Over the last 15 years I've put together several promotional I-stores for clients. Some have been widely successful other have had moderate results and a couple have been complete bombs. With that in mind I wanted to share what I believe to be a few important keys to setting up a successful I-store.
1. Who's going to buy the merchandise? The least successful I-stores I've seen over the years are the ones solely dedicated to employee purchases. Most of us are proud of our companies and if given a nice shirt to wear with the company logo we will. Not as many of us will reach into our pockets and pull out our hard earned cash for the right to wear the logo. Many times clients come to me and say we want to have products to sell to our clients. This is great if your Nike or (insert the name of your favorite sports team here). If your with Joe's Sanitation service it just might not fly.
2. Make use of Budgets. The most successful programs I've worked with are the ones where companies set up their department's or sales people with budgets. For example one client gives each of their sales people $750 /year to spend on merchandise in the store to give to clients. Another client rewards their top 100 dealers with gift certificates of $500, $1000 or $2500 dollars a year. These types of plans push product through the I-stores and ensure their success.
3. Keep the Products Fresh. One of the hardest decisions to make is when to pull a product from the store and replace it with something that will sell better. You try a new item it sells well. You order even more of them and quickly you run out. The third time you order nobody buys them and you wind up with a warehouse full of what was the latest fad but has since blown over. Personally I think once a quarter you need to look over the site and identify which items need to be retired and what they can be replaced with.
If you would like more information on setting up an I-store drop me an email.
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