Question

Topic: Strategy

Sales For Fair Trade/sustainable Gift Distributor?

Posted by chilove88 on 10/12/2011 at 8:32 PM ET 500 Points
Hello all,

I would greatly appreciate any and all ideas (beyond direct sales and independent sales reps) of how to increase the sales of unique but reasonably priced truly fair trade/sustainable/artisan gift and novelty items to retail stores in the US and Canada...

Thanks so much!
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by CarolBlaha on 10/13/2011 at 1:50 AM Accepted
    You are asking a question bigger than what you think.

    Anyone who would tell you "hire a rep" or engage in direct sales and leave it at that is giving you inappropriate and in my opinion irresponsible advice.

    Ok-- you have to be lazar sharp in marketing to those who consider part of their buying decision. If that is your USP, lets go there and drill. Of course people will buy it cause its beautiful and serviceable-- they expect it. (even a new product I'm working with-- recycled leather toilet seats-- servicable and with bamboo frame) But they'll buy from Walmart for the same reason. So, we go to fair trade. I'd love to learn more about design which equates to beauty. Look at this site https://www.moralfibers.co/?gclid=CM-_vpz75KsCFYbt7QodG0F-Hg

    I don't know where you are now in sales. But if you were to create a wish list of retailers, do you have a good hit list??

    Next, how do you support those retailers. Retailers can be order takers, so your marketing dollars need to be spent on awareness and why free trade is important.

    My Masters thesis was on enviro marketing, and there as many shades of "green" as there are on the pantone color chart. Are you marketing to the true deep greens or the lite greens? Lite greens just want the warm fuzzies, the true greens will pay more. Few reps or retailers truly understand this. Again, lets be lazar sharp.





  • Posted by modza on 10/13/2011 at 9:39 AM Member
    I agree with CarolBlaha, but you haven't given us quite enough detail, so I'll put my advice in the form of questions.
    First, you stipulate "beyond direct sales and independent sales reps" -- do you mean instead of those, or in addition? Are you looking for distributors? I'm not in retail these days, so I don't know the names, but I would imagine there are such.
    2. Do you have a website from which retail stores can order?
    3. Can they find it? In other words, is it optimized for Search Engines (Search Engine Optimization), and are you getting links from external, high-quality sites, and are you advertising the site appropriately -- key words that retailers would use?
    3. Have you exhibited at gift shows for retailers?
    4. You say beyond direct sales, but do you have a catalog to mail to the list of stores Carol asks that you have?
    5. Is it also online, so you can send targeted emails?
    6. Have you introduced your line to the numerous bloggers and gift recommendation sites? Kaboodle, wanelo (want need love), findgift, and the green product sites that compile gift lists.
    7. There's much more, but the biggest question really is, are you prepared to survive through 2012? Because most retail stores made their decisions on inventory in the spring at or just after the big annual gift shows, and won't even consider new merchandise at this late stage.
    8. And if you are in that position, then why not consider direct sales to consumers? All of the above still work for b2c, and you can also set up store fronts easily in eBay, Amazon, elsewhere. Amazon might even warehouse for you.
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