Is the customer always right?

Most companies always say the customer is always right. But that is not always true.
For example, I was talking to a customer and they were telling me they heard we had a product that would do one certain thing. When she was telling me this I was thinking about our products and couldn't find one that did anything she was describing. I told her that there wasn't a product that did what she said but she didn't want to believe that.

So that saying isn't always true. In most cases customers are easy to help. But in others customers can be really hard because they want something that isn't possible. 

Market Research: Surveys

Before you decide to carry or develop a new product you need to know what the demand for it will be. A good way to determine this is with surveys. For example, I have a small horse tack business. Since I don't make tack myself I have to buy to at wholesale and resell. Before I decide to buy from a company I make a survey on social media to get my customers opinions. I ask which brand they would be most likely to purchase and at what price point would they buy it. I have received great feedback from these surveys and they have mostly been accurate on answers. So if you need opinions or information from customers a survey could be a big help. They could also help save money and time if a product wouldn't do well in the market.

Selling Online Verses A Storefront

  Over the last few years online shopping has increased a lot. While that is great for some businesses, others work best as storefronts. Some can find the balance and do both. 

  For an online business, startup costs can be very small depending on the type of business. You don’t have to pay for anything a storefront would have. You could have your inventory at your house and ship as needed. Since you would be selling online, you would have to have competitive prices to make people want to buy from you. So most of the time your prices will be less than storefronts and people who don’t have to have the product in-hand to buy would most likely buy it online.  One big drawback of selling online is shipping costs. Sometimes shipping costs would make the item just as much if not more than what people can buy it for at a storefront. It also makes it hard to sell when bigger companies offer free shipping along with competitive prices because when you are just starting out you may not be able to offer as great of deals. In situations like that you have to be very good at marketing and advertising.

  For a storefront, to open you would have to pay rent on a storefront, buy displays for products, buy inventory to fill the store, and hire employees if needed. A few reasons where a storefront would be best would be for products that would cost too much to ship or if people want to see the quality of the product before they buy. If there isn’t much competition on those products in your area you may can charge more for a certain item, in turn making more profit on the item than you would have by selling it online.

  For me, I have an online tack business. I chose to start online because I couldn’t afford the startup costs that a storefront would have had. I have been able to offer competitive prices and free shipping on most of my products. Most of my products are priced lower than larger stores, which helps in sales while I am growing the business. Eventually I would like to open a storefront because in my area there aren’t any good tack stores. Most people that need a quality product either have to order online or have to drive an hour or two away to find it.

Vendors Booths

I was at a horse show in Montgomery this past weekend and they had a few vendors set up outside the arenas. After looking at each one they got me thinking about how each one set up their booth and what they did to get people to stop at them. One decided to keep his products inside the enclosed trailer where no one could see what they had. I didn't go in this one because the others looked more inviting. Most decided to do half and half; all small items inside the trailer and all large items outside under a tent. One really stood out among the rest. It was set up very well with the displays and products organized in a great layout. They made their booth bright, inviting, and were very friendly and helpful, which most others lacked. Out of all of the vendors they defiantly received the most business during the few days. Next year I hope to have grown my business enough to have my own booth there and I will defiantly have a few ideas to make my booth stand out from the rest.