Forum Moderators: phranque
I am heavily into the Mall Kiosk business and would be interested in trading info.
Having done a certain amount of work with crafters over time, there's a degree of familiarity with the subject matter, though it's not first-hand. While some have a strong enough web presence to do exclusively web sales, and some do primarily wholesale, the majority of them do most of their sales through retail outlets to a degree(not kiosks that I've heard, though it's a thought) and fairs.
I've got a friend (the first person I ever met online, actually) who's been doing jewelry and chainmaille for 15 years, and sells primarily through contacts developed over the years, primarily through working the Renaissance Faires. Her site is new to the web and hasn't been promoted online yet, but gets orders through the offline contacts.
In another case, there's a site only being launched this month, but there are customers waiting who have been connected with off-line; the person's got a brick and mortar store, and the site will be used not only for retail, but to expand in wholesale distribution.
With yet another, the person has a yet unoptimized site, but does a good deal of business working fairs and farmers markets, as well as having a small b&m storefront. It's primarily seasonal through the fairs and markets, so online promotion will supplement during the rest of the year, since it could be very lucrative online, if properly promoted, during holiday seasons which cover the other months of the year. Plus there are a certain number of online sales generated through the off line marketing efforts.
With fairs, there are certain criteria that make some better than others. With retail outlets there's consignment or straight out wholesale involved, unless the person's running their own shop. It's probably more about location and foot traffic than anything, but I don't think I've ever seen one of those mall kiosk's that didn't get considerable attention, no matter what they were selling.
Are there any specific factors you're looking to get into discussion about?
"Are there any specific factors you're looking to get into discussion about?"
Marcia, i just like to talk to others in my line of business. Types of new products are especially interesting. I can often take a product that has previously only been seen on the East Coast and bring it to the West Coast.
Also, I was interested in finding out if there were many webmasters in the Specialty Leasing business. For me, webmastering and specialty leasing are similar in a lot of ways. Especially in that the little guy can make it big.
I think most of all though, I would like to converse with others that share the same areas of retailing as myself.
