidays as:

• National Cake Decorating Day
• Universal Music Day
  
• Columbus Day
• Canadian Thanksgiving Day

If you sell cake pans, National Cake Decorating Day is the perfect day to run a promotion.

Sell musical instruments, market and promote your event around Universal Music Day.

No matter what day of the month it is, there’s an event or date to build a promotion around!

How to Creative an Event Based Promotion

The best thing about event based promotions is they give you a LOT of room for creativity.

In fact this is the reason that I love this strategy – it allows you to do something different, unique, creative with your marketing!

But there’s something even more import… your customers love it too.

Event based promotions work!

People love shopping during promotions tied to events. It’s more  fun, people get into it and it’s much more engaging than the humdrum “Save 20% until Thursday” promotion. (yawn)

If you sell baking supplies, cooking products, recipe books, birthday themed products, running a National Cake Decorating Day promotion will generate added excitement for the baking enthusiast who visits your site.

Event based promotions are always a great way to promote your sales in a niche!

In November, National Real Jewelry Month is a perfect way to promote your pre-Christmas jewelry gifts.  Oktoberfest holds tons of fall merchandising possibilities. And “Have a Bad Day” Day – November 19th… well everyone deserves a discount or special promotion on this kind of day.

September is baby safety month and a perfect time to run promotions and events for your baby products. Craft sellers could build some awesome promotions for Sewing Machine Day, June 13th.

Not to mention events like the Academy Awards, the opening of baseball season and more! There are thousands of them to choose from!

Now you may be wondering where to go to find out about all these events/holidays/observations. The folks here at Holiday Insights.have done a great job of putting together a comprehensive list by month. You can also Google the keywords “events celebrations calendar” or “national day” or “observations daily”

Look at the Promotion Possibilities for October!

Take a look at all these events you can promote around in October! (Courtesy of the folks at Holiday Insights)

October Observations by Month:

• Adopt a Shelter Dog Month
• American Pharmacist Month
• Apple Jack Month
• Awareness Month
• Breast Cancer Awareness Month
• Clergy Appreciation Month
• Computer Learning Month
• Cookie Month
• Domestic Violence Awareness Month
• Eat Country Ham Month
• International Drum Month
• Lupus Awareness Month
• National Diabetes Month
• National Pizza Month
• National Vegetarian Month
• National Popcorn Popping Month
• Sarcastic Month
• Seafood Month

October Weekly Celebrations:

• Week 1 Get Organized Week
• Week 1 Customer Service Week
• Week 2 Fire Prevention Week
• Week 2 Pet Peeve Week
• Week 3 Pastoral Care Week

October Observations by Date

1  World Vegetarian Day

2  International Frugal Fun Day – first Saturday of the month

2  National Custodial Worker Day

2   Name Your Car Day

3 Oktoberfest in Germany ends, date varies

3  Techies Day

3  Virus Appreciation Day

4  National Golf Day

4  National Frappe Day

5  Do Something Nice Day

5  World Teacher’s Day

6  Come and Take it Day

6  Mad Hatter Day

6  Physician Assistant Day

7  Bald and Free Day

7  World Smile Day

8  American Touch Tag Day

8  World Egg Day -  second Friday of the month

9  Curious Events Day

9  Fire Prevention Day

9  Leif Erikson Day

9  Moldy Cheese Day

10 National Angel Food Cake Day

11 Columbus Day – second Monday of month

11 It’s My Party Day

11 Take Your Teddy Bear to Work Day

12 Cookbook Launch Day

12 Old Farmer’s Day

12 Moment of Frustration Day

13 Emergency Nurses Day- date varies

13 International Skeptics Day

14 Be Bald and Free Day

14 National Dessert Day – take an extra helping, or two

15 White Cane Safety Day

16 Bosses Day

16 Dictionary Day

16 International Newspaper Carrier Day -date varies each year

16  Sweetest Day Third Saturday of month

17 Wear Something Gaudy Day

18 No Beard Day

19 Evaluate Your Life Day

20 Brandied Fruit Day

21 Babbling Day

21 Count Your Buttons Day

21 National Pumpkin Cheesecake Day find a recipe, too.

22 National Nut Day

23 Make a Difference Day-  fourth Saturday of the month, an opportunity for neighbors to help neighbors.

23 National Mole Day

23 Tv Talk Show Host Day

24  Mother-In-Law Day – fourth Sunday in October

24 National Bologna Day

24 United Nations Day

25 Punk for a Day Day

25 World Pasta Day

26 National Mincemeat Day

27 National Tell a Story Day – in Scotland and the U.K.

27 Navy Day

28 Plush Animal Lover’s Day

29Frankenstein Friday – last Friday in October

29 Hermit Day

29 National Frankenstein Day

30 National Candy Corn Day

30 Mischief Night

31 Carve a Pumpkin Day – no surprise here

31 Halloween

31 Increase Your Psychic Powers Day

And this is just for the month of October!

Now it’s your turn! What event/holiday/observation are you going to build a promotion around this month?  Let me know below…

-Lisa

Last week Overstock.com launched a new online marketplace “The Main Street Store” designed to attract small U.S. businesses, including minority and women owned businesses who manufacture or hand-craft their own products.

Upon learning about this marketplace I immediately liked what I saw.

My enthusiasm for this marketplace starts with the the Main Street Store mission statement issued Overstock’s CEO Patrick Byrne:

The ‘Main Street Revolution’ is a partnership between Overstock.com and small and minority-owned business owners across the United States. This initiative creates a national marketing and distribution channel for producers of consumer products by providing the opportunity to sell their products on Overstock.com and O.biz (our B2B website).

It is designed to increase the visibility of small and minority-owned businesses which currently lack exposure to national markets.

By joining our network these small businesses can reduce their supply chain costs, and open their products to a mass audience. This represents a grand opportunity for producers and consumers nationwide to participate and contribute to the national recovery effort.

There is a huge need for this type of “shopping local” marketplace in the ecommerce landscape.

And the potential for groundswell support is massive.

Much like eBay in the early days, the human factor behind what Overstock calls the “Mainstreet Revolution” has the potential to boost sales for millions of U.S. based businesses.

I once read this quote from CEO Patrick Byrne:

We tried to run it like we were building an old-fashioned billion-dollar business, not a New Economy billion-dollar business. We run the company as if there is no public market, and we are just trying to build real value.

They are providing value with the Main Street Store.  Note: In January 2010, the National Retail Federation ranked the company #2 in the U.S. for best customer service.

How to Get to Main Street

The Main Street Store can be accessed by clicking the See More tab on the main navigation bar. As the site and selection grow, I hope that the Main Street Store will be more prominently featured on the home page.

The Main Street Store can be accessed by clicking the "See More" tab on the main navigation bar.

Because the site has recently been launched, there are currently only a few thousand products listed on the site, and that’s where you come in.

Requirements to  List Products on the Main Street Store

I emailed Overstock to get the details for participation in Main Street Store and immediately heard back from  Overstock’s Aminah West on  the details of the program.

Main Street Store is open to:

• Small, U.S. based businesses with fewer than 25 employees
• Inventory can be resale products or products that you make.
• You must be set up as a legal business entity. If you need help setting your business up as a legal business, you can find out how to do that here.
• Ship via a traceable carrier like UPS, FedEx or USPS
• Provide product images to Overstocks’ specifications
• Use Overstocks inventory management tools
• Products must be made in the USA.  There are some exceptions for specialty and niche items. Resellers or distributors are not allowed on the Main Street Store.

For the full list of requirements, contact  mainstreet@overstock.com

Currently, Main Store Store offers the ability to list in the following categories:

• Jewelry
• Clothing
• Gourmet Food
• Gift Baskets
• Health & Beauty
• Home Improvement

• Pet Supplies
• Bath
• Home Decor
• Baby
• Luggage & Bags

More categories will be opening up soon.

More and more we’re seeing ecommerce marketplaces come together based on values. On the opposite end of the big box retailers, people want to shop with e-tailers who share a common vision, value and goals. As a society, we are voting with our wallet more than ever before. It’s for this reason that I hope to see the Main Street Store become a big success.

For complete details on the program, how to get started, product pay out, sales management tools, marketing tools and more, contact mainstreet@overstock.com

-Lisa

The only thing constant about entrepreneurship is change. If you’re not one for change, prefer the status quo and like to keep things “as is” for was long as possible, then being the CEO of your own business is probably not for you. Nothing will kill your online business faster than stagnation.

Keeping your business current  is the name of the game. Although this doesn’t mean “chasing rabbits” or having ‘bright shiny object syndrome”.  Nor does it mean dumping your core values.

A current  business  means your market + your products + your marketing + YOU = are in tune, fresh and relevant in your niche!

Unfortunately, even the most well-intentioned entrepreneurs can let things get stale. Reinventing doesn’t mean starting from scratch. It means updating, refreshing and sometimes retooling.

So how do you know if your business is ready to be reinvented? Here are 7 business and personal signs that tell you it’s time!

7 Signs It’s Time to Reinvent Your Online Business

1. You’re doing things exactly the same way you did a six-months, a year, two years ago or more. Things happen fast on the Internet. (That’s one of the things I love about it the most.) Everyday brings a new tool, technology, strategy, opportunity. Your customers change. The market changes. If you’re doing business in exactly the same manner you were 6 months ago, your business is losing ground. What’s one new thing you’ve implemented in your business this month?

2. What your customers want to buy from you has changed, but your offerings haven’t. Can you imagine going to your favorite store week-after-week and seeing the same products displayed the same way? It wouldn’t take long for you to say “What’s the point of coming here anymore, everything is always the same?”  What new things are you offering your customers? Are you continually bringing exciting products into your business?  It doesn’t matter what you sell – whether it’s physical products, affiliate products or digital products – you have to continually introduce new products into the marketplace in order to keep up with what people are buying now.

3. Your business model isn’t a viable business model. If you’ve read my recent blog post on profiting without passion or purpose, you know that I am a firm believer that you can’t be successful in your online business without a passion, purpose or interest. But that doesn’t mean “do what you love and the money will follow”. If you love goats and want to build a business selling goat products but there isn’t a big enough market for goat products – you don’t have a viable business model. If you want to build a business selling common craft project instructions that are widely available for free on the internet, it’s going to be a tough-go. And many times your business model and your numbers don’t add up.  I had a client who wanted to design, sew and sell her own clothes online. She also wanted to make a consistent $10,000 a month in her first year with no additional staff. We ran the numbers – she wouldn’t have had enough hours in the week to turn out the inventory required to make that kind of money on her own. Even with staff, she would have been working for free. Passion, interest and optimism are core when running your own business. But a viable business model is a requirement.

4. Sales are lagging. If your sales are not what they used to be, something has changed. And before things get any worse, you need to find out what the problem is and figure out a way to solve it by reinventing what your business offers.  If you sell physical products, the first place to start is by looking at your product line.  What new products have you brought into your product line recently?  If the answer is none, it’s time to restock. If you’re marketing affiliate products and your sales have dropped, what’s changed? How’s your traffic, what’s the demand for the product your marketing, did you get slapped by Google? If you’re business is not growing, it’s dying.  But don’t let it get to that point before you refresh and reinvent it.

5. Your niche is declining or has changed. Every niche market ebbs and flows, morphs and changes. This is why it’s so important to stay on top of the trends in your industry. Trends are about people – your customers. Lifestyle changes, demographics, the economy, marketplace changes all dictate the trends in your niche.  What about your niche? What’s really going on in it today?  Is it growing, changing or declining? How has it changed? Where does your business fit in?

6. You haven’t grown as a person and neither has your business. The person you are when you make your first $1 on the Internet is not the same person you’ll be when you make your first $10,000 or $100,000 or $1,000,000,000.”

In fact, it’s impossible for you to remain the same and make more money. If you’re not growing as a person, neither is your business. That’s why if you haven’t made your first $1000 yet, you shouldn’t be worried about how you are going to make your million.  You’ll  grow and change along the way and as you grow, so does ability to make money.

7. You’ve lost passion/interest in your business. This one is tricky. Because there is a fine line between temporary boredom or frustration in your business and a true loss of passion/interest. And  of course there are a whole slew of emotional reasons why we may think we’ve lost passion in our business, but we haven’t. Things like fear of failure, fear of success, wanting to “have fun” and not work, reluctance to adhere to a schedule, perfectionism, you name it. But don’t kid yourself. You know in your gut if you’ve truly lost passion/interest in the business you’ve been running. And if you have, the time to sell it or reinvent it is now. Don’t wait for it to die on the vine so that you have an “excuse” to shut things down.  I see this happen all the time. Instead of taking a stance of power and saying “I’m ready to move on.” and then sell the business or reinvent it while it’s still profitable, they wait till it’s on life support to make changes. It’s a lot easier to sell or reinvent a business when it’s on top.

Catalyst for Change

Einstein said “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

If it’s time to reinvent your business, it’s better done sooner than later. There’s no sense in waiting a moment longer to reinvent a business to make it more profitable!

How about you? Is it time to reinvent your business? Have you recently reinvented your business? Share your experiences below…

Are you struggling to build your online business? Not making the money you want? Following strategies but not getting results? Do you find yourself wondering why other people are successful and able to “make it online” and you’re not?

You might think it has to do with traffic, marketing, sales conversion, even what you’re selling.  And it’s true – to build a solid business, you need all of the above; a product people want to buy, a market that spends money, a way to reach those customers and enough customers clicking the buying button to generate income.

But there are two ingredients that are more important than all of the above – and without them, you’ll be hard pressed to become a success at whatever business venture you attempt…

Passion and purpose.

Over the years I’ve worked with thousands of entrepreneurs. I’ve read hundreds and hundreds of entrepreneurial profiles, biographies and autobiographies. And the one common trait among people that are successful and happy in their business is that they love what they do.  At the heart of their business there was a passion and a purpose that determined what type of business they built.

In fact, I can’t think of one successful business owner who has ever said “I don’t care about what I sell, I don’t care about my customers, I’m not interested at all in my niche market, yet I’m wildly successful.”

Somewhere in the equation you call your business, you have to be passionate and have purpose about what you do. You may not like every aspect of  your business (in fact most people don’t), but there has to be some part of your business that gets you out of bed in the morning and finds you saying “Yes! I am excited to do this today!”

Because it’s this passion and purpose that leads to the other “p” that you need in business – and that’s persistence.

If you don’t love what you do (or at least like it a lot) you won’t have the motivation to persist.  With out persistence, the success rate is nil.

How about you? Do you love the business model you’re pursuing? Do you get up in the morning excited about what you’re going to sell or with new ideas of how you can serve your customers?

Or are you going through the motions, hoping that if you just take the right steps, you’ll make some money.

Now there’s nothing wrong with creating a short-term cash machine. Need money by next week?  Anyone can list something around the house on Craigslist or eBay and make a quick buck.

What I’m talking about here is a business that generates a part-time or full-time consistent income.  Something that you are invested in that is going to pay you back with income.

Unfortunately many people who are stuck or struggling with success online are pursuing the wrong business model.

There’s a big difference between discovering that you love the thrill of selling physical products online and wanting to learn how to be very good at it versus trying to start an eBay business or a website because you heard there’s big money in online sales and “anybody can do it.”

You may be enthralled with the idea of being a profitable blogger, but you hate to write or be in the public eye. Each post becomes a struggle, each day you have to gear yourself up to blog.

If this is the case, it’s not the right business model for you.

If you’re struggling with what to sell online – you’ve gone through niche after niche, product after product, and you just can’t hit on something that feels right for you – there is something inside of you that’s blocking your progress. (Note: This applies to people who have been looking for profitable items to sell for a few years. Not the person who has been looking for a week.)

If you are trying to build a business without passion or purpose you won’t have the motivation to dig into your market and figure out what your customers want, what the new products are in the market, what books your customers are reading, what they are buying. etc.

If you’re out there searching and searching for a way to make money online, you first need to stop and take stock of who you are and what you like to do.

• If you like to write, you’re probably good at it – or you like it enough to want to get better.  Blogging might be the perfect business model for you.

• Love the process of ferreting out niches, putting up websites and driving traffic? Affiliate marketing might be your passion and purpose.

• Have a skill, an expertise, an experience that you want to share with the world? Information marketing might be your perfect model.

• Maybe you love to present in front of groups and enlighten and inspire? A business that revolves around teleseminars may be your path.

• Are you an expert at getting people organized? How about marketing that business along with related products online?

• Maybe you’re the ultimate connector, bringing like minds together wherever you go. The perfect business model for you could be a community portal – one that gets so much traffic as a result of your desire to connect that advertisers come to you and pay you to piggyback off your traffic.

• Maybe you have a passion for antique cars and video and you travel the country taking videos at all the events. What about a membership site where fellow antique car lovers can connect?

You could be like my friend Dave. Video and audio editing was his job. And he’s good at it. But he loves cooking.  These days you’ll find him cooking up something tasty on a local TV cooking show in his hometown.  I have no doubt it’s just the beginning of his path to the Food Network. Speaking of which – did you know that Martha Stewart started her empire because she had a passion for cooking and entertaining. She started a catering company with a friend. Do you think she would have been as successful if she had decided to start a business selling plumbing supplies?  It’s doubtful.

Or my other friend Jeff who’s what I call a “Deal Scout” – he’ll find a way to sell anything.  No matter what it is, he figures – why not try and sell it? And he’s always looking. You’d be surprised at the stuff he’s sold on eBay. This is a guy who if he sees me with a bag ready to be donated to Goodwill, will ask to go through it first to see what’s in there that he can sell.  He loves the thrill of the hunt.

What about you? What makes you light up? If you could have any business at all, in the entire world with guaranteed success, what would you do? In that answer lies the clues to what you should be doing.

I hope this is gets you thinking… gets you in touch with your dreams, your passion and your purpose…

Because what I’m about to say next might shock you.

Profiting online with passion and purpose is not about “Do what you love and the money will follow.”

What you love to do must translate into a business model if you want to make money.

You may have a passion for goats, but are there enough products , services and information to sell related to goats in order to build a business? And are there enough people buying products, services and information about goats to generate the kind of income you need?

If the answer is “yes”, then congratulations, you can monetize your passion!  If the answer is no, then it’s time to look at what is it about the “goat business” that appeals to you.  Maybe you can’t build a business solely around goats, but you can build a business around farm animals (goats included).

When I got started selling online, I was also contemplating  homeschooling my son. I had a lot of friends who were homeschooling their kids. So I thought about selling homeschooling products online. Unfortunately there are many limitations by the manufacturers as to what homeschooling products you can sell online. Additionally, there is not a lot of profit in selling used homeschooling products. Because my potential market – homeschooling parents -  like to make their training materials budget stretch as far as  possible.

If I had stuck with the homeschooling niche, I wouldn’t have been able to make a go of it. Instead I went into the more lucrative kid’s higher-end product niche. A market I also knew and loved – and one that was profitable. In the end, I was happy – I was selling high-end products to parents who had the money to buy them, and in turn, I was making an income that fulfilled my needs. I had a passion and a purpose in my business, and at the time there was a huge market for what I was selling.

If there is no market for your passion or purpose, take a look inside and see what else fuels your spirit.

We all have more than one thing we love or are interested in. I started my online business with e-tail because I had experience in retail, I was good at it and I liked it enough to want to really want to get into it and immerse myself in the niche market. I reveled in reading about the latest kid’s products.  Got excited when I went to a trade show and looked at all the innovative new products that were coming into the marketplaces. Felt joy when I received an email from a customer telling me how beautiful her granddaughter looked in the seafoam green and pink flowered dress I had carefully sourced. I also sold books on Amazon – which I also loved.  I love to read . I love books. It was a product line I adored. I looked forward to sourcing books and watching them sell.

But there was additional  passion and purpose inside me which revealed itself 7 years ago… to help motivated entrepreneurs turn their passion and purpose into a profitable online business.

So how about you?

Are you building a business that plays to your skills, your talents, your passion and purpose? Or are you trying to follow a cookie cutter formula because you heard it works? Do you enjoy the core actions in your online business? Remember, you won’t like every aspect of it, but you’d better have an interest at the core.

Is there a market for your passion and purpose fueled business?

How much money do you want to make?

Maybe your passion is a facet of a larger scope.

The bottom line? If you’re not making the money you want online, before you buy another “traffic” ebook, or the latest get rich quick pitch, ask yourself “What exactly is it that I like to do? What am I good at? What energizes me?” Then see if it’s in alignment with what you’re doing now. Chances are it isn’t.

Want to revisit your business and help align it with your passion?

Share your thoughts below and let’s take a look at your next step.

-Lisa